I received a citation in the mail for exceeding the 20 mph limit in front of Twin Lakes Elementary School on 320th Street.

I was guilty. When the camera flashed, I checked the speedometer in my 1991 Honda Civic, which read 24 mph, not far over the 20 mph limit, but nevertheless exceeding the posted limited in a school zone.

The citation said that I was going 28 mph. The signs that are used to flash the speed I am traveling in other locations, such as at the level point at the end of the downhill on Hoyt Road, usually show me that my car is traveling slower than what the Civic’s speedometer tells me I am going.

But, that is not my issue. Eight days after I was flashed for exceeding the speed limit in front of Twin Lakes Elementary, my ‘98 Honda Accord was also caught by the same camera for going (drum roll) 28 mph at the very same spot. Suspicious?

What I need to know is this: is this a coincidence or have any other readers suffered the same fate and have they been cited for traveling 28 mph through the school zone in front of Twin Lakes Elementary?

By the way, these incidents will cost me $210 each. Every time one of those flashes goes off, a mechanism at City Hall and some traffic consulting firm in Arizona goes, “Cha-ching!” No enforcement officers to pay and no eyewitnesses needed because they categorize the infraction as a “parking violation.” Clever!

Matt Sato, Federal Way