Calgary Motorcycle Vigilante Facing Charges
A long-time Beyond forum member, Scat / Snowcat / Snowcatxx87, and subject of a discussion thread titled “Keeping Calgary’s roads safe!!“, has been charged by Calgary Police for careless driving. In a series of YouTube videos which have been shared on our forums, Elliot Hayward chronicles his adventures riding on Calgary roads and having to deal with bad drivers.
In one of his “street encounters” videos entitled “You can’t park there, idiot“, Hayward rides up on a “pedi” or pedestrian who is jaywalking on 7 Street SW. Instead of stopping or changing lanes he decides to accelerate his bike to buzz the pedestrian because as he explains, “It’s now MY right of way”. This act, along with numerous other dangerous moves on the streets have led to police laying a charge of careless driving. Police explain that they had wished to slap the more serious Dangerous Driving charge on Hayward, but the Crown wanted a charge they could realistically prove in court.
While I agree that Hayward did not necessarily have to do what he did to get his point across–he crossed the line from being a simple observer to someone that is also committing offences–I don’t think a charge of careless driving is appropriate. The YouTube clips are simply highlights of his riding and do not paint a complete picture of how Hayward normally rides. If we were to attach dash cameras to all vehicles in Calgary for a 24 hour period, I would bet that every single driver will commit at least a few offences.
Still, I know many beyonders will enjoy following this story as it works its way through the courts!
