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And just like in Ontario, if the driver fails to pay the ticket, he said, the motorist’s driver’s licence would be suspended.

How much over the speed limit do you have to be going to get a ticket? Leclerc said that is at the discretion of the officer.

“There’s no magical number that we set,” he said. “It’s decided by the operator. It depends on the number of accidents that occurred in that place, the configuration of the road and the atmospheric conditions (such as snow or ice).”

Photo by Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen

While this technology is more efficient and can capture as many as 32 drivers at once, the head of the program, Chief Insp. Eric Dinel, said safety is the driving force behind pilot project, not issuing more tickets.

“We only want to reduce the number of accidents in Gatineau,” said Dinel. “We have 18 months to try it out. And we’ll see to statistics and see if it’s a success or not.”

Quebec speeding tickets are based on both the speed limit in a zone and the amount by which it’s exceeded. In a 70 km/h zone, said Gatineau police spokeswoman Andrée East, a driver will be fined $55 for doing 90 km/h and $105 for doing 100 km/h.

Much like drivers caught by red light cameras, drivers identified with the radar camera will not gain demerit points on their licence.

So what if someone else is driving your car at the time of the offence?

East says the owner will have 30 days to identify the driver by filling out a form. Then the ticket will be transferred.

“The ticket is always addressed to the owner but once he or she receives it there is a certain delay that he can use to inform that he or she wasn’t the driver. Of course the actual driver have to be identified by the owner so the ticket can be transferred to the right person.”

Ontario employed photo radar to catch speeders for nearly 11 months beginning in 1994. A new Conservative government led by Mike Harris called the program a cash grab and scrapped it shortly after entering office. The province does, however, allow municipalities to use cameras to catch motorists running red lights.

pmccooey@ottawacitizen.com