Speed Camera News Another review "mistake". Man accused of IMPOSSSIBLE speed by SCAMERAS! Edmonton, Canada
(Ban the Cams would like to Thanks Camerafraud for the link!)
‘Blatantly and visibly wrong’ speeding ticket finds its way to Edmonton man
By Andrea Sands, edmontonjournal.com January 15, 2011 Be the first to post a comment
EDMONTON — Edmontonian Damien Boyce says it appears more than one faulty speeding ticket got through the city’s screening system, because one was sent to him six months ago.
The 25-year-old project manager for a construction service fought his intersection-camera speeding ticket and says it was thrown out of court in December.
“If you can send out a ticket that is clearly, blatantly and visibly wrong, you can’t tell me you’re reviewing it,” Boyce said in an interview Saturday.
Boyce got a ticket in the summer that indicated his Ford F-150 was travelling 143 km/h in a 70 km/h zone on Yellowhead Trail near 107th Street.
However, two photos sent with the ticket — taken less than one second apart — show Boyce’s truck in heavy traffic with the cars around him travelling at roughly the same speed. The photos were taken at 5:14 p.m. on June 21, which was a Monday.
“Even the time and the location — rush hour on Yellowhead — it’s almost impossible to get going the speed limit normally, never mind more than double the limit,” Boyce said. “If I was doing that speed, I would be across the intersection completely by the second picture.”
Boyce’s ticket is remarkably similar to one that recently prompted police and transportation staff to temporarily stop prosecutions.
Police and city officials announced at a Friday news conference that they are cancelling potentially tens of thousands of speeding tickets due to problems with intersection cameras and the quality-control process. Officials have discovered 25 “speed on green” tickets showing vehicles going much faster than possible. One ticket made it through the five-level screening system intended to weed out flaws and was mistakenly sent to the vehicle’s owner.
Anyone with an outstanding intersection safety camera speeding ticket, which start at $110, or one combined with a red-light violation, now doesn’t have to pay.
Deputy police chief Darryl da Costa said Friday the Crown prosecutor’s office notified police Wednesday about the ticket mistakenly sent out before it went to trial.
The ticket indicated the driver was travelling about 140 km/h, even though it was clear from the pictures the car was moving much slower.
Boyce said it appears the ticket he got is a different one, though he can’t say for sure.
“I do know that my ticket somehow made it through their reviews and got out before and did end up with the prosecutor before it stopped,” he said.
“It’s very likely and very possible that it is a second ticket.”
Boyce said he believes police have no choice but to cancel people’s tickets now.
“If they’ve got five reviews in place, how did tickets make it out into the mail?” said Boyce. “There’s clearly something wrong with their system — either the people who are supposed to be (reviewing tickets) aren’t doing their job or it’s a bald-faced lie that there’s a review system in place to start with.”
Boyce said because his ticket indicated he was going so fast, there was no payment option but a summons to appear in court. Boyce said he went to court in October and a trial was set for late December. Information mailed to him in November included sworn affidavits from peace officers declaring they had reviewed the exhibits and believed his truck was going 143 km/h.
However, Boyce said when he urged prosecutors to re-examine the intersection camera pictures at the trial, they decided something was wrong so the ticket was withdrawn.
Boyce hasn’t spoken with police or prosecutors since the court cancelled his ticket.
His advice to drivers: “If you believe the ticket is in the wrong, fight it. It’s definitely worth it.”
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