According to a Winnipeg, Canada court ruling issued last month, “work zone” speed camera tickets are invalid if they are issued in an empty work zone. Judicial Justice of the Peace Norman Sundstrom tossed citations issued to nine defendants who traveled through workerless work zones without exceeding the normal speed limit for the road they were on. The decision was based on a nuanced reading of the interplay between the provincial photo radar law and the law governing construction zone warning signs.
“Although some people might feel that the legislation would be wiser to force drivers to slow down even after workers have gone home for the day, this is not in my view a justification for the court to add to or change the law under the guise of interpretation,” Sundstrom ruled.
Manitoba law authorized the use of photo enforcement “in construction zones.” A separate provision of the highway act described how temporary signs must be posted to indicate a drop in speed limit from, for example, 80km/h (50 MPH) to 60 km/h (37 MPH). The latter provision explicitly stated that such signs are to be used “while workers are present or using equipment in the construction zone.” Sundstrom argued that ticketing when workers were not present defeated the fundamental goal of the work zone safety law.
“The purpose . . . in my opinion is ultimately to protect workers by setting out rules to follow,” Sundstrom reasoned. “In these cases I find that sections 95(1.2) and 77(7.1b) show a clear clear intention on the part of the legislature to allow reduced speed signs in construction zones to be in effect ‘when workers are present’ and not otherwise.”
None of the nine photo ticket recipients had exceeded the road’s ordinary speed limit of 80km/h when they drove past empty work zones. The prosecution had argued that the 60km/h sign should be treated as a normal speed limit sign and that drivers should prosecuted for disobeying it. The work zone statute, prosecutors insisted, must be interpreted as protecting not just workers but drivers in general.
“The position taken by the crown here clearly seems to offend the general principle that there should be a consistent interpretation and enforcement of the law,” Sundstrom concluded. “In my opinion the rule as set out in 95(1.2) will apply to any prosecution for speeding that occurs in construction zones, and that any reduced speed sign that was placed there essentially to make the zone safer for workers—is enforceable only when workers are present.”
While legislation allowing photo radar in construction zones is commonly promoted as a measure to protect highway workers, the data show that the driving public rarely causes injury to highway workers. Larry Stefanuik, a former police constable who now helps motorists fight traffic tickets, asked the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba for the latest data on injuries in construction zones caused by motor vehicles. He found very few were caused by cars.
Number of highway worker injuries in Manitoba caused by automobiles
2000: 2
2001: 2
2003: 1
2004: 2
2005: 2
2006: 1
“The high majority of collisions occurring in construction zones in Canada, involve vehicles belonging to the construction companies or their employees,” Stefanuik wrote.
Manitoba accident data are consistent with work zone statistics from the US which show that most work zone fatalities are actually caused by construction vehicles.
[Click here for the full text of Sundstrom’s decision]
suddenoutbreakofcommonsense
I had to check to make sure it wasn’t April 1st. A judge with common sense, my world is crumbling around me.
Judges there are appointed, not elected, so they don’t have the law-and-order chip on their shoulder.
Abundant commonsense usually disqualifies people from holding judicial posts. How did Judicial Justice of the Peace Norman Sundstrom slip through the net?
Some U.S. Supreme Court justices believe in referencing laws in other countries. So if your workerless work zone ticket gets appealed to that level, this could help.
Last summer as I was riding my motorcycle down in the states (CA,OR and WA), I couldn’t believe the number of “construction speed zones” where not only were no construction workers present, there seemed to be little if any sign of construction underway, period. The whole thing stank to me like a way of generating increased traffic fines.
At least here in my province (BC) the construction speed zones are limited to actual construction zones. And fortunately our government axed photo radar years ago, because while I give a tremendous amount of respect to highway workers (slow down, give lots of space) when the construction zone is obviously unpopulated I ignore the reduced limit.
Last summer as I was riding my motorcycle down in the states (CA,OR and WA), I couldn’t believe the number of “construction speed zones” where not only were no construction workers present, there seemed to be little if any sign of construction underway, period.
I just commented on this last week as I was going through a “construction zone” on HWY 80 between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. There was no evidence of any construction workers, and the driver wondered aloud why they had one lane closed when there was no apparent construction going on. It was my (slightly humerous) observation that HWY 80 is required to have a minimum amount of miles “under construction” at all times.
Judges there are appointed, not elected, so they don’t have the law-and-order chip on their shoulder.
Do you know of a lot of law and order types who are screaming for more speeding laws and higher fines? Seems to me it’s the social engineering types who want to protect us from ourselves that are typically in favor of increased enforcement and associated revenue generation. There are certainly arguments to be made for and against judicial appointments, but in this case, if elected judges are swayed by public sentiment they would be more likely to overturn traffic tickets like this and judges who are appointed would be more likely to side with the people who appointed them and want these revenue streams to remain in place.
About time. I live in Calgary and almost got nailed by photo radar in a construction zone. It was 1:00am, no workers present. The road was pretty much completed, 4 straight lanes and the speed is usually 80km/h. I was merging onto said road. The merge lane is very long, to allow traffic to get up to 80km/h. Its also downhill. My V1 radar detector went off as I entered the merge lane. At the bottom of the downhill merge, behind a small, dirty “Construction Zone – 50km/h” sign was a white van, partially covered by some construction cardboard to hide it. It was going off as people went by it as they merged with the traffic which was going 80km/h. I slowed down (thanks V1) and almost got into an accident as I tried to merge into traffic going 80 while I was going 50. Two days later the 50 signs were removed without any change to the road whatsoever.
Speed Cameras improve safety my butt.
Last Summer they setup a construction zone on the 401 in southern Ontario. This went on for tens of miles and gave the OPP a chance to use their latest toy, a Cessna airplane. If you missed the sign they naild you.
Why do the majority of the people vote for more government?
For those of you in the states, watch out in Alabama because they use this tactic often. When I moved from Louisiana to Georgia I made a ton of trips through there and they have tons of construction zones and about 90% have no work going on every time I passed through them(and indeed look like there was never any work going on there), but yet some of them had as many as 4 cruisers pulling people over left and right. I think they intentionally leave the signs up after the work is done to create speedtraps. I got hit by one in Fort Payne AL.
# bluecon said:
Why do the majority of the people vote for more government?
At least this time, Americans voted for less government. A government that is less likely to spy on its citizens or build secret prisons.
suddenoutbreakofcommonsense
*thud* <– me falling off chair
On those construction worker stats.
My memory tells me that whenever I read about construction worker getting hit by car the car is driven by drunk off duty cop who takes down a row of cones too.
Hello Everyone.
Thanks Robert for printing this. I am the author Larry Stefanuik aka trafficticketguru.com
First of all don’t be too quick to congratulate SUNDSTROM, he has only recently had a change of heart. I’ve sat and watched him convict several others for the same thing.
If it hadn’t been for these 9 defendants who had the balls to stick it out and go the distance then this would probably still be happening. I like to think that the issues we have been bringing forward may have helped Sundstrom to get a conscience and has made him realize that the money being taken from peoples pockets are lining the pockets of ACS who is the camera vendor for Winnipeg.
If you live in an area with photo enforcement, protect yourself against this fraudulent system. Visit our products section for more.
I invite everyone to check out my site if you haven’t already. You can just click the text link on my name in the article.
I have a section for our USA visitors that you can link to from our home page. Frizzlefry from Calgary, start letting people you know out there about my site as we are launching our ebook and private members site for Canadians in the very near future. It’s essentially a mini ticket defense university to teach you how to get a successful result with your traffic matters.
Happy Motoring
At least this time, Americans voted for less government. A government that is less likely to spy on its citizens or build secret prisons.
No. It will just be more rights for terrorists and less rights for citizens. Just wait and see how long it takes them to try to push through gun control. And some sort of fair speech laws. And tax increases because they have no money and could never cut spending. (always trying to find that in the Constitution about the government taking your money and giving it to others) Must be something from a different Constitution.
Not slowing down for construction zones when no work is in progress may be fine in some cases. But in other cases, there may be changes to the road etc. that make a slower speed essential. Such as abrupt, new detours around hazards easily capable of resulting in damage or a smashup.
Currently British Columbia has a busy, convoluted, mountainous highway under major construction with minimal traffic stoppages. (Vancouver to Whistler) The other night on that road, as it snowed, the driver ahead of us missed a diversion and drove along in the oncoming lane until noticing traffic approaching dead ahead. They were driving at 75kph while the posted construction speed limit is 50kph. The slower speed would have allowed more time to notice the diversion, and delayed both the time to impact and the severity of any impact. Depending on the circumstances, driving at the normal speed in construction zones may be foolish, work in progress or not.
I try to avoid construction zones.
If a I encounter one going, I take a different route coming back. The next day I also take the different route until I am confident that the construction is finished. Sometimes I take a detour immediately at the construction ahead sign.
It’s less stress than fighting the system and dangerous traffic.
One thing you can do if you don’t want to spend the cash for a good radar detector (V1 or Bel STI) or if they are illegal where you live is to get a gps navigator (200 bucks for a decent Garmin) and then go to gpspassion.com and go into the custon POI section. You can download user created POIs for all known cameras and speed traps, then load them into your garmin. The Canadian collection is very good and is updated about once a week. And best of all its free. As you come up to traps/cameras, the Garmin will ding and display a warning of possible trap/camera.
i got tagged in november 2007, my first and only ticket of any kind ever, by a plane. i was pulled over a few blocks from where i was actually speeding. a few weeks (like 2) later they raised the speed limit to 65mph. i was going 71 in the previously under-construction-but-already-finished 55mph zone
Good point Frizzlefry, you can also get the navalert device through our site, especially if you already have a built in gps nave unit in your car. The Navalert is just a small black box, it already has the fixed cameras for all north america installed and you can download common speed trap locations for mobile units or police radar.
Larry
http://www.trafficticketguru.com
Installing cams in construction zones don`t do much for the safety of workers, because they install barriers along the length of the sites.
This is a case for the collection of the revenue nothing more.