By Matthew Van Dongen

The Hamilton Spectator

HAMILTON, Canada — Drivers in city-owned and emergency services vehicles were caught on camera running red lights at least 64 times last year.

You paid many of their tickets.

The Spectator has found Hamilton has no common policy on who pays the tab for city-funded vehicles that run red lights, how to deal with offenders or even whether to track the infractions.

Vehicles owned or paid for by city taxpayers, including ambulances, police and fire vehicles, chalked up at least 64 tickets and close to $21,000 in fines in 2011 driving through red lights at the 15 Hamilton intersections with enforcement cameras.

The exact number of tickets is unknown because city transit doesn't track how many bus drivers run red lights.

"The number is so small we don't see the need to monitor it, quite frankly," said transit director Don Hull, who estimated "a few" red-light camera tickets might be issued to bus drivers each year.

Hull said his department pays each $325 ticket, but managers are supposed to recoup the cost from individual drivers. Collection isn't formally tracked.

Hull noted he audits operator driving records annually to see if they've racked up demerit points or otherwise endangered their special bus licences. But red-light camera tickets don't come with demerit points, so the infractions don't affect licences.

By comparison, Grand River Transit tracks its red-light camera tickets along with other traffic infractions, such as speeding, said assistant director Peter Zinck. And the Waterloo Region bus service pays the red-light tickets — about three a year — but drivers face a formal retraining session and, in some cases, an unpaid one-day suspension.

Emergency responders such as police, fire and the ambulance service keep a close eye on their red-running drivers - but taxpayers still pay most of the tab.

Under the Highway Traffic Act, emergency vehicles can legally drive through red lights — but only after coming to a full stop, checking for oncoming traffic and turning on vehicle lights and sirens.

The ambulance service and fire department pay all red-light tickets as long as they're associated with an emergency response, said Doug Waugh, Hamilton's deputy EMS chief. The focus, he said, is safety retraining.

"We review every single ticket, and in each case there is a re-education process involved for the individual," he said, adding the vast majority of tickets come from ambulances not coming to a full stop at red lights while heading to an emergency.

In Waterloo, there is also safety counselling, said EMS director John Prno, and the service covers the ticket cost.

But offending drivers are also docked a day's pay.

In Hamilton, fire trucks earned nine red-light camera tickets last year. Paramedics received 23 in 2011, but are already at 25 midway through this year.

Waugh attributed the bump in tickets to the higher number of ambulance calls, noting high priority "lights and sirens" calls rise by a few thousand every year.

The Hamilton Police Service also pays red-light tickets for its officers — but taxpayers don't lose in the deal, said spokesperson Catherine Martin, because offending drivers are docked six hours' pay.

Hamilton cops racked up 39 red-light tickets in 2010, but cut that number by more than half to 17 last year. That's likely due to new mandatory annual training on red-light rules, said Martin, as well as a beefed up internal disciplinary policy. "We think those two changes have had a very positive impact."

Tickets incurred by the rest of the city's non-emergency fleet — about 800 vehicles — are initially paid by the public works department, said city spokesperson Kelly Anderson.

Last year, those offenders amassed 15 red-light camera tickets. Those costs are supposed to be passed on to individual drivers by departmental managers.

Collection isn't centrally tracked, however, and Anderson was unable to say how much of that money was reimbursed to the city last year.

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