Justice Is Blind

Calgarians issued traffic tickets after officers wave them through red light

"When Kathy West got the mail Wednesday, she was surprised to learn that she’d been given a red-light camera ticket. After all, the only reason her friend drove through the light in the first place was because traffic officers instructed her to do so.
West was fined $287 because her friend, who had borrowed West’s minivan, ran a red light on 16 Ave on Friday, April 10. That day, police were busy dealing with an incident where one of their own officers was dragged 200 metres by a car after an attempted arrest went awry.
When West’s friend got to the intersection, traffic was at a crawl and two lanes were closed for the investigation.
By that point, police were directing traffic and instructed the friend to drive through the red light. West, as the owner of the minivan, was later ticketed by mail.
And she wasn’t the only one; police say 16 similar tickets were issued.
Feeling the ticket was unjust, West called the telephone number on the ticket to point out an obviously erroneous ticket.
“What I was told was ‘there’s nothing you can do.’”