More than 7,000 tickets issued by Toronto’s photo radar cameras in 2 weeks

A total of 7,645 tickets were issued by Toronto’s photo radar cameras during the first two weeks of ticketing, the city announced Friday.

The 50 Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras issued the tickets between July 6 and 20, the city said in a news release.

During this period, the highest speed detected was 89 km/h on Renforth Drive near Lafferty Street (Ward 2 – Etobicoke Centre), where the posted speed limit is 40 km/h.

The ASE camera on Renforth Drive issued the highest fine at $718. It also issued the most tickets at 890, representing 12 per cent of all tickets.

Last December, the city began installing the cameras — a key part of its Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic-related fatalities.

For the first 90 days, motorists caught speeding received warning letters instead of tickets as part of a public education campaign.

The 50 cameras are installed city-wide on local, collector and arterial roads in community safety zones near schools. Two cameras were installed in each ward with the ability to record license plates and mail out tickets to speeders.

According to the data, which takes approximately 10 days to process and report, the number of repeat offenders during the first two weeks following the start of issuing tickets was 591. The most frequent repeat offender received a total of eight tickets for speeding at Trehorne Drive near Duffield Road (Ward 2 – Etobicoke Centre).

According to the news release, the total payable fine amount includes a set fine, which is determined by Schedule D under the Provincial Offences Act, a victim fine surcharge and applicable court costs. Offenders are only fined — demerit points will not be applied.

299 erroneous tickets from July 6 to 15

Meanwhile, to ensure full transparency, the city is making the public aware of one issue that was identified and has been immediately corrected.

On Thursday, July 23, the city learned that two cameras issued a total of 299 erroneous tickets between Monday, July 6 and Wednesday, July 15 due to errors in programming on the side of the city’s ASE vendor, the news release reads.

City staff and the vendor responded immediately by conducting a thorough investigation to ensure that no other ASE camera was issuing erroneous tickets.

The erroneous tickets are not part of the total 7,645 tickets issued during the first two weeks of ticketing.

Recipients of the 299 erroneous tickets will receive a notice in the mail advising them that the city will be cancelling these tickets as they were issued in error and that no action will be required on their part. Residents who paid an erroneous ticket will receive a refund, or their payment will be returned.

CBC