Photo radar should be in place in December: Tory

Torontosun.com
August 28, 2019
Antonella Artuso

Motorists should expect photo radar on Toronto streets this December, Mayor John Tory says.

Two automated speed enforcement cameras will be located in each of the city’s 25 wards.

Tory suggested the program couldn’t come too soon.

“Thank goodness we will have photo radar ready to be deployed and it will be deployed on the advice of the police and based on statistics,” the Mayor said Tuesday. “And there will be some, I can assure you, in Scarborough because of the fact that we’ve had a disproportionate number of fatalities there.”

Last week a senior citizen died after she was struck by two vehicles while trying to cross at Midland and Sheppard Aves. in Scarborough.

Emergency personnel obscure the gurney containing the remains of a senior citizen who was run over by two vehicles at Midland and Sheppard Aves. on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun Ernest Doroszuk / Toronto Sun

Tory said drivers need to show more care for seniors as they try to cross city streets.

“I think what has been lost, though, is this kind of constant consideration for others that I think we used to have in days gone by when the city was less hectic and less complicated,” he said. “And I think we have to redouble our efforts to have drivers particularly, because they’re surrounded by two tonnes of steel in a powerful machine that can hurt people … we have to have them pay a particular degree of attention to seniors and others, pedestrians, cyclists.”

Tory would have liked to have seen photo radar sooner on city streets but he said the hold up was not with municipal officials.

The Doug Ford government had to agree to the installation of cameras before Toronto could proceed with its speeding enforcement plan.

The cameras will be located in school and community safety zones, such as around seniors facilities.

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Fines could range from $21 for going one km/h over the posted speed limit to $1,105-plus for 50 km/h or more over, according to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

Meanwhile, city streets are poised to get even more complicated as e-scooters are added to the mix.

Tory said he’s glad the city is starting with just a small pilot project because he has serious concerns about this mode of transportation based on experience in other jurisdictions.

E-scooters raise safety concerns and could pose a problem when left on sidewalks as well, he said.

“For me, there are a lot of questions that have to be answered and a lot of rules that I think we’re going to have to put in place,” he said.