Newmarket driver who nearly hit child urges Premier Ford to keep speed cameras

After a terrifying near miss with a young cyclist outside a Newmarket elementary school, local resident Steve Harper is pleading with Premier Doug Ford to abandon his plan to ban speed cameras — and instead expand their use in school and community safety zones.

On the morning of Oct. 21, Harper was driving his Volvo along Lorne Avenue near Stuart Scott Public School, where the speed limit is 30 km/h. Moving at just 20 km/h due to heavy morning congestion, Harper suddenly saw a boy on a bicycle lose control and veer into the road — just inches from his front bumper.

“It would have been so easy for this to have had a tragic outcome,” Harper said. “If I’d been going any faster, I could have seriously injured or killed him.”

Harper slammed on his brakes, narrowly avoiding the boy. The frightening experience prompted him to write a letter to Ford and Newmarket–Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy, urging them to prioritize child safety and reverse the government’s proposed ban on speed cameras.

Ford has argued that automated speed enforcement is a “cash grab,” proposing alternatives such as speed bumps, roundabouts, curb extensions, and improved signage as part of his Red Tape Reduction legislation.

Harper strongly disagrees.

“We could do better to care for our children than the speed bumps and large signs you propose,” he wrote. “Speed cameras are effective tools to encourage motorists to change their driving habits.”

Standing near the school days later, Harper said he supports a consistent, province-wide system of speed cameras that focuses on fairness and safety, not revenue.

“People complain it’s a cash grab,” he said. “But it’s a voluntary tax — you only pay it if you’re breaking the law. I fully support that kind of cash grab if it keeps streets safe.”

Harper’s advocacy is deeply personal. In 1992, while cycling home from his teaching job at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, he was struck from behind by a car. The driver briefly stopped, threw Harper’s bike into his car, and fled.

The crash left Harper with a broken arm, broken ribs, and a concussion that required weeks of hospitalization at Sunnybrook Hospital.

“The incident near the school reminded me why we need to follow Vision Zero,” Harper said, referring to the Swedish traffic-safety initiative developed in the 1960s. “It’s based on the premise that all citizens deserve safe streets.”

He said that while mistakes on the road are inevitable, governments have a duty to design systems that prevent serious injuries and fatalities.

“The slower a car travels, the less likely a collision will be catastrophic,” Harper said. “That’s exactly what we should be striving for in school and community zones.”