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January 2013 WUW In Court Over Missing Sign
Required Speed Reduction Sign Missing Over 4 Months
Photo enforcement tickets are issued by the thousands throughout Winnipeg but one street in particular stands out. Grant Ave is one of the streets being reviewed to potentially have the speed raised. In the meantime, the limit remains inadequately low at 50 km/h which has helped lead to the camera at Wilton and the photo radar at Nathaniel being the top two photo ticket producers in the city. Winnipeg Police claim that speeding is a major problem on Grant. "They're still speeding like crazy. It's a big problem speed area," says Winnipeg Police-Winnipeg Free Press Dec 13, 2011. So, if speeding is such a problem on Grant that such aggressive enforcement is warranted, wouldn't maintaining speed signs be a major priority for safety? In reality, the opposite is true. The speed reduction sign on Grant near Stafford was removed during light standard replacement on July 12, 2012 and remained missing until Nov 27 after a WUW protest. (pictured above) For over four months, this required speed reduction sign was absent during a period when thousands of unfair tickets were issued to unknowing drivers. This month, WUW fought in traffic court over the missing sign. The judge disallowed all of the pictures showing the sign's absence as well as the City and Hydro documents that stated when the sign was removed and replaced. It came down to witness testimony at which point the photo radar operator lied saying the sign was present. The case was lost. The City and police know the sign was missing, but do not want to surrender the money. We are now in the process of locating funds to hire a lawyer for a March 1 trial. Hopefully justice will prevail at that time. In the meantime, plead not guilty to all tickets.
In This Issue
Page 1 WUW in Court over Missing Sign Page 2 W5 Features Unfair Traps Many Speed Limits May Increase Page 3 City Removes Speed Limit Signing Page 4 Quick Notes Missing Signs Don't Matter Page 5 New Photo Laser Guns on the Road Plans for the New Month Links to Media Stories Page 6 & Page 7 My Experience in Traffic Court (Submission)
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If past history is any indication, Winnipeg could be about to loose 41% of photo tickets. It is very apparent why the city would be opposed to this change. WUW has spoken in favour of these changes and made a written submission to the Highway Traffic Board (HTB). Anyone willing to voice their opinion about these changes can and is encouraged to contact the HTB at 204-9458912.
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This sign on McLeod Ave westbound facing traffic leaving Raleigh was one of many signs removed.
several councillors and other officials receiving copies. To date, the city has not responded to the petition. Attempts were made to contact councillor Browaty but no calls have been returned. Chris also tried to speak at the community meeting for that area to present the petition, but councillor Browaty had to give approval which he did not. It appears that the City of Winnipeg feels this issue will eventually go away if it is ignored long enough. It is up to us as citizens to make sure this doesn't happen. We must contact our councillors and other city officials to demand more and better signing.
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Quick Notes
Don't Pay that Ticket
When a citizen pleads not guilty to a ticket, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time the operator/police don't show for court and the ticket is dismissed. In some cases, police/operators that have left the province. They will never be in court, and any ticket they issued will be dismissed before the trial starts. Some people do win during trial, get a reduction from the crown or if they lose, get a reduction from the court. There are no court fees and the only way to lose is to send the money.
Grant Update
We have not given up on our radar accuracy issue on Grant Ave. After we had demonstrated the inaccuracy, the crown stayed the charge to avoid a precedent. We are now fighting another ticket at that location and are awaiting a court date.
Knowing the signs were missing, the city put the camera back into service in January 2012 and issued hundreds of tickets and ignored all calls for the signs to be replaced. The signs are required under section 3C of the Provincial Conditions of Authority for the city to run photo enforcement. The signs are to reinforce the claimed deterrent nature of photo radar thereby promoting safety. Within hours of the media coverage on Oct 15, 2012, the city installed reinstalled one sign and claimed they were never aware of the signs' absence.
When people approached the province about the tickets issued when the signs were missing, they were told to take their issue to court. A provincial magistrate accepted all evidence that the signs were missing but ruled that the signs are not required and the tickets were upheld. This is a blatant abuse of the public that doesn't happen outside the province.
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For February
Our plans are to work on developing a new webpage. We want to be able to put all the information we have about road signing and amber light issues up for public viewing. We also want to create sections about enforcement and the traffic court system. If any of our readers have any webpage knowledge, we would gladly appreciate any assistance. Hopefully, all this will be done by mid March when we plan to get very aggressive with our mobile efforts.
Contact Us:
www.wiseupwinnipeg.com info@wiseupwinnipeg.com Chris Sweryda - 204-801-9239 csweryda@hotmail.com Todd Dube - 204-795-5120 mediascene@mymts.net
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