Canada - Winnipeg drivers complain of tickets for impossible speeds
WINNIPEG - Far more drivers are shouting down Winnipeg's mobile photo-radar traps after being issued citations for Grant Avenue speeds that they say were impossible.Street cameras, like 
this one in Ottawa, give police the ability to catch motorists who might be breaking the law. (QMI Agency)
Following a story in the Winnipeg Sun on Saturday about how at least 16 Grant Park High School staff say they were wrongly ticketed, dozens more motorists spoke up to say they've been in the same situation in recent weeks.
Among them is Colin Craig, regional director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who was mailed a fine order in late November for allegedly driving 67 km/h in the same 50 km/h zone on westbound Grant just west of Nathaniel Street across from the school.
"It certainly seems like a suspicious situation, when so many people are questioning the accuracy of the machine," Craig said, noting where the school staff turn onto Grant is a stone's throw from the radar position.
"How could so many people be clocked at 65 to 70 km/h, just after turning onto that street?"
QMI Agency received a flurry of early-morning e-mails, as did Todd Dube of the Wise-Up Winnipeg campaign against the city's photograph traffic enforcement.
"I've lost count, and it's still early in the day," Dube said of the "massive response" to the story.
Late this week, the Grant Park teachers, aides, custodians and other staffers said that they're bewildered by the cited speeds -- as high as 75 km/h -- city police told them they were driving when their cars were photographed by a contracted radar operator in a vehicle parked on a service road adjacent to Grant Avenue.
The Wise-Up group is accusing the city of faulty speed measurements due largely to the radar vehicle's distance from Grant -- too far, Dube says, to get accurate readings.
Coun. John Orlikow, whose River Heights-Fort Garry ward includes the radar site, said he plans to talk to Grant Park principal Yale Chochinov about the tickets.
"I look forward to hearing from them, for sure. We'll see what we can do," Orlikow said.
"If drivers want to challenge it, they should be able to quite easily. We need a recourse to make sure the machine works properly."
Despite a request on Thursday for comment, city police haven't responded to the Grant Park drivers' concerns.
Carmen Barnett, spokeswoman for Mayor Sam Katz, refused to make the mayor available for comment on Saturday.