BY MICHAEL BECKER News Editor SHUE Tuck Wong's photo radar experience was a comedy of errors. He can laugh about it now, but the North Vancouver man sees serious flaws with the system. The Simon Fraser University geography professor is one of about 40,000 B.C. drivers who have received speed trap warning tickets from the Integrated Traffic Camera Unit since March. The process is the opening act of a fully implemented photo radar program. While the process is momentar- ily on hold due to technical diffi- culties, once it's in place for real the government expects to issue as many as 900,000 speeding tickets to drivers in the first year. At $100 to $150 a pop, snap-happy cops will be bringing in a lot of quick dough to provincial coffers. Wong. is not against catching speeders. He simply has a problem with the way it’s being done. It's all much too stoppy. The system gcofed up big-time in his case. The warning letter included a photo of a car allegedly registered in his name caught moving at 91 knv/h through an 80 km/h zone on the Sea to Sky Highway near Brohm Lake. The image is blurred. You have to look care- fully to make out the actual letters and numbers on the plate. It’s a subjective call at best. Said Wong, “At first | was shocked. I kept looking at that picture which looks:a little bit like my car. It’s cream colored. And then [ told my whole family, 1 said, ‘Look, I have a photo radar picture here that accuses me of speeding.’ “And my children'said, ‘Papa that is not your car. Look at the licence plate and the bumper. As I looked more carefully I cooled off and said, ‘How absurd, they didn’ ido their home- work and they blame it on me.’ “In my 44 years of driving I never had a sin- gle speeding ticket: Therefore I feel very confi- dent that this could.not be me. And besides, that day I was at home doing research,” Wong said. They fingered the wrong person. “I think Tought to speak up because any- body who has been accused of an act that he or she did not do should-not accept that. This is a very unfair way to deal with people who did not commit the act,” Wong said.: He supports a greater: emphasis on driver training to make roads safer. “The assumption of this whole program is that speed Causes accidents and accidents kill, “but speed really does not kill. It-is the bad dri- ving habits of drivers that kill. You don’t solve speeding violations by ramming down this photo radar pro- gram to make people pay,” ne said. The error still bothers him. He recently told his insurance agent Romney Coppitig of Copping Agencies in North Vancouver about the mix-up. Recalled Copping, ‘“He’s always got his licence from me. He came to review his insurance and just in con- versation he was talking about how irritating it was to have gotten this ticket. “He said he was nowhere near the Squamish Highway on April 5. | was kind of interested because we were on our way up to Whistler on that day. “| took a magnifying glass out and it seems to be LRK 555 not LRK 566 (\Wong’s plate). I said, ‘I can tell you whose licence plate number that is, it's ours!’ We had quite a chuck- le over that.” His wife Dawn was at the wheel in the pic- ture. She’s driving a cream-colored 1986 Buick Electra. Wong is the registered owner of a white 1979 Oldsmobile Omega. They've likely crossed paths’ before. Wong and the Coppings live just a féw blocks from NEWS photo Cindy ‘Goudman Arson suspected i in Lynnmour blaze RCMP Const. Wayne Knapman checks for evidence after an afternoon arsonist's blaze caused $5,000 damage to the Lynnmour elementary school gymnasium Sunday. Fire officials suesect the arsonists, who haven't been caught, were children. NEWS photos Mike Wekefisid SHUE Tuck Wong received a photo radar speed trap warning notice linked to a car he did not drive and doesn't even own. Dawn Copping (right) got caught. Wong says scrap photo radar. each other i in North Vancouver. Said speeder Dawn Copping, “I git caught didn’t 1? Even by my husband. . “When you're driving country roads you drive at what you think are reasonable speeds. Neither of us had any idea that we were speeding.” Romney Copping, meanwhile, would like to see photo radar resources focus on catching peo- ple going through yellow and red lights and dri- vers not honoring people crossing in crosswalks. Case of mistaken identity blamed on manual system MOST people change behavior based on the likelihood of being caught and punished for their trans- gressions. A government implementing programs such as photo radar might find comfort in that finding of a 1996 Angus Reid Group survey of British Colurnbians. But what if those punished are innocent, as in the case of Shue Tuck Wong? Said Betty Nicholson, public affairs manager for the traffic safety initiative of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways, “Fair warning notices are being done ona manual basis and ICBC is oversee- ing that. “That’s what happens when you have a manual system. Sometimes there are problems because some- ‘“pody, because it’s a person, can misread the licence plate. Very few of these are going out if the opera- tor cannot read the licence plate.” | Nicholson said staff are instruct- ed not to send out a speeding wam- ing notice if guesswork is involved. If a driver receives a notice that identifies the wrong vehicle or speed limit, the police will review the ticket.’ Said.. Nicholson,. “We've gol that cov-" * ered. This’. genile- ’man (Wong) I know said he didn’t géet an’ apology.. Well... he didn't call us.. The - letter. that goes out right now. has two. -phone numbers to ‘call’ the, photo radar program.’ . - : : A fully automat- a ed ‘photo radar SyS-. tem. has proven ” flawed, or - The .- province - cancelled’ its contract’ with: ATS Canada, .the automated system - provider, about two weeks ago. The highways ministry is exploring. ways to make the photo radar pro- | ° gram work, = “What happened i is the compitt= erized system didn’t work. [think it broke down in a whole bunch of different places,” Nicholson said. — .: Heavy trucks try illegal. Lions Gate Bridge trips. bridge, which is a no-no, There should be no.trucks. on that bridge. . over 13,000 kijograms.* : West Vancouver Police are aware From page 1 past weeks they've been pelted with apple cores, beer cans and bottles and dirty diapers. On the other end of the scale but equally dangerous are the drivers who are a bit’ overly ‘relaxed. Beaudoin sees them all the time. They're the ones who turn their cars into rolling breakfast nooks. There's a coffee in one hand, a cell phone in the other and the knees steer the car. The total traffic volume for both bridges is averaging about 186,000 vehicles in a 24-hour period these days. It is expected io continue at that level throughout the summer. Those keeping score at the Second Narrows are finding that the peak hours for traffic have not changed by much. Most commuters have adjusted their travel time by about [5 minutes carlier than usual. ‘Traffic remains heaviest tn the mom- ing, between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Meanwhile traffic aeross the Lions Gate Bridge was up by close to 30% by the end of last week. Beaudoin is seeing a troublesome development on the crossing front. “We're now starting to see some _ commercial trucks going across that of the problem. North Vancouver RCMP are keeping an eye on com- mercial traffic on Capilano -Road and Marine’ Drive approaching the * bridge. “If we see that theyre making @ tmove towards the bridge we inter- cept and we speak with them.” Due to increased traffie volume, right-hand turns from ‘Taylor Way on to Marine Drive, cast bound, will be prohibited from 4 p.m. to 7 pan. Monday to Friday. The prohibition will last until Second Narrows Bridge repairs are completed, The changes do not apply to pub- lic transit buses. Beaudoin urges drivers to take a. closer look at the car-pooling option (call 879-REDE), The newly created lanes for the feeder streets to the bridge are under-used. A Gwo-person vehicle occupancy is being looked at this week as a new standard. The RCMP are writing about 100 $85 tickets a day to single drivers attempting to make like a crowd in the fast lanes.