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