The application counted the whole road. The crashes weren't at the school.
Fairfield justified each school-zone speed camera with a “Crash History” table. Those totals count every crash along the whole road. The town's own OSTA certificate counts only the school-zone segment, and it logs a small fraction of them. On some corridors it logs almost none.
The town's numbers, side by side
The town's application justified each camera with a “Crash History” table. Those tables count crashes along the entire named road, including arterial and highway-ramp collisions that are often far from the school. The town's own OSTA certificate (No. 050-2404-01) counts only the school-zone segmentthe 20 mph limit actually covers, and it tells a very different story. Both columns below are the town's own figures, over the same three years (2021–2023) the certificate uses.
| Corridor | Town's crash total (whole road) | Independent count (FPD) | In the school zone (town cert) | In-zone share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mill Plain RoadRiverfield Elementary | 109 | 127 | 2 | 1.8% |
| Unquowa RoadFairfield Ludlowe / Roger Ludlowe | 105 | 112 | 10 | 9.5% |
| Melville AvenueFairfield Warde High School | 83 | 84 | 6 | 7.2% |
| Jefferson StreetNotre Dame Prep / area schools | 64 | 73 | 23 | 35.9% |
| Burr StreetBurr Elementary | 21 | 42 | 2 | 9.5% |
| Knapps HighwayFairfield Warde High School | 20 | 25 | 11 | 55% |
| Redding RoadTimothy Dwight Elementary | 17 | 25 | 2 | 11.8% |
| All corridors | 419 | 488 | 56 | 13.4% |
Our own count from the FPD dashboard tracks the town's whole-road totals closely, so the two sources agree. The disagreement is about scope, not data. Across these corridors, only about 13% of the cited crashes actually happened inside the school zones the cameras cover. Take Mill Plain Road: 109 crashes were cited for a camera at Riverfield Elementary, yet the certificate logs 2 inside the zone. The rest pile up at the I-95 interchange half a mile away.
Sources: Town of Fairfield ATESD Plan/Permit, OSTA No. 050-2404-01. The whole-road figures come from the per-site “Crash History” tables, and the school-zone figures from the OSTA Traffic Investigation Report certificate (application dated Dec 12, 2023; permit effective May 1, 2026). Independent counts are FPD dashboard crashes matched by street name for 2021–2023. Whole-road counts cover the full length of each road, so they naturally run higher than the school-zone segment.
See where and when the crashes actually happen
This is one finding from the larger placement-and-timing check. The full report maps every crash against the camera corridors and their posted 20 mph hours.
Read the full school-zone camera report →Get the before/after verdict
Fanal keeps an open, reproducible record of Fairfield crashes and enforcement. Subscribe for the post-activation evaluation and new jurisdictions.