Abuse Of Power or Effective Law?
June 9th, 2008
Ontario introduced a controversial street racing law last year that gave police the power to seize vehicles and driver’s licenses if drivers were charged with street racing or stunting. According to statistics kept by the Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario and published by CBC News police had laid 5,139 street racing or stunt driving charges since the law was enacted on Oct. 1, 2007.
However, only 1080 of those cases made it to trial and only 325 resulted in convictions. 526 of them were reduced to speeding tickets (probably what they should have been in the first place). The trouble with all of this is that those who are charged with the new law face hefty fees in the form of towing and storage charges for their seized vehicles.
George Papazov is one of these victims of the new law. Papazov was charged with stunt driving when he rode his motorcycle between lanes of cars stuck in traffic so he could get to his exit. In court, the judge did not agree with the charges and instead was issued a citation for an illegal lane change and fined $600. His tow charges totalled $1,000.
“Anything can be stunt driving,” said Papazov. “It gives the officer the power, on the spot, to decide if you’re guilty or not.”
While nobody is debating the fact that Papazov was lane splitting, I think a charge of stunt driving resulting in over $1,000 in towing fees before he has his day in court is wrong. Even the judge agrees. I’m all for bad drivers getting the punishment they deserve, but this new street racing law accomplishes nothing other than revenue generation.
What are your thoughts?
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Excellent Blog. I’ve been reading along and just wanted to say hi. I will be reading more of your posts in the future.
- Jason.
I’d like to know what happened to the other 4,000 charges. The article says they never made it to court; were they uncontested then? If so that’s still hopefully 4,000 individuals that have learned a lesson about the cost of driving at excessive speeds.
My understanding is that most of these charges are laid on well marked roadways. Why is it then that we feel that we can excessively push beyond the limit of a legal boundary because of our own personal sense of irresponsibility. To me, street racing is more about satisfying some warped drive for excitement, which usually ends up being at the expense of someone else.
If people wish to push the limits of speed, then they should be heading off to local race tracks where others who share thier same passion can race to their hearts content without endangering those that do not share this desire.
As for the complaints about how others cause more fatalities on the highways than street racers, well, perhaps the law will begin targetting these individuals next.
I guess the point is that officers have the power to levy huge fines in the form of towing charges towards drivers that may not be deserving of the charges. If a judge finds that you are not guilty of an offense, is it right for the Government to collect over $1,000 in the form of towing charges from you?
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This is going on everywhere… Check out this “street racing documentary” that I found on
the internet. It’s called “1320 A West Coast Story” and is based in California. It
features cars being crushed, violence, girls, racing, drifting, illegal street racing as
well as legal drag racing.
See the website here:
http://www.1320movie.com
See the video also on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVrOAw4xGs4
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