Newfoundland and Labrador has caught thousands of speeders. Now it wants to fine them

A speed camera pilot project in two Newfoundland towns captured 94,000 speeding vehicles. The provincial government is working on creating permanent enforcement.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial government is promising to roll out speed cameras on provincial highways, after a pilot program last summer caught thousands of speeders.

A three-month pilot program, using just two cameras in two Newfoundland communities, caught more than 94,000 vehicles breaking the law, according to Sarah Stoodley, the Minister of Digital Government and Service NL.

Cameras captured 94,000 instances of a vehicle travelling more than 11 km/h faster than the posted legal limit, Stoodley said, and a quarter of those instances saw the driver moving more than 20 km/h faster than the legal limit.

“Which is quite shocking,” Stoodley said, “Considering we only have 520,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

“These are on residential streets with speed limits of 40 or 50 km/h, some of them in school zones. So speeding is a problem.”

None of the offending drivers caught last summer received a fine — only a warning letter. But Stoodley said instituting a system to levy fines against speeding drivers is now one of her top priorities.

“People are concerned with speeding in their neighbourhoods,” she said. “A lot of people are looking for anything that will reduce speeds.”