Toronto speed camera that's issued over 65,000 tickets cut down for 4th time

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 19, 2025 5:11 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

Vandals person chopped down a velocity camera connected Parkside Drive successful Toronto for the 4th clip successful 5 months — and a local advocate says it's clip for the metropolis to yet hole the street, alternatively than the camera again. 

Toronto constabulary said they responded to the enactment of vandalism connected Saturday morning. There is nary fishy accusation astatine this time, spokesperson Laura Brabant told CBC News. 

The velocity camera, located successful the city's westbound end, was chopped down doubly successful November, the 2nd clip lone a time aft it had been reinstalled. In December, vandals chopped down the camera again and dumped it into a adjacent duck pond. 

Since it was installed successful April 2022, the camera has issued implicit 65,000 tickets and much than $7 cardinal successful fines, according to Safe Parkside, a assemblage advocacy group.

This latest enactment of vandalism comes aft the metropolis announced it volition treble the fig of automated velocity cameras past month. The metropolis volition adhd 25 caller imperishable cameras and different 50 mobile cameras that volition rotate done locations wrong the wards wherever they're installed.

But Faraz Gholizadeh, co-chair of Safe Parkside, says velocity cameras are not capable to marque Parkside Drive safer. 

Residents person agelong criticized the thoroughfare arsenic dangerous, citing dense postulation and speeding drivers. Safe Parkside was formed successful 2020, but residents person been calling connected the metropolis to marque the thoroughfare safer for implicit a decade, Gholizadeh said. 

"Our disappointment and our vexation lies with the City of Toronto, not with the vandal, due to the fact that they've known however unsafe the thoroughfare is for many, galore years," helium said. 

The thoroughfare is dominated by centrifugal vehicles, with hardly immoderate country for pedestrians and lone 1 sidewalk that does not conscionable the city's minimum width requirement, helium said. 

After a mates was killed successful a clang successful October 2021, the metropolis launched an ongoing survey of the street, reduced the street's velocity bounds from 50 to 40 km/h and added velocity cameras. 

But 3 and a fractional years later, Gholizadeh says the metropolis has not taken immoderate meaningful steps to redesign the street. Speed cameras are not making an impact, helium said. 

"It's beyond frustrating now," helium said. "There's nary existent timeline arsenic to erstwhile these changes are going to come." 

"We're conscionable crossing our fingers and hoping that nary 1 other is earnestly injured, that nary 1 other is killed, until [the city] tin yet get its enactment together." 

City spokesperson Elise von Scheel said the metropolis condemns immoderate theft oregon vandalism of velocity cameras. 

"Tampering with, damaging oregon stealing 1 of these devices allows unsafe speeding to proceed and undermines the information of each roadworthy users," she said successful an email to CBC Toronto connected Saturday. 

WATCH | Camera was chopped down, dumped successful a pond successful December:

After the Parkside Drive camera was vandalized successful December, a spokesperson for the metropolis said astatine the clip that it was looking into ways to forestall camera vandalism, specified arsenic installing distant monitoring. 

The metropolis whitethorn supply a much elaborate effect to Saturday's vandalism adjacent week, von Scheel said. 

She said velocity cameras successful the metropolis are provided by a vendor which is liable for fixing oregon replacing devices wrong a maximum of 30 days.

CBC Toronto has reached retired to Verra Mobility, which owns the vendor for Toronto's velocity cameras, for comment.