By François Biber

Saskatoon council greenlights photo radar

Nov 25, 2014 | 6:08 AM

Automated speed enforcement — known as photo radar — received final approval in Saskatoon council chambers Monday.

While getting photo radar in Saskatoon wasn’t necessarily in city council’s jurisdiction to approve or not, a report from the city solicitor explained that city council and the City’s administration had the choice being in favour or not in favour of photo radar in Saskatoon. Whether or not photo radar is used in Saskatoon ultimately rests in the hands of the Saskatoon Police Serivce (SPS).

Police Chief Clive Weighill said the city’s ongoing discussions in favour of photo radar gives his police force a clear message that the City wants to make Saskatoon streets safer.

“Fatalities in Saskatchewan are higher than any other province and this is just one of the tools to try and bring speeds down,” Weighill said just outside council chambers.

Weighill said two automated speed enforcement cameras will be given to the police force. One camera will float between five school zones in Saskatoon while a second camera will be rotated along five spots on Circle Drive.

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“Last year alone we had two fatalities on Circle Drive plus a number of injuries from a accidents so this is a problem for us,” Weighill said.

In light of problems and issues with the red light camera program run by the City of Saskatoon’s transportation department, Weighill said if there are any glitches causing delays in the mail-out and delivery of photo radar tickets, he won’t issue them.

“The idea of giving tickets for speeding is to correct behaviour, so if we can’t correct the behaviour within a few months to get the ticket out we’re not correcting that behaviour,” Weighill said, adding if the delay is two months or more, he won’t bother sending those tickets out.

Weighill also shot down suggestions that photo radar is simply a cash-grab being imposed on people as a way to make money. Weighill said there are no targets for how many tickets they write, and the police service won’t make more money if they write more tickets. In fact, all the money collected from photo radar tickets goes back to paying SGI for the equipment. Any profits made from the $19,000 equipment rental fee goes into the City of Saskatoon’s traffic safety reserve.

“I pushed to have stationary units so we can’t move them around so people can’t accuse us of playing games with the photo radar to generate revenue,” Weighill said, adding there are areas where photo radar cameras are going will be clearly signed, warning drivers about speed enforcement.

“Everyone will know where these units are, there will be signs and they will be well-marked.”

The city has the average speed on Circle Drive pegged at 98 kilometres per hour (km/h), that’s higher than the maximum speed limit of 90km/h currently allowed on Circle Drive.

SGI and the police said there will be a two-month grace period after the cameras are installed, during that time police will mail out warning letter to drivers who are caught speeding past these cameras.

After that, drivers could face a base fine of $110 on Circle Drive plus one dollar for every kilometre over the posted speed limit. In school zones fines jump up to $190 base plus two dollars for every kilometre over the speed limit.

Drivers caught by the cameras will not face any demerit points, and because the tickets are written and mailed to the address associated with the licence plate, Weighill admits they might not always ticket the owner of the vehicle.

“The registered owner can bring the person into the court, they can plead not guilty, bring the driver and if they accept responsibility of the vehicle and they can be fined,” Weighill said, adding the responsibility ultimately falls on the registered owner, who should stay on top of who drives their car and if they are responsible or not.

Coun. Troy Davies was the only councillor who voted in favour of not bringing automated speed enforcement to Saskatoon.

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