A Calgary woman who received two photo radar tickets in a matter of 10 seconds while visiting Edmonton earlier this year says she wants the second ticket rescinded.
Susan McNab was in Edmonton on May 27 for her daughter’s dance competition. About a week later, she received two letters from the City of Edmonton, both photo radar tickets.
“I thought, ‘Well I think they made a mistake.’ It was for the same street. And then I saw that the amounts were different,” McNab explained on Wednesday.
The first photo was taken at 7:46:19 a.m. on 170 Street and 100 Avenue, where she was clocked driving 74 kilometres per hour in a 60 km/h zone. The second ticket was recorded 10 seconds later — two blocks north — on 170 Street and Stony Plain Road, where she was clocked at 72 km/h in the 60 km/h zone.
“I just thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me? Ten seconds?'” she recalled. “This ticket is not right. Are you kidding?”
READ MORE: Alberta driver gets speeding ticket for going 1 km/h over limit
McNab said she knows she was speeding and paid the first ticket but said she was in the process of slowing down and calls the second a “gross grab at more money.”
She called the number on the ticket and was told she would have to go to court to fight it. She received a court date to see a judge this December. In the meantime, she’s contacted the area councillor, mayor’s office and the Transportation Minister’s office, to little avail.
“Where is the line? This is not reasonable. This does not counteract speeding. This is a blatant cash cow and I’m just so angry I’ve just been getting the runaround,” she said.
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READ MORE: Edmonton man furious after receiving three photo radar tickets in one day
Gerry Shimko with the City of Edmonton’s Traffic Safety Section said the enforcement cameras at these locations are fixed “intersection safety devices.”
“We have locations in Edmonton where we have determined through methodology that there is a high risk for fatal, serious right-angle collisions to happen that are predicated on speed or red-light running,” Shimko said. “Some of them are in close proximity, particularly in areas where there is a high volume of traffic and where a lot of these offences happen.”
READ MORE: How effective are Edmonton’s red-light cameras?
The cameras are permanent fixtures at the intersections and have been in place since 2009 or 2010, he said.
“They are all clearly marked with signs that say they are speed and red-light enforced. So these are not mobile equipment,” Shimko said. “They are highly visible. They are there specifically to prevent risk at high-risk locations and because of the proximity of where the crashes are happening.”
While Shimko couldn’t speak to this specific incident, he said “this is a very rare occurrence. We may see less than a handful annually.”
READ MORE: Top spots in Edmonton where you’ll get a photo radar ticket
McNab is not backing down though. She said she will make the trip to Edmonton to fight the second ticket in December and believes photo enforcement should be an election issue.
“People shouldn’t be speeding. I have a child, I get it. The rare time I get a ticket, I am mad at myself and I pay the ticket. I think it happens to everyone at some point. That’s not my issue. It’s this issue of 10 seconds apart, that cannot be considered reasonable. I think any city councillor opening those two tickets themselves would have hit the roof.
“Hopefully there will be an impartial judge that will agree that 10 seconds is not a reasonable time to have for a penalty.”
Watch below: For the second time in as many days, a driver has come forward with a story of receiving two photo radar tickets, metres and seconds apart. A court fight is coming but there might be another battle looming over the issue. Fletcher Kent reports.
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