Speed demons are about to get schooled.
The city is launching a new speed-camera system outside schools in crash-prone areas on Sept. 9 — the day that summer break ends for more than 1 million public-school kids.
The 20-camera program was a hard-fought win for Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who had to lobby Albany lawmakers for years to get the project approved.
“We’d like to have more than that, but we’re glad to start with what we have,” Bloomberg said outside W.E.B. Dubois Academic HS in Crown Heights.
“We do have the flexibility to move them to school zones throughout the city without disclosing where they will be . . . so hopefully, it will have a much bigger impact than just the impact on the 20 schools,” he added.
City officials have identified 100 schools with significant crash numbers or persistent speeding problems to be included in the camera rotation.
The cameras will operate 24 hours a day, not just when school is in session.
The program has a soft launch for a number of weeks when drivers will be issued warnings if they’re clocked going more than 10 mph above the speed limit.
Starting in late October, however, speeders will be socked with $50 fines.
“There’s a reason New York City’s speed limit is 30 mph: Going even 10 miles over the speed limit is the difference between life and death,” said Sadik-Khan. “Despite the progress that we’ve made reducing traffic fatalities . . . speeding continues to be the No. 1 killer on the streets of New York.”
She added that drivers have been clocked at twice the limit — 60 mph in a 30-mph zone — in the vicinity of DuBois, at Eastern Parkway and Bedford Avenue.
Five people were killed and 27 severely injured within a quarter-mile of the school between 2007 and 2013, according to Department of Transportation data.
A spokesman for the agency said officials aren’t counting on the program — with its limited number of cameras and relatively low fines — to be a money maker.
They expect fines will cover the estimated $2.5 million in capital costs, making it revenue neutral.
The cameras use the same technology as the city’s red-light cameras — which have been installed at 150 intersections — and violations will similarly be issued to vehicle owners by mail.
“It’s highly reliable,” Sadik-Khan said. “We have not had any issues associated with the technology and the accuracy of the data that’s processed.”