Ottawa man says he got a red light ticket for turning right

Running a red light in Ottawa can cost you hundreds of dollars as one man found out, but when he took a closer look at the ticket, he was surprised by what he saw.

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"I was heading upstairs to go to my computer to pay it, it was actually my friend Matt who grabbed it and he’s like, 'let me see,'" said Ottawa resident Shane Link.

That’s when he read the fine print on the ticket he received in the mail from a red light camera at the intersection of Brittany Drive and Montreal Road.

It says when Link got to the intersection, the light had been red for 5.8 seconds.

It then says, he proceeded through the intersection when the light had been red for 7.6 seconds and hit Link with a $325 fine.

"It says that I stopped at the red light and then just drove through it, when you can clearly see in the picture that I turned right," said Link.

After some quick math and looking at photos of his vehicle, it appears he stopped at the light for 1.8 seconds before turning right.

@shanelink87 Ottawa needs to get thier shit together. @Cityofotttawa #trafficcamera #ottawa ♬ original sound - shanelink87

"It’s just so unfair and you just feel defeated, it just sucks," said Link.

Link took to Tik Tok to share his experience, in a video that has since received over 34,000 views.

He says he called the city to correct what he believed to be a mistake, but says he was told by the city that there was nothing that could be done.

• READ ARTICLE: These are the top 15 intersections for red light camera tickets in Ottawa

A statement by the City of Ottawa to CTV News said red light cameras are reviewed by a joint processing centre in Toronto.

"If an infraction has occurred, a ticket is issued to the owner of the vehicle. Once a violation has been issued, it goes into the court system should the resident wish to challenge the charge,” said the statement from the city's director of traffic services, Phil Landry.

"That means I need to take a day off work to drive downtown, pay for parking, go through that whole hassle. What if someone lives out of town?” said Link.

"Nothing is perfect, but if the system is going to make a mistake, at least have an easy common sense way to fix it.

Footage from a red light camera showing Shane Link's car turning right. (Katelyn Wilson/CTV News Ottawa)

Link says he plans to fight the ticket in court.

The city is installing 32 new photo radar cameras across Ottawa this year. Statistics show Ottawa's 85 red light cameras nabbed 48,884 drivers running red lights at intersections in the first 10 months of 2023.