A Burnaby man is fighting a traffic ticket he got while volunteering for a local parade that he says is unfair.
Silvester Law, 34, was taking photos and videos for the firefighters' union at the Hats Off Day parade on June 2. He says he was part of a lineup of several vehicles being waved through closed intersections by police officers to go from one side of the parade route to the other.
But while he rolled through the intersection at Willingdon Avenue and Hastings Street, a red light camera snapped a photo of him and he received a ticket in the mail almost a week later.
"The road was closed at 8:30 (a.m.) and I got the ticket at 9:02 (a.m.)," he said. "There were cops standing all around me. They didn't say anything."
In the photo he received with his ticket, it's clear the street was closed. Traffic officers can be seen controlling the intersection, and they don't appear to be paying much attention to Law's car as it inches by.
"If I was doing something wrong I would have been stopped. But I wasn't," he said.
It's not clear why the camera was operating while the road was closed for the parade or if tickets were issued for other drivers.
Law has already called the Burnaby RCMP and the Integrated Traffic Camera Unit, but they can't cancel the ticket. He also spent his Saturday lined up at an ICBC office looking for answers.
He learned the only way to avoid paying the $140 fine (that increases to $167 if not paid promptly) is to dispute the ticket in court. But Law said the ICBC representative told him there's a catch: if he loses his appeal, he could face demerit points added to the fine.
"I don't know how I'm committing an offence by challenging a ticket," he said.
Lindsay Olsen, a communications specialist with ICBC, said in a statement to CTV that two officers look at each red light photo to verify that a violation occurred and that the evidence from the cameras will stand up in court.
"While ICBC is a partner in this road safety program, our role is program management and ticket operations," she wrote. "We do not have any say in the enforcement of provincial traffic laws."
She said that once tickets are issued, they can only be disputed in a provincial traffic court.
Law, however, is tired of the frustrating ordeal and wants the ticket thrown out.
"It's not only a waste of my time … it's wasting everybody's time," he said. "I'm going to court, I had to call other witnesses."
For now, he's waiting for his court date to dispute the ticket and hoping the judge sees his side.
"I hope that common sense prevails, but it never does," he said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Scott Roberts
