Halloween night: cameras flashing, no tickets until Christmas
· laspeedcameras.org
Tomorrow evening more children are on LA's streets than on any other night of the year, and the city's new speed cameras will be watching. None of them can issue a ticket yet.
The deadliest night for kids on foot
A study in JAMA Pediatrics looked at 42 years of federal crash records, 1975 to 2016. Between 5 pm and midnight on Halloween, pedestrian deaths were 43 percent higher than in the same hours one week before and one week after.
For children aged 4 to 8, the risk was ten times higher. The most dangerous hours were 5 pm to 8 pm, which is when most trick-or-treating happens.
What the cameras do on Halloween
26 of LA's 125 cameras are sending warnings now, and 99 are still being installed. Every camera photographs the rear plate of a car going 11 mph or more over the posted limit, at any hour.
Each camera mails warnings for its first 60 days. For the cameras switched on October 26, the first real tickets arrive around December 25. Tomorrow night, a driver doing 46 in a 35 past a camera gets a letter, not a fine.
Even after the warning period, a car's first time at 11 to 15 mph over gets a warning notice. The $50 ticket starts on the second.
Speed is the whole story
A person hit by a car at 23 mph has about a 1 in 10 chance of dying. At 42 mph it is 1 in 2. At 58 mph it is 9 in 10. Those are averages across all ages.
The cameras will not slow anyone down tomorrow. The letter arrives weeks later. The only thing that protects a kid in a costume at 6 pm is the driver's foot.
Before you drive tomorrow
The posted limit and the speed that gets a ticket are different at every camera, and both are on each camera's page. Use Show cameras near me on the map, or open your neighborhood page for every camera on the trick-or-treat route.
Which cameras are sending warnings now · Fines and the warning period
Sources
- Staples, Yip and Redelmeier, JAMA Pediatrics, October 30, 2018: 43 percent higher risk, the largest rise among ages 4 to 8, 1975 to 2016 federal crash data
- University of British Columbia release on the study: ten times the risk for ages 4 to 8, peak 5 to 8 pm
- AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, impact speed and a pedestrian's risk of death: 10 percent at 23 mph, 50 percent at 42 mph, 90 percent at 58 mph
- LADOT Speed Safety System: the 60-day warning period, the 11 mph rule, the fine tiers
- California Vehicle Code 22425(f)(2)(B): a car's first violation at 11 to 15 mph over is a warning notice
- Camera counts as of October 29, 2026, from LADOT's district lists and map layer, refreshed on this site