New photo radar nabs 546 speeders per day
One car got eight tickets in two weeks on same stretch of Etobicoke road
Toronto’s new photo-radar cameras are helping ticket an average of 546 speeders every day, many in one particular part of Etobicoke and a stunning number for one vehicle racing down the same stretch of road.
The city revealed Friday that in the first two weeks of “automated speed enforcement” starting in early July, the 50 radar-equipped cameras across the city took photos resulting in 7,645 tickets.
The highest detected speed was 89 km/h on Renforth Drive near Lafferty Street, just east of Centennial Park, in a 40 km/h school zone.
The same camera triggered the highest fine, $718 including surcharges, and issued the most tickets over two weeks — 890, or 12 per cent of the citywide total.
When the Renforth camera was only issuing warnings, a driver blasted past it, and a middle school, at 112 km/h over the speed limit.
Of the citywide two-week total, 590 were repeat offenders. The tickets are issued to the registered vehicle owner because the cameras can’t identify drivers.
The most chronic speeder was in a vehicle caught eight times in two weeks by the same camera on Trehorne Drive near Duffield Road, in front of Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy.
All of that despite signs that warn motorists about photo radar before they pass any of the cameras. Coun. Stephen Holyday sounded embarrassed but not surprised that his Ward 2 Etobicoke Centre is being revealed as Ground Zero for residential speeding, with multiple photoradar records.
“I’m proud to live in this community but I’m not proud to be at the top of the speeding stats,”
Holyday said in an interview. “Me and my neighbours have noticed this to be true and we’ve asked the police for help …
“Renforth is notorious for speeding and street racing. Some parts have backs of houses facing the street, so there are no eyes on it and some people do the unthinkable and drive irresponsibly or flat-out street race.
“As for driving 89 km/h in a 40 zone on Trehorne, no rational person would do that. That area has schools, a library, a park, a strip mall, a fire station, lots of places for pedestrians and cyclists — this is very, very dangerous.
“I supported photo radar and I hope people slow down and this proves that those devices are working.”
Mayor John Tory starting lobbying the then-Liberal provincial government for permission to use photo radar on Toronto streets in 2016. Premier Doug Ford’s government granted permission last December but pandemic staffing issues delayed full implementation.
Two cameras in each of the 25 wards are meant to “increase road safety, reduce speeding and raise public awareness about the need to slow down and obey posted speed limits,” the city says. There have been some bumps in the photo radar road, however.
The city revealed Friday that it had to cancel 299 tickets from two cameras, on Derrydown Road, in the Finch-Keele area, and Elkhorn Drive, in the Bayview-Sheppard area, due to a programming error.
The company contracted to supply and maintain the devices set the wrong speed limit for one camera and the wrong direction of travel for the other, the city said, adding steps were taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
The cameras, encased in large heavy metal boxes, have also been stolen, vandalized and even set on fire.