About 1,500 speeding tickets were erroneously issued at two speed camera locations between July 1 and Aug. 15, according to a city memo Wednesday. “The error has now been resolved and the tickets issued in error will be voided,” said the note from Carol Hall, the city’s deputy director of traffic services. A camera is located on Abbott Road East between Moss Hill Trail and Shea Road, near Sacred Heart High School in Stittsville. The other is on Alta Vista Drive between Ayers and Ridgemont avenues, near Ridgemont and St. Patrick’s and at Charles H. Hulse Public School. The speed limit in these areas is 40 km/h from September to June between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., when the school year is in progress. At all other times, including summer, it is 50 km/h. As a result of the administrative error, speeding tickets continued to be issued at a speed limit of 40 km/h in July and August as if the school was still in operation,” the memo said. “As of August 16, enforcement criteria have been updated for each site and speeding tickets issued after that date are valid.” Drivers who were ticketed in error will be notified by the end of September and their tickets will be canceled, the city said. They are asked not to pay their fines. Those who have paid will be paid by the end of October. They don’t need to take any action to get their money back. Ticket recipients should verify the date and location of the speeding offense to check if they were ticketed in error. The city has also notified the Joint Processing Center in Toronto, where all Ottawa speed camera tickets are processed. “Communication procedures, in addition to the quality of documentation shared with both the Joint Processing Center and our vendor, have been reviewed to ensure that such administrative errors do not occur in the future,” Hall said in the memo. “Internal procedures have also been adapted to ensure timely review of enforcement criteria in areas with a reduced school speed zone.” Speed cameras have raised millions of dollars for the city since they were installed in July 2020. In the first year of the program, more than 101,000 speeding tickets were issued at eight locations in Ottawa, generating $5.4 million in revenue.
