Stunt driving in Ontario crackdown

[wbradley]

Dadhawk, interesting regards to your speed. I visit my sisters place in AZ, and last year driving on the 101 loop around Scottsdale and Phoenix it seemed like I was driving too slow. The posted limit is 65, and apparently they can start ticketing at 75. I swear everyone was going over 70 everywhere, heading to and from Tucson too. Mind you, people were staying below 75. I felt weird when I hit 72 while passing.

Clearly it's different everywhere. And yes I completely understand a cop doing his job rather than doing nothing. What I dont get is a cop meeting out his own justice in the form of charging me with the only traffic offense that results in seizure of vehicle and considerable expense whether convicted or not. It says,"You were a bad boy, so we're gonna spank you". It is discretionary for the cop and he has no issue handing it out. Perhaps as a staff sergeant and inspector he had something more to prove. Its quiet on the roads here but he keeps his guys busy calling in 2 more cruisers so they could all fraternize together at the scene while .motorists on the offramp watch me standing there while my car is going on a flatbed, in my community. Did I hear someone say public shaming?

If I was the attending cop I'd have pulled me over, lectured me and done the right thing according to the law, and pressed no inappropriate charges and certainly not these ones. Funny, he asked me what I did for a living and I told him I had been unemployed for some time. Why would he care? Maybe he figured, oh well he won't miss any work.

Stunt driving charges have doubled or tripled in Ontario since the pandemic. The roads are quieter so people are super speeding. The massive court backlogs almost guarantees the grey ones will not go thru trial. The cops know this.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Yea, I have to tell a counter story.

My middle son was passing through a small town near us that has a 3 way stop. He has driven this route at least twice a week since he went to college 6 years ago, and still does it because he participates in a community band at the school.

On his way home last week, it was late and no one else on the road. Not really thinking, he made the right turn at the 3-way stop, basically rolling through the stop sign. Well, rolling through is being generous, he basically just treated it like a normal right turn.

Now the 3-way stop is AT the police station. He got pulled over and ticketed. When he got home he said "Well, got a ticket for not obeying a stop sign, I need to go ahead and pay the stupid tax on that one", as he goes to go online to pay it. He never said it was the Cop's fault, or said it was unfair. He realized he screwed up and paid the fine, the first ticket he's ever gotten after 8 years of driving.

Yep, I'm proud of him.

Now had he really not done it, or it was questionable, then we would have had a discussion about at least going to court, but in the end he did the crime and paid the time.

That's a good boy right there. Well done on the dad'ing part.

You make a mistake, you take the consequences like a proper person should. Not the "omg, why me, why me?" idiots we have today.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by wbradley

The posted limit is 65, and apparently they can start ticketing at 75. I swear everyone was going over 70 everywhere, heading to and from Tucson too. Mind you, people were staying below 75. I felt weird when I hit 72 while passing..

That's pretty consistent in Georgia as well. Of course, there are always folks going well above the limits but the majority of traffic is somewhere between 5 and 10 miles/hour of the speed limit.

[Pbrown]

.......... that in the middle of a pandemic and usual cash cows such as city parking, ridership on city tranportation is reduced by 90% that they are going to pull everyone over for the slightest infraction then we ain't to bright. It is so bad in Ottawa that for 3 consecutive Friday nights this summer they were pulling any suspected modiifed car over and performing vehicle searches. Police are doing commercial truck inspections (which is usually the job of MTO) and nailed us $240.00 for incorrectly writing the starting km on the pre trip sheet. We wrote 96 instead of 69. I am so glad I bought a truck for winters as I no longer feel the need for speed.

Stay safe all.

[HKz]

Originally Posted by wbradley

Dadhawk, interesting regards to your speed. I visit my sisters place in AZ, and last year driving on the 101 loop around Scottsdale and Phoenix it seemed like I was driving too slow. The posted limit is 65, and apparently they can start ticketing at 75. I swear everyone was going over 70 everywhere, heading to and from Tucson too. Mind you, people were staying below 75. I felt weird when I hit 72 while passing.

Phoenix valley drivers are indeed quite speedy, only 2nd to LA drivers I think, and from my personal experience being a seasoned speeder, it doesn't seem like the highway patrol really care about outright speed people driving above 90 on the i-10 be quite common..but I've seen plenty of drivers who are weaving in and out of traffic get pulled over instantly..

[wbradley]

Originally Posted by HKz

Phoenix valley drivers are indeed quite speedy, only 2nd to LA drivers I think, and from my personal experience being a seasoned speeder, it doesn't seem like the highway patrol really care about outright speed people driving above 90 on the i-10 be quite common..but I've seen plenty of drivers who are weaving in and out of traffic get pulled over instantly..

I actually was at a meet of twin owners in Tempe back in 2018. I was way older than everyone but they were a really nice crowd and very friendly. I am seriously considering buying a small condo in Scottsdale in the future. Except my sister has a huge house with a pool. Maybe I'll hang out there and retire to my own place to sleep.
Gotta tell you, you're lucky y'all got In 'N Out Burger there .

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by HKz

people driving above 90 on the i-10 be quite common..

You must not have the aforementioned super speeder type law there, or people just don't care.

In Georgia a driver convicted of speeding at 75 mph or more on a two-lane road or at 85 mph and above on a highway gets a $200 bill from the state on top of whatever the local jurisdiction charged for the ticket. Failure to pay within 120 days is an immediate suspension of your license.

The bright side to that is if you are on a highway, you are pretty safe at a speed under that because they are looking for the fine bump.

[wbradley]

Stick to flying for now on, so much better, eh Dadhawk?

[HKz]

Originally Posted by wbradley

I actually was at a meet of twin owners in Tempe back in 2018. I was way older than everyone but they were a really nice crowd and very friendly. I am seriously considering buying a small condo in Scottsdale in the future. Except my sister has a huge house with a pool. Maybe I'll hang out there and retire to my own place to sleep.
Gotta tell you, you're lucky y'all got In 'N Out Burger there .

ya really should! I've lived in Japan, Syria, plus a few parts of the US and to me AZ is the best place to live in the world! We got the best weather, nearly everyday is a blue sky day, 5 months of perfect swimming weather, 7 months of perfect outdoor weather, gas/taxes/housing/food costs are very reasonable, cops here are quite friendly at least in my experience compared to CA & IL cops and plus our roads here are for the most part pretty well maintained and there are a lot of nice scenic drives going to CA/UT/Vegas.

double double animal style please

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

You must not have the aforementioned super speeder type law there, or people just don't care.

In Georgia a driver convicted of speeding at 75 mph or more on a two-lane road or at 85 mph and above on a highway gets a $200 bill from the state on top of whatever the local jurisdiction charged for the ticket. Failure to pay within 120 days is an immediate suspension of your license.

The bright side to that is if you are on a highway, you are pretty safe at a speed under that because they are looking for the fine bump.

ya we have an excessive speeding charge, 20 over or anything over 85 yet out of all the years I've been making the 50 minute drive to and from my parent's house outside of Phoenix, no one ever seems to ever get pulled over on the i-10 including my ass!

Thinking about this reminded me of a co-worker who also had a FRS at the time, she was pulled over going 100 on the i-10 and the officer ended up just writing her a regular speeding ticket lol..

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by HKz

Thinking about this reminded me of a co-worker who also had a FRS at the time, she was pulled over going 100 on the i-10 and the officer ended up just writing her a regular speeding ticket lol..

Here, the cops will write it down under the limit, but that basically forces you to not fight the ticket. If you go to court, they'll say "yea, I wrote it for that within my discretion, but here's what they were really doing" and show the footage/records.

[RFB]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Ya sure it is all a conspiracy of the federal government like everything else in your life.
You do realize that provincial offences tickets rarely even cover the costs of processing them right? As far as a money making scheme goes they totally suck balls.

Except for municipal parking offences , federal offences , (10 Million dollars for a corporation holding an office party with too many people ), and high fine provincial offences - (Hence the crackdown on "stunt driving" $2000 - 10,000).

[Lynxis]

On speeding, I'm very glad that I don't speed as a habit because I know cops are already looking extra hard at my car and don't want to give them any more reasons to do so. I've lived and drove in my town for nearly 20 years now and I've seen police setup in places the last several weeks that I've always thought would be prime speed traps but have *never* actually seen them sitting in before. I suspect they're usually trolling the 401 because it goes through town but there's a lot less pedestrian traffic there due to pandemic so it's looking to me like they're moving farther in town to find more speeders.

In wbradley's case, it sounds like the stunt driving charge may not stick but the prosecutor will still probably have leeway to bargain you down to a lesser charge. They will probably offer you something like careless driving which I would recommend against accepting because even though it may appear less in terms of demerit points, fines and license suspension, it's still considered a "major" for insurance purposes and your premiums will increase all the same. If they want to give you something minor like improper lane change or illegally entering/exiting an intersection, then consider taking it because a single minor conviction won't affect your premiums unless you already have another in the last 5 years or whatever.

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by Lynxis

On speeding, I'm very glad that I don't speed as a habit because I know cops are already looking extra hard at my car and don't want to give them any more reasons to do so. I've lived and drove in my town for nearly 20 years now and I've seen police setup in places the last several weeks that I've always thought would be prime speed traps but have *never* actually seen them sitting in before. I suspect they're usually trolling the 401 because it goes through town but there's a lot less pedestrian traffic there due to pandemic so it's looking to me like they're moving farther in town to find more speeders.

In wbradley's case, it sounds like the stunt driving charge may not stick but the prosecutor will still probably have leeway to bargain you down to a lesser charge. They will probably offer you something like careless driving which I would recommend against accepting because even though it may appear less in terms of demerit points, fines and license suspension, it's still considered a "major" for insurance purposes and your premiums will increase all the same. If they want to give you something minor like improper lane change or illegally entering/exiting an intersection, then consider taking it because a single minor conviction won't affect your premiums unless you already have another in the last 5 years or whatever.

I had a single ticket in 15 years or so. The cop dropped in down to 121 or 123 in a 100. My premium went up $200/year. I don't think many insurance companies will give you a "freebie" anymore.

OP, I would fight this charge tooth and nail. It will be on your record for a long time and it's a BS charge.

[Lynxis]

Originally Posted by new2subaru

I had a single ticket in 15 years or so. The cop dropped in down to 121 or 123 in a 100. My premium went up $200/year. I don't think many insurance companies will give you a "freebie" anymore.

Each insurance company is different but *most* will give you a freebie "minor" conviction. I was convicted for rolling a stop sign 2 years ago and then a few weeks later, made an at-fault insurance claim for backing into a wall by accident, and my insurance premiums did not change. I suspect your insurance company considers a 20 over conviction as a major which would be why your premiums went up.