LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Lee County commissioners want to hold speeders in school zones accountable across unincorporated Lee County. So, they're adding cameras.
Students like Marlexis Ruano, who also drives to school, wants the same thing — accountability.
"I think there's not enough enforcement around here in the school zones, and I definitely think we need more because kids are endangered constantly," Ruano explained.
She shared that her friend on the way to school two months ago had a scary situation.
Watch Lee County Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades' report below:
"She was literally crossing the street to get into her school, and a car was not paying attention and just hit her," Ruano said.
She said her friend is alright now, but an incident like this is a reason why Lee County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass brought the idea up at Tuesday's board meeting.
"We want to bring awareness for drivers to pay attention when you're driving and get off your phones and to look around," Pendergrass said.
The county approved the idea and wants to follow the city of Cape Coral's lead. It recently started the same project.
A Lee County study shows drivers go 10 mph over the speed limit when in a school zone.
"When there's kids present in the area, they may not be on a sidewalk," Pendergrass said. "We will make sure that the kids are safe, and this is the way we can obviously try to get compliance."
When someone with the need for speed gets a ticket in a school zone, Pendergrass said the money will go to other school zone safety improvements.
The county hopes to have the project done in time for the next school year, but for students' safety, is it soon enough?
"We just we know we have to be careful with the cars cause we never had right away even on a crosswalk or anything, so it's just scary," Ruano said.
During Tuesday's meeting, Lee County DOT said they started looking for a company to install cameras in the school zones.
