Toronto’s Parkside speed camera cut down for 7th time in less than a year

Janice Golding reports on the latest vandalism to the Parkside Dr. speed camera, having been cut down for the 7th time in less than a year.

One of Toronto’s most frequently vandalized speed cameras has been chopped down for the seventh time in less than a year.

It’s unclear what time the incident occurred, but in an email to CP24 Sunday morning, Toronto police say it has been “reported” and that an “investigation is ongoing.”

The latest attack on Parkside Drive’s automated speed enforcement device comes just days after CTV News Toronto obtained new footage showing it being cut down in real time.

The video was captured by resident Richard Penner, who told CTV he installed a trail camera near the site after the device was damaged for a fourth time in April.

The Parkside camera was initially introduced in 2021 after a speeding driver rear-ended a stopped vehicle, killing 71-year-old Valdemar Avila and his 69-year-old wife, Fatima.

“I mean people did die here so I get why the camera is there,” one man told CTV News Toronto on Sunday.

“(I’m) kinda getting tired of (the device being chopped down), actually. ... it is a dangerous street people speed down here all the time so obviously the camera is needed,” added another.

Since it was installed four years ago, the Parkside speed camera has issued more than 66,000 tickets amounting to more than $8 million in fines.

But frequent acts of vandalism have repeatedly left it out of service, sometimes for weeks.

Following repeated damage, the device was reinstalled with a Toronto police surveillance camera earlier this summer, but it was cut down again on July 9.

It was repaired and back in service by Aug. 10, only to be destroyed once more in this latest incident.

The person or persons responsible have not been caught.

“I’m astounded they haven’t been able to figure out who did this,” said one woman.

“It’s just weird that they keep doing it. You’d think they’d get caught eventually, right? It’s kind of a crazy thing to do because I’d assume you’d get arrested for something like that.”

In a written statement to CTV, the City of Toronto said it “condemns any incident of theft or vandalism of Automated Speed Enforcement devices.”

“Tampering with, damaging or stealing one of these devices allows dangerous speeding to continue and undermines the safety of all road users, particularly those more vulnerable such as pedestrians, cyclists, children and the elderly,” spokesperson Kate Lear wrote in an email to CTV News Toronto on Sunday.

“The (city) is working with its vendor and the Toronto Police Service on solutions to prevent future incidents of vandalism including remote monitoring of the camera systems to identify and respond to vandalism incidents more quickly, stronger poles for permanent cameras and other measures.”

Faraz Gholizadeh, of the community group Safe Parkside, has called on the city to do more each time the camera is taken out.

“Unfortunately, we’re not seeing any of that (money from fines) being spent on Parkside to try to make things safe on the street. So it just seems like the city is content to collect millions and keep everything the way it is,” he told CP24 on Sunday morning.

“I’m not sure exactly how much it does cost to replace it each time, but it certainly won’t cost $7 million.”

Gholizadeh previously told CTV the repeated damage highlights Toronto’s failure to secure the site and its reluctance to redesign the roadway.

A ‘high-risk speeding corridor’

Parkside Drive, which borders High Park to the west and residential homes to the east, has long been flagged by residents as a high-risk speeding corridor.

Gholizadeh, among others, wants to see the roadway redesigned to include slow down drivers, including sidewalks on both sides of the street and infrastructure to make it safer for cyclists.

“We don’t want to see anyone else die on the street. We want people to feel safe when they cross the street and visit the park with their family, with their kids. And unfortunately, it’s been years and we haven’t seen any of that,” he said.

“The city knows the solutions. They’ve already displayed them as part of the Parkside drive study, which was approved four years ago, and here we are, four years later, still waiting for those solutions to be implemented,.”

Gholizadeh said the revenue generated from the speed camera is more than enough to cover all the safety improvements that Parkside needs.

“It’s quite frustrating and it’s really disappointing,” he said.

Last November, Toronto City Council approved a safety redesign for Parkside that included bike lanes and traffic-calming measures.

But the project’s future is uncertain following new provincial legislation that prevents municipalities from removing traffic lanes to make way for bike lanes without approval from Queen’s Park.

Vandalism investigation ongoing, police say

Toronto police say their investigation into the vandalism remains ongoing. If caught, officials say charges would include mischief over $5,000.

It is not yet clear if the city’s surveillance camera captured either the July 9 or the latest overnight attack.

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Janice Golding