To the Editor:

In 1958, my brother Billy was killed at a crosswalk on his way to Altamont Elementary School. It was and will always be the worst day of my life. I see his picture on our dresser every morning. As we leave Altamont on Route 146, we drive by his lonely grave in Fairview Cemetery as we did this morning. Sadly, life goes on but not for all.

It does not matter my wife and I have been married 43 years. It does not matter we were the primary caretakers for my folks and retired earlier than we wanted to. It does not matter my father died a long, horrible death from Alzheimer’s or my mom, a blind but feisty woman, died of heart failure at home as my father did under our family care.

It does not matter my wife is a three-time cancer survivor. It does not matter she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer from previous radiation therapy years ago .

It does not matter that after her mastectomy the chemo “therapy” nearly killed her outright. It does not matter she then caught pneumonia in the hospital and that nearly killed her. And it does not matter following that she was hospitalized four more times before a still tenuous recovery.

What’s important is she’s still alive enough to travel most recently into Albany, which brings us to the matter at hand.

It does not matter that after driving 50 years or so, my wife, 76 years old, and I, 74, both have never had any traffic accidents and most important no speeding tickets on our records. We could be the “poster couple” for good driving. So how is it with no violations on our records we managed to receive three tickets for speeding in less than one week?

I can explain. We had to go to Albany as medically we had no choice. My urologist required a blood sample to be drawn at the Albany Med clinic at 23 Hackett Blvd. for my annual check-up. I returned for my visit days later.

Since we have only one car, my wife could not teach on those days, depriving us of the income we need to survive living in the highest taxed state in the United States. So in this case, her real toll is lost income, the cost of two doctor visits, two days of our time, travel, and car expenses, and lastly the cost of three speeding tickets.  

I was not given timely notice by a police officer of any violation. In this country, citizens have a right to confront accusers. Cameras are only evidentiary in nature. Receiving notice by a camera weeks after the fact precludes timely notice. Imagine the crime total and damage if parties had to make multiple trips in and out of Albany several times a day without notice.  

And what guidance is there to constrain the parameters of the alleged infractions? Why not make the preferred speed limit violation 5 miles per hour and the fine increases to $1,000 per violation? This program needs to be scrapped.

When my brother was killed in a crosswalk on his way to the Altamont school, the speed limit was 25 mph throughout the village.

The driver did not stop right away. All the driver and passenger heard was a “bump.” That was the sound of my brother's skull being shattered.

How can they not have seen a young boy, unobstructed, on the side of the road? The answer was discovered that the driver literally could not see him as he was visually “impaired.”

Soon after, my mom, Elizabeth Cowley, boldly testified before the New York State Legislature in support of a bill by a Long Island legislator to require vision standards and testing for all licensed drivers in New York state.

It was her compelling testimony that moved the legislators to pass the bill. As a result, all New Yorkers must take a vision test and, if deficient, corrective lenses are required to obtain a New York state driver’s license.

We were not familiar with Albany’s school speed enforcement program. Had we been advised, we would not have incurred tickets going in and out of Albany.

Looking at the “violation” photos, the road is clear of traffic. There is no obvious compelling signage.  There is no school in sight. There are no pedestrians or school kids.

Given the road conditions, the consensus rational speed limit is 40 miles per hour  The “posted” limit of 20 mph is absurd. No rational school-related safety purpose, if any, is achieved. Just an income stream from all those ambushed by this confiscatory scheme between Albany politicians, New York state, the Albany police, and the judiciary.

A class action suit against these conspirators is warranted but very difficult to achieve.  

Furthermore, in analyzing the pictures on the tickets, the schools are not in the picture. We do  not see any children or traffic to or from the schools in evidence.  

And who does 20 mph anywhere? Especially when the local speed limit is 40 mph. We’d like to know how many folks did not receive a ticket. What an outrageous revenue scam that does nothing to create safe school spaces …

You could ticket everyone including joggers and God only knows how you would spend the fortune in additional revenue.

We had to go to Albany. After all we have been through in life, what really disturbs us is the intrusion into our lives by the Albany police, politicians, and the traffic violation court. We don’t want to be there.  We should not be there.

These “violations” are a disgrace to our legal system of fairness and justice. You talk about our seemingly limited legal defenses … The outrageous, insidious illegal scheme of “speed traps” ensnares the innocent, confiscates their wealth and demands fealty to these pitiful endeavors.

Ed Cowley III

Altamont

Editor’s note: Twenty school zones in the city of Albany have cameras to enforce a 20-mile-per-hour speed limit on school days between 7 a.m and 6 p.m. A violation is a civil penalty of $50 and does not get reported to the state of New York or to the driver’s insurance company, according to the city of Albany’s website; an additional late fee of $25 is added if not paid by the due date. Tickets, for anyone driving more than 11 miles per hour over the 20 mph limit, started being issued on Oct. 7, 2024.