A Toronto pace digicam infamous for issuing tens of hundreds of tickets to drivers has been lower down once more lower than 24 hours after it was reinstalled.
On Saturday morning, the digicam on Parkside Drive was found mendacity on the bottom. It’s the second time this month that the tools was vandalized.
“It was disappointing because this speed camera is here to slow people down,” Secure Parkside co-chair Faraz Gholizadeh informed CP24 on Saturday morning.
“It’s there for safety. And for someone to come and cut it down the way they did, it just seems to be a lack of concern for what’s happening on Toronto streets and what’s happening on Parkside.”
The pace digicam positioned close to Parkside Drive and Algonquin Avenue was put in after an aged couple was killed in a collision involving a dashing driver in 2021.
Based on Secure Parkside, the pace digicam has issued over 60,000 tickets with an estimated worth of over $6.8 million.
In an announcement on Saturday, town condemned all acts of theft and vandalism.
“Tampering with, damaging or stealing an Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) device negatively impacts road safety and allows dangerous speeding to continue near vulnerable road users,” metropolis spokesperson Shane Gerard mentioned.
The town notes that the digicam is owned by a vendor who’s now assessing the injury and growing a plan to restore it.
For Secure Parkside, the pace digicam just isn’t sufficient and extra must be accomplished to make sure street security within the space.
“Any measure that can be so easily thwarted that it could be cut down is not a true safety measure,” Gholizadeh mentioned.
“What we’re looking for is real safety on the street. That’s what we’ve been asking for the past decade. And that’s what we’re still asking for today.”
Gholizadeh desires town to rework Parkside Drive into an entire road, which town defines as a road designed to be protected for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers and in addition contemplate different makes use of like sidewalk cafes, road furnishings, road bushes, utilities and storm administration.
“(The camera has) made a lot of money, sent out a lot of tickets, but provided very little in the form of safety. So, the city really needs to start acting. It’s past time that they did something about Parkside,” he mentioned.
Earlier this month, metropolis council authorized “in principle” a street security challenge on Parkside Drive, which incorporates bike lanes and design adjustments to lower motorcar speeds.
Mayor Olivia Chow additionally weighed in on the incident, saying in an announcement: “Acts of vandalism that jeopardize the safety of Torontonians are entirely inappropriate, particularly on a dangerous section of road like Parkside Dr.”
“That’s why Councillor Perks has worked closely with the community to spearhead safety improvements on Parkside Dr, which we passed at our most recent council meeting.”
