From time to time, you’ll see us skewering the idea of photo radar on CMG; a story from Alberta shows why.
According to CBC, an Alberta rider received a speeding ticket in the mail for a licence plate he doesn’t even own. Patrick Leach of Leduc, Alberta, lost his motorcycle plate last summer, reported it missing, and didn’t think of it again until the postman dropped off a fine for speeding — photo radar had picked up his old plate, and issued him a fine.
Leach checked to see if his old plate had been canceled, and confirmed that it had. CBC says he sent that confirmation back with his ticket, expecting to see it canceled. The ticket was not canceled, and now Leach has to appear in court — and he isn’t happy, for obvious reasons.
It’s true photo radar doesn’t issue speeding fines as hefty as those issued by traffic police. It’s also true the machines are a face of a bureaucracy without discretion, which is how situations like this occur. If his story is true, this motorcyclist must now spend his time fighting an unjust fine, possibly losing a day’s work or facing other inconvenience, to battle a ticket that should have been canceled as soon as he sent in proof his plate had been canceled.
The government enacted legislation to make it illegal to own a vehicle used for speeding. Keeps you from getting out of a photo radar ticket that someone else got with your car. I know cause I got one driving the Wife’s car.
Then, a couple weeks ago, she got another one. The vehicle in the photo was NOT ours. The plate was though. BUT, it was a plate we had not renewed since 1997! Turns out I had put the plate on an old utility trailer to tow it to the dump. My Wife’s boss indicated she needed something to store branches and yard waste so I backed the trailer into the corner of her yard. Eight years later, her daughters boyfriend borrowed the trailer, knowingly used our old plate which I’d forgotten to remove, and got a photo radar ticket which WE received in the mail. My Wife spoke with the contracted photo radar operator and luckily, she cancelled it.
Maybe they suspect he reported his plate stolen but is using it anyway in an elaborate sheme to avoid tickets.