NEWBURGH HEIGHTS, Ohio– The Fox 8 I-Team is investigating how a driver got two tickets from a speed camera two weeks apart, yet they show the exact same speed and the exact same time of day.
Michelle Snellenberger got tickets on October 16 and October 30 on I-77. Both show 74 mph in a 60 mph zone. And both show 10:14 a.m.
The tickets came from Newburgh Heights police. They use a hand-held device that clocks speeders and snaps pictures of license plates. Police mail tickets later.
Snellenberger said, “There’s just no way I’d be going the same exact speed and at the exact same time. There’s just no way.”
She added, she has a timesheet proving she was at work at that time.
The I-Team sent those pictures back to the Newburgh Heights Police Chief.
The chief says it looks like a coincidence. He says the tires in one photo show the car along a dotted line. In the other case, the car is traveling along a solid line. And he says, the photos weren’t at the exact same time, they were different by a few seconds.
But what about that work timesheet?
The chief responded, “That person may have been at work, but that car probably wasn’t, at least at the time our investigation showed.”
Michelle and her husband say no one else would have been driving.
At any rate, the chief says every person can appeal, and Michelle plans to do that with the latest ticket. She paid the first fine. The tickets carry $150 fines.
Weeks ago, the I-Team first revealed the Newburgh Heights speed crackdown with the cameras.
The chief says about 2000 tickets have been sent out.