News10NBC investigates: ‘It’s been an expensive month for me’: Rochester man hit with five speeding tickets from state’s photo radar SUV

ROCHESTER, NY – All week, News10NBC has focused our cameras on the white SUV parked at a construction site on the freeway downtown. That is the source of hundreds, perhaps thousands of speeding tickets in recent weeks. Lead investigative reporter Berkeley Brean received a lot of emails after his investigation last night, including one driver who has a stack of tickets.

“It was five punches in a row,” Jim Blatt said. “My father always called that a mentalizing hit. Tree!”

Jim Blatt has five speeding tickets from the state transportation photo radar SUV. Four emerged from the SUV that was in the work zone on I-490 downtown.

The construction zone is right where the highway speed limit increases from 40 miles per hour to 55 miles per hour. But the SUV radar is parked where the limit is still 40.

“But I didn’t know it was 40 (mph). I thought it was 55,” Blatt said. “So it was an expensive month for me.”

Linda Olsen was in my first story. She got a ticket while driving back to Pittsford from her teaching job in the city.

Berkeley Brean: “What did you think when you got the card?”

Linda Olsen, got a $50 NYSDOT radar ticket: “I thought it was a scam. …I wasn’t happy. I thought this was almost a money grab.”

This year, DOT photo radar issued more than 132,255 tickets statewide, including more than 44,206 around Rochester. The total amount of fines paid is up to $5.1 million. We plan to ask the state how many drivers have been ticketed here. Both Olsen and Blatt told me they never saw the photo radar warning signs. I saw them, but only because I was looking for them. The day my first report aired, the state moved the signs further back to give motorists better warning.

Jim Blatt: “All I would say is reporting like yours, for those of us who watch the news, it’s really helpful.”

The tickets cost $50, but there are no points on your license. According to the schedule, the radar is here until Saturday. The state is publishing the locations of all 24 cameras currently deployed in New York. We’ll be checking out the DOT’s schedule on Sunday to see if it will stay here another week or move to another location.

AI helped format this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses AI