Speed trap seems like a cash grab
By Letter to the Editor on December 12, 2020.
On a recent Sunday I was caught in a speed trap near the town of Monarch going from Highway 23 to Highway 3 going towards Lethbridge. A number of sheriff cars were parked and the officers were pulling cars over one after another and giving speeding tickets. Apparently another officer with a laser gun a few kilometres before had secretly clocked myself and the other cars.
It was clearly a speed trap designed for a cash grab like “shooting fish in a barrel.” While speeders should be punished, this was a location where the majority of cars speed up as they enter on to the double highway.
As I sat waiting for my ticket to be prepared I wondered about the people dealing with the stress of this pandemic and how a ticket would only worsen their financial stress. I’m all for handing out tickets to people who break the law but when our traffic officers set up a speed trap designed to simply raise cash in these times I really hope these officers can sleep at night.
I plan to fight this ticket and I hope other people caught in this heartless speed trap will do the same. It’s not the time to be raising money on the backs of stressed-out Alberta citizens.
Paul Zemlak
Claresholm
-1
You are stressed out because of a speeding ticket? Did you or did you not break the law by exceeding the posted speed? So now you are going to fight this ticket because you perceive it to be a cash-cow?
Wow.
There are far more important things going on right now, one of which you correctly mention but really, is this not a proverbial “storm in a tea-pot”?
So you’re upset you were caught speeding? Thanks for the chuckle! Can I come watch you fight this in court?
Judge: so were you speeding or not?
Paul: yes, but… blah blah blah
Judge: (slams gavel) guilty!!
These secret speed traps have been around for decades (I got caught in one in 2002). You merged from a highway with a 100km/h limit to one with a 110km/h limit… at least it’s not that painfully difficult speed change in Claresholm where it goes from 110 down to 50.
Sometimes I remove my seatbelt and drive through a red light while going 25km/h over the speed limit… “oh uhh hello officer, I uhh I didn’t see you there…”
Side note: If you’re having financial trouble, the courthouse can extend the deadline for you by several months.
I drive for a living Paul, and got four photo-radar tickets in the span of six months. All four were ten-over in play-ground zones within our city. Yes this annoyed me to no end! But Paul I got with the program and started to watch and obey all signage that I passed and Walla it cleared-up all the symptoms. Have not had one in almost five years. If it works for me Paul it can work for you too.
Hey Paul, you can learn your lesson after one ticket and not four, like it took dumb johnny57! lol.