Ticked off by speeding ticket in school zone — when school’s out

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2016 (3497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was Thanksgiving Day, but Rick Swidinsky was anything but thankful about what he ended up being compelled to give on that holiday Monday.

After all, who wants to be tagged with a traffic fine.

Especially when it feels like an unjust cash grab by a cash-strapped city.

Actually, it was a great getaway weekend until he rolled back into the city. Rick and a pal had been in Minneapolis most of that weekend, watching the Jets Saturday and the Vikings Sunday, and now it was just after 4 p.m. Monday, and he was on his way home, driving through a posted 30 km/h reduced-speed school zone in Elmwood at 48 km/h. He learned that four days later when the photo-radar ticket arrived in the mail.

The notice included the prescribed fine for that speed: $285.

Not only was Rick surprised, he was angry.

So, not knowing how else to publicly express his feelings, he emailed me.

“I understand that the letter of the law says Monday-Friday between 07:00-17:30,” Rick wrote, “and it was 16:15 when I was tagged. But it was Thanksgiving Day, and there was no school! Just what was it they were enforcing?”

Rick isn’t the only one who’s upset with the Thanksgiving Day enforcement. He was the second ticked-off citizen who contacted me about being tagged in a school zone on that holiday Monday. The first was Jamie Dubberley, who was ticketed for going 54 km/h in a school zone marked 30.

That fine was $354.

Like Rick, Jamie acknowledged what the reduced-speed school zone signs stated about being in force from September through June, Monday through Friday, but…

“Common sense,” Jamie argued, “would suggest holidays would be exempt.”

Jamie said it wasn’t really the money, or the fine amount that bothered him.

“I don’t like it that the city would have a camera van out in a school zone on a holiday. I know I’m not the only one who got caught that day — seems like a cash grab and not a safety issue as there were no kids in school! I hope the judge will understand.”

I responded to Jamie by predicting the magistrate would side with the letter of the law as written on the school-zone signs. Although, I advised Jamie the fine might be reduced if he pleaded guilty with an explanation. I asked Jamie to let me know how it goes.

Meanwhile, Rick’s email arrived. His argument sounded much like Jamie’s.

“I understand and supported the school-zone speed limit when it was introduced, but I mistakenly assumed there would be common sense used to deploy the new bylaw.”

The clearly marked signs not withstanding, Rick said he thought it was a 50 zone on a holiday Monday, which is why he was travelling 48. He wasn’t the only one who must have assumed the city’s photo-radar enforcement took Monday as a holiday, too. Four days later, Rick opened his photo-radar mail and noticed three vehicles in the picture. His and two others.

“I was the middle one, and I did not have to brake because the car in front of me suddenly slowed down, and the car behind me did not fall behind my pace because it had suddenly slowed… meaning that photo radar probably got all three of us.”

In fact, when Rick dropped by to plead his case Oct. 14, he met three others who had been nabbed in school zones. Not on Thanksgiving Day, though. They were caught on Sept. 1, when school still wasn’t in, but city police were out, being paid by Manitoba Public Insurance to do a special enforcement.

“When I had my turn with the magistrate,” Rick recalled, “ I took a few deep breaths and explained as calmly as I could my case.”

First, though, he had to plead guilty with an explanation.

And with that, Rick said, the magistrate quickly chopped his $285 fine in half. “This felt like a win at the time, and I was happy to pay it on the spot.”

It was only later, when he bumped into the three others — all of whom also had their fines reduced by half — that Rick really began feeling fleeced.

“That’s when it dawned on me that they are expecting people like me to fight these tickets in these scenarios and are directed to reduce the fine by half to placate us. Even if they only got $140 from us instead of $285, the city is still ahead on this income stream.”

“The city is more interested in revenue streams than children’s safety,” Rick added for emphasis. “Tagging drivers in school zones when the schools are closed just proves it.”

As for Jamie, when he got back to me, he reported he did plead guilty with an explanation, but the magistrate didn’t reduce his $354 fine.

“She said that I should take it up with the city. I don’t even know how to do that.”

I can see where Jamie and Rick are coming from and where at least one of the magistrates might sympathize with how they feel. The city isn’t doing anything illegal by having photo radar operating in school zones on a Thanksgiving Monday. But why aren’t statutory holidays exempt from the reduced-speed law, when Saturdays and Sundays already are? If I were a judge — and there was a charge for displaying a deplorable lack of logic and fairness at a cost to its citizens — I’d rule the City of Winnipeg guilty.

With, or without, an explanation.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca