City of Toronto-owned vehicles get automated tickets twice a day: investigation
City-owned vehicles, including buses, ambulances, fire trucks and police cars, have been ticketed for speeding and running red lights twice a day for the past year by Toronto’s automated enforcement system.
Data and tickets issued obtained by CTV News Toronto through a freedom of information request show pictures of buses, supervisor’s vehicles, and special constable cars speeding and running red lights, sometimes twice in one night.
Some drivers appear to be breaking traffic rules in the course of regular driving, while others appear to be getting tickets while on emergency calls — an unexpected side effect of the degree of automation writing hundreds of thousands of tickets a year requires.
“We want to catch anyone who is driving unsafely,” said Toronto City Councillor Shelley Carroll, who has been a proponent of the camera program as a route to reduce road fatalities.
“As it turns out, sometimes that’s our own employees,” she said.
TTC vehicles got 14 red light camera tickets in the past year, and 129 speeding tickets. City vehicles were issued 167 speeding tickets and nine red light tickets.
Police were issued 244 speeding tickets and 19 red light tickets. Firefighters were issued 61 tickets and 15 red light tickets.
Paramedics were issued 62 speeding tickets and 23 red light tickets.
That all adds up to 743 tickets in the past year — a rate of about two per day.
The volume is much higher than anticipated, Carroll said, but no one expected that drivers in Toronto in general would trigger upwards of 200,000 pictures taken by the cameras in a year.
“Every part of the process is automated. Not just the speed camera, but generating the tickets,” she said.
City employees receive the red light tickets and have to show that they were speeding as part of an emergency response to avoid paying fines that can be as high as $325.
“We receive red light and ASE [automated speed enforcement] tickets the same as any other person or entity in the city. We have developed a process in line with City policy that allows for any ASE tickets to be quashed if they are generated in response to an emergency incident, with sufficient documentation,” wrote Debbie Higgins, Deputy Fire Chief.
Breaking traffic rules can be deadly, and the same holds for city vehicles. One woman died when a TTC bus ran a red light back in 2013. A firefighter was charged with careless driving after a fire truck hit an 11-year-old girl last year.
Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act requires emergency vehicles come to a complete stop at a red light— so officers will pay any related tickets, officials said. The pictures are reviewed by a Provincial Offense Officer before the charge is laid, officials said.
Much of the time, the professional drivers have to worry about other drivers running reds or speeding, and the statistics bear that out. The 743 tickets make up less than half a per cent of the 196,363 speed tickets and the 67,119 red light tickets issued since July 1, 2020.
The automated speed cameras were installed as part of a push to lower the number of people dying on Toronto’s roads. But more effort is required than just ticketing people, said Amanda O’Rourke of 8 80 Cities, a non-profit that focuses on mobility and public spaces.
“We know speed kills,” she said, but added that drivers tend to pick a speed based not necessarily on the speed limit, but often on design features of roads meant to move vehicles at speed.
“We need to re-engineer our streets to prioritize vulnerable road users rather than prioritizing moving cars quickly,” she said.
That means bigger curbs, narrower lanes, pinch points, and other changes that drivers have been shown to react to more — but that costs money, she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
B.C. tenants evicted for landlord's use after refusing large rent increase to take over neighbouring suite
Ashley Dickey and her mother rented part of the same Coquitlam duplex in three different decades under three different landlords.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
Body of Quebec man who died in Cuba found in Russia, family confirms
A Montreal-area family confirmed to CTV News that the body of their loved one who died while on vacation in Cuba is being repatriated to Canada after it was mistakenly sent to Russia.
Expert warns of food consumption habits amid rising prices
A new survey by Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab asked Canadians about their food consumption habits amid rising prices.
Saskatchewan isn't remitting the carbon tax on home heating. Why isn't my province following suit?
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would still send Canada Carbon Rebate cheques to Saskatchewan residents, despite Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's decision to stop collecting the carbon tax on natural gas or home heating, questions were raised about whether other provinces would follow suit. CTV News reached out across the country and here's what we found out.
Montreal actress calls Weinstein ruling 'discouraging' but not surprising
A Montreal actress, who has previously detailed incidents she had with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, says a New York Court of Appeals decision overturning his 2020 rape conviction is 'discouraging' but not surprising.
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
RCMP officers had no legal authority to enter man's home, make arrest: B.C. court
A B.C. man has been found not guilty of assaulting two RCMP officers – with the court finding he was resisting an "unlawful entry and arrest" in his home before he was tasered, taken down and hauled away in handcuffs.