A Quebec City-area man got quite a surprise when he received a ticket in the mail for speeding at a place he doesn’t frequent, at a time he doesn’t go out, and with a car which is not his.
It’s been nearly two months since the radar located on the Dufferin-Montmorency highway, near François-de-Laval boulevard in Quebec City, was installed to force motorists to slow down.
As of February 28, he had brought in more than $94,000 to the Quebec government, for a total of 555 tickets. But he obviously seems to have had a few hiccups as well.
“I am taken to take steps to challenge this, when I am not even involved! It’s completely ridiculous!” Plague Rémy Paradis, a resident of Île-d’Orléans who was ordered to pay a fine of $140 for an offense he did not commit.
A different car
The ticket he received indicates that he was driving at 98 km/h at the location of the new photographic radar on the Dufferin-Montmorency highway, where the speed limit is 70 km/h.
On the statement of offense sent to him by mail and consulted by The newspaperwe can see the photo of a Hyundai Kona type SUV taken at 11:57 p.m. on February 16.
Photo provided by Rémy Paradis
Rémy Paradis’ Hyundai Tucson (at the top of the text) was mistaken for the Hyundai Kona (above) driving at high speed on the Dufferin-Montmorency highway on February 16th.
However, the following pages were completed in the name of Mr. Paradis and his vehicle, a Hyundai Tucson of a different color to the car photographed. The license plate is also different, although similar.
“Not only is it not even my car, but I never take that road, let alone at midnight”, laments the man who fears that other people could have paid a fine of the kind without verifying that they were really guilty.
A rare mistake
At the Sûreté du Québec, it is indicated that this type of error is “very rare”, although we have no data to provide in this sense. We cannot explain what could have happened in this case.
“This is a situation that can arise when we talk about a dummy plate, but that does not seem to be the case here,” said Béatrice Dorsainville, spokesperson for the provincial police force.
The sergeant invites the man to challenge the ticket and assures that there will be no trace of it in his file if there was indeed an error.