NORTH HALEDON — Tougher speed limits have caused a huge spike in tickets handed out to drivers on some local thoroughfares, and no one is apologizing for it.

Police began cracking down in mid-February, enforcing a new ordinance that reduced speed limits on seven portions of four Passaic County roads: Belmont Avenue, High Mountain Road, North Haledon Avenue and Squaw Brook Road.

According to figures provided by the Police Department through a public-records request, the number of speeding summonses on those road segments rose from 13 between Feb. 15 and June 30 last year to 148 during the same time frame this year.

"I'm sorry people are getting tickets," said Mayor Randy George, "but if they would just obey the speed limits, they wouldn't have to worry about it."

Find out the locations where North Haledon police issued the most speeding tickets. This article is available only to NorthJersey.com subscribers.

George said the borough got permission from county officials to change speed limits on the roads in question. Ample warning was given to the motoring public, he said, before the ordinance took effect.

New Jersey's motor vehicle and traffic regulations, including penalties for speeding, are dictated by a statute known as Title 39. Money that drivers must pay in speeding fines — between $85 and $420, depending on the severity of the offense — does not all go into the town's coffers. The municipality has to share much of it with the county and state.

"It's not like we're doing this for revenue," said acting Police Chief Todd Darby. "The public safety factor is the most important reason to lower speed limits."

Darby cited a number of serious pedestrian strikes, particularly on High Mountain Road, within the past five years.

In one case, Darby said, an elderly man was hit on the road's busy stretch, between Manchester and Terrace avenues. He was hospitalized and never fully recovered, according to the acting chief.

"In these accidents, the people weren't even speeding," Darby said. "But if the speed limit were lower, maybe the risk of injury wouldn't have been so great."

North Haledon is not the only town that recently has introduced stiffer speed limits.

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Neighboring Haledon went one step further when its Borough Council adopted an ordinance in late March to lower speed limits on all of its roads to 25 mph.

Haledon Lt. George Guzmán said the 1.2-square-mile borough experienced more than 200 car accidents last year.

"Safety is paramount," the lieutenant said. "That's the focus of this ordinance."

Guzmán said the change affected only four county roads — Belmont Avenue, Central Avenue, Pompton Road and West Broadway — because all other streets already had a speed limit of 25 mph.

Officials say the reason speeding has become such an issue in Haledon and North Haledon has much to do with their geography. The towns — very close in terms of population — have no highways cutting through them. For many motorists, the county roads in question are the quickest ways to get from A to B.

George said officials are not stopping with county roads, but want to start reducing speed limits on a select number of side streets, too.

"Nothing's going to happen in the immediate future," the mayor said, "but it's going to happen before year-end. Enough is enough."

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com

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