Hamilton's 1st speed camera covered in paint, but city says that won't stop enforcement
Dan Taekema | CBC News | Posted: September 30, 2020 9:01 PM | Last Updated: September 30, 2020
'The plan will still be to begin enforcement tomorrow,' says spokesperson
It's going to take more than some paint to stop photo radar speed enforcement in Hamilton.
Someone covered the city's first photo radar camera in black squiggles the day before it was set to begin catching speeders on Stone Church Road between Dartnall and Pritchard roads.
But that vandalism won't do much to slow the city's plans, according to public works spokesperson Jasmine Graham.
"The paint is being cleaned off today," she wrote in an email to CBC. "The plan will still be to begin enforcement tomorrow."
The camera is part of a 12-month automated speed enforcement (ASE) pilot project the city says is aimed at keeping vulnerable road users safe in school and community safety zones.
"We believe this will increase driver awareness of posted speed limits and significantly decrease injuries and fatalities as a result of motor vehicle collisions," stated Mayor Fred Eisenberger.
As part of the one-year pilot, the city has selected 12 locations for cameras, based on speed and collision data.
There will be two cameras operating at one location at a time over the course of one year starting Oct. 1.
If a vehicle is clocked driving above the posted speed limit in an ASE-enforced area the registered owner of the vehicle will receive a ticket, regardless of who was behind the wheel.
Owners will be fined but demerit points will not be issued.
Hamilton's speed camera is far from the first of its kind to be hit by vandals.
Media reports from Toronto, where 50 cameras were installed, report the big silver boxes have been damaged and even stolen.
The cameras that survived issued 22,301 tickets from July 6 to Aug. 5, according to city officials, including one vehicle that managed to be ticketed 12 times from the same location.