Parking ticket offenders, speeders targeted in Saskatoon

Saskatoon is cracking down on people with outstanding parking tickets and is being urged by its police chiefto do the same with speeders.

Earlier this week, the city said that from now on, people with outstanding ticket fines can have their vehicle towed and impounded until the outstanding fines are paid.

The vehicles may be immobilized with wheel clamps and seized from both public and private property.

Under changes to provincial legislation, the city can seize cars when unpaid parking fines are 30 days past the conviction date.

Anyone who tries to interfere with the towing is subject to maximum fines of $10,000 for individuals, $25,000 for corporations.

The city passed its impounding bylaw earlier this month. Meanwhile, Saskatoon's police chief wants the province to allow photo radar on city streets to cut down on speed-related accidents.

Chief Clive Weighill says the number of accidents in the city has climbed to an unacceptable level accidents in the city are up 46 per cent so far this year.

With photo radar, people's cars are photographed as they pass a radar station. If the vehicle is speeding, the licence plate is used to ticket the owner of the car.

The use of photo radar in B.C. and other provinces has been controversial. A number of court challenges have resulted, with some arguing they're a violation of a person's right to be assumed innocent before proven guilty.

But Weighill says if it would improve safety and reduce injuries from accidents, photo radar should be used.

"Over the last 10 years we've gone up [from] about 6,900 injuries or so, up to about 10,000 per year in accidents," he said. "It's just disconcerting for myself, and I think it's concerning for the public."

There's more traffic on the streets, so that may be contributing to the spike, Weighill said.

One intersection in the city has 30,000 more vehicles a day driving through it than it did 10 years ago.