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OPP seize dozens of vehicles under new speeding law
Last Updated: Monday, October 1, 2007 | 4:41 PM ET
CBC News

Almost 50 people have temporarily lost their vehicles and their driver's licences since Sunday, when police began to enforce a new Ontario law intended to crack down on street racing and dangerous driving.


As of 3 p.m. Monday, 47 vehicles had been impounded provincewide under the the Safer Roads for a Safer Ontario Act, said Ontario Provincial Police spokesman Sgt. Cam Wooley. The act came into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 30.

The accused drivers will pay the cost of towing and storing their vehicles for seven days — about $1,000 — as well as fines of $2,000 to $10,000. They could also face jail time.

Wooley said the vehicles impounded include:

* A motorcycle clocked at more than 200 kilometres an hour.
* Three rental vehicles whose renters will now have to pay for an extra week.

Some drivers took the penalty particularly hard, he said, adding: "One young man actually started to cry as his mother's car was towed away."

OPP Chief Supt. Bill Grodzinski said police are trying to make aggressive driving socially unacceptable.
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"We want to demonize aggressive drivers, much as we've demonized impaired drivers and the reason is very simple," he said. "They're killing and maiming people on our highways and that's got to stop."

The new law allows police to issue an immediate seven-day driver's licence suspension and impound a vehicle for seven days for "driving stunts" such as travelling 50 kilometres or more over the posted speed limit.

Other parts of the law:

* Ban motor vehicles from highways if they have a connected nitrous oxide system, which can boost the vehicle's ability to accelerate.
* Allow courts to suspend a driver's licence for up to 10 years for a second conviction within 10 years of the first. (The maximum suspension for a first offence is two years.)
* Impose escalating non-criminal penalties for drivers with blood alcohol concentrations between 0.05 and 0.08 grams per 100 ml of blood. (Under the Criminal Code, 0.08 grams per 100 millilitres is the legal limit; above that, people can be criminally charged even if they do not appear impaired.) A driver found with a blood alcohol level in this "warn" range for the first time will be suspended for three days; the second time, the driver will be suspended for seven days and must take a "remedial measures course," the third time, the driver will be suspended for 30 days, must take the remedial measures course and must have pass a breathalyzer test to unlock the ignition of his or her car for six months.
* Increase use of devices that require convicted drunk drivers to pass a breathalyzer test to unlock the ignition of their car.
* Allow flashing blue lights in combination with flashing red lights on police service vehicles.

 

Ontario has always been the tough *** province

 

Mike as a young guy growing up in Buffalo NY, we use to go up to Ontario to race our cars all thew time.

 

Gotta think about these things BEFORE you put that right foot down.

 

Simpleton lawmakers, politicians, and other government agencies always trying to put a simple solution on a more complex problem.

Speed doesnt kill. Bad drivers do. The 2nd sentence is NOT mutually exclusive from the first. A bad driver is going to have a higher probability for killing someone regardless of their speed. But that doesnt offer up such an easy solution either. I speed ALL the time and have NEVER been in an accident other than someone hitting ME from behind at a stopsign or hitting my car in a parking lot. I'm up to 10.75 years of driving so far, I think I'm doing pretty good. I do, however, pay extreme attention to my driving.

 

Why don't they just ban all cars and make people walk, that would be a 100% solution to the problem.

I don't understand lawmakers who continually take away peoples rights and property in the interest of the majority of us. $1000 fine for speeding is crazy. I think the point system is good and let the insurance company deal with the at risk driver.

 

just give them a place to race, the CHP did this in San Diego and cut down massively on the illegal racing. Its cheap too and you get a time slip.

 

I'm glad they have that kind of law.

Street racing is retarded. It's not opinion, it's a fact. If you want to race, race on the track or something, NOT the streets. I dont care how 'careful' you are. Street racing is street racing, and it's illegal.

 

You have rights as long as you're not putting anyone else in danger. Once you break that law, your rights are no longer there. $1000 fine is not crazy. It's more to encourage people not to street race. If the fine was $50, a lot of people wouldn't care and would continue street racing. Many do not obey the law, which is why we sometimes have 'outrageous' fines for certain offenses.

 

We need more of these tracks around here. Socal is heavily populated with wannabe racers. I can't tell how many times I hear two cars going at it in a residential neighborhood. Somehow they think it's cool.

 

I agree with you 100%.

 

GSteg, as usual, is correct.

You have to remember two things here. First, there is no automatic "right" to drive. Never was......never will be. Driving, legally, is a priviledge, not a right, although it is usually treated as a right until you screw up bad enough.

Second, some of you are correct that speed, alone, doesn't always mean danger or an imminent accident, but, all else equal, it vastly increases the CHANCES of having an accident....and the severity of those that do happen. It is a scientific fact, and a law of physics (not just my opinion) that, again all else equal, the faster you go, the longer your car will take to stop in an emergency from both reaction time, and braking distance itself. It will also have more kinetic energy from the impact itself......the amount of force increases with the square of the speed. So, in plain English...........hit an object at 100 MPH and you have FOUR TIMES the impact force as at 50. Air bags and safety belts, of course, help a great deal, but even they can only do so much...and that is only if they are worn properly.

 

I agree 100%

Where I grew up in Miami this is still a big problem, but Dade County has been reluctant to allow a 1/4 mile track despite repeated efforts. Thus it's off to West Palm Beach (Moroso) for most or to the streets.

In Mexico City, I help run a track on the north side of town, the only one operating in the metro area, but even then I read in the papers almost every week of a big bust of street racers. I don't know what it is, but the streets here are awful for doing any kind of racing.

 

Local tracks, while a good idea in general, are only a partial solution. Yes, they would eliminate at least some of the problem of street racing, but they wouldn't do much to help warranty and insurance fraud. Racing is not covered under most new-vehicle warranties or insurance policies, and more drivers would be tempted to simply lie and claim that their blown engines, transmissions, and other damage did NOT happen on the track when in fact, it did. We would all pay more for both vehicles and insurance as a result.