Someone Keeps Sawing Down This Speed Camera in Toronto

Some Toronto drivers really aren’t fans of the city’s speed cameras and are taking matters into their own hands. Late last week, a camera on Parkside Drive was cut clean down less than 24 hours after it was reinstalled, after being previously vandalized in the same manner a few weeks prior.

Parkside Drive, a major road bordering Toronto’s High Park, is a bit of a problem spot in terms of traffic safety. With a current limit of 40 km/h (25 mph)—it used to be 50 km/h—speeding is rampant, and in 2021, a speed-related collision resulted in the death of an elderly couple who were stopped at a red light. In response to the 2021 incident, the city reduced the speed limit on Parkside, adding signs and cameras in hopes of slowing drivers down. A community advocacy group called Safe Parkside was established and the city recently announced plans to add bike lanes in an attempt to curb speeding.

So far, none of those measures seem to have worked because according to city data per CityNews, the Parkside speed camera is Toronto’s highest-grossing camera, snapping pics of 63,000 speeders since it was installed, resulting in $6.8 million CAD in fines.

As tempting as it might be to applaud the literal downfall of a pesky speed camera, the situation is an unfortunate result of a road that’s inherently poorly designed, and we don’t condone taking a Sawzall to public property just because you don’t like what it’s doing.