Fourth time’s the charm?
A speed camera on Parkside Drive has been installed, again, after vandals repeatedly cut it down — and this newest camera marks the fourth in just two months.
The carcass of the new camera’s predecessor remains drowned in the High Park duck pond, it’s muddied lens peaking out from the snow-covered ice. It was cut down at the end of 2024, appearing to have been dragged through the mud and foliage of High Park and tossed into the pond.
Since its installation, the speed camera has been a cash windfall for the city. It’s the highest-grossing speed camera in Toronto, issuing more than 65,000 speeding tickets worth a total of $7 million, according to a press release issued by Safe Parkside, an residents’ advocacy group supportive of safety measures on the busy road. One of those tickets clocked a speeding vehicle travelling at 154 km/h, nearly four times the posted speed limit of 40 km/h.
The former Parkside Drive speed camera in a High Park pond on Dec. 30.
Michelle Mengsu Chang/pc28StarThe Star, in 2022, once caught seven drivers going above the speed limit in 30 minutes on a regular day, with the highest speeder travelling 73 km/h.
The speed camera on Parkside Drive was installed in the months following a chain-reaction multi-vehicle collision in 2021 that left two seniors, Valdemar and Fatima Avila, dead. And, in October, city council voted to endorse a road safety project that could see protected bike lanes, improved safety at major intersections, designated turning lanes, and new and upgraded TTC stops come to Parkside Drive.
And the vandalism against these type of cameras isn’t just on Parkside Drive. An Avenue Road speed camera was also cut down earlier this week.
The city condemns these acts of vandalism but said it is not responsible for replacing the speed cameras, according to a city spokesperson.
“The city does not own any of the (automated speed enforcement) devices as they are a vendor-provided service; it is the vendor’s responsibility to replace or fix devices and report serious incidents of vandalism to pc28Police Services,” the email said.
“The city is also exploring other solutions including pole mounted options and remote monitoring that may help alleviate some of the vandalism issues.”
Last year, pc28announced it was planning to double the complement of speed cameras from 75 to 150 and switch to an “administrative penalty system” to streamline the way it handles tickets generated by red light and automated speed cameras, the Star reported.
The additional devices are being rolled out under Toronto’s Vision Zero road safety program and are scheduled to be in place by 2026. City staff say the resulting spike in tickets would overwhelm the court system.
With files from Estella Ren and Ben Spurr
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