Ontario Highway Traffic Act

Keanna · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Kingston

So my friend is still waiting for her confirmation email to join and asked me to post her story in the mean time. I am posting it under this heading, as this was the ticket she received after her accident.

In a nutshell her story goes:

Friend picks up daughter to take her home before going to her next client(homecare)>Driving on a side street to a major street. Posted speed limit is 50km/h. The major street at this time of day has a crossing guard. All my friend needed to do was turn left and her house was the 2nd house on the right on the major street. She pulls up to the stop sign at the intersection. A humungous snowbank on the left corner. Her car is quite low to the ground as well. She pulls out enough to see left and right without putting her car into the intersection. Nothing coming either way. She proceeds into the intersection, and WHAM. A truck appeared and ripped the front end (bumper) off and damaged the frame. (there are pictures). Her car ended up to the right side of the main street facing the opposite direction she wanted to go. The truck ended up on the raised median. The person driving the truck moved his truck across the street to a convenience store parking lot. Physically, everyone is ok. Police questioned both drivers and at least 1 witness. There were not any skid marks from the truck driver slamming on his brakes.
My friend walks away with a failure to yield to traffic ticket, no car and no means to work as her car is written off due to the damage.
She is going to fight the ticket. Hence why she joined and in essence why I joined to seek some input/advice etc. in this situation.
I called my uncle who is a lawyer who stated she had a case to fight the ticket. She did everything in her power (following the rules of the road) to ensure that she was able to proceed through the intersection.
Visibility was a factor (snowbanks) which have since been pushed back from the edge of the street.
Police were unable to concretely determine factors of the accident since the person driving the druck moved it prior to police arrival.
While I do understand the failure to yield ticket, when I was researching the Highway Traffic Act, I came across section 136. My understanding of it in this situation is that my friend followed the rules of the road enabling her to proceed turning left at that intersection. In escence, she acquired the right of way. The truck should have yielded to her.....

OHTA · Site Admin Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 39

Was this a 4 way intersection? with 4 way stop?

If not the truck doesn't have to yield, because she was at the stop sign, and she would have had to make sure its clear traffic before she turned. Not the other way around.

If it was a 4 way stop, then she would have had the right of way, because the car on the right to you always has the first right of way, that is if you stopped at the same time.

Maybe you or she could explain a bit more about what exactly happened at the intersection.

Bookm · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 87 Location: Stratford, Ontario

I'm VERY familiar with Section 136 (charged twice with it 2 years ago!). The problem is, the section says, "Do not proceed until it is safe to do so". Even though a snowbank blocked your friends view, she chose to proceed. It was not safe to do so and she caused an accident. I hope you post your uncle's theory on this case. As much as I'd like to help you, I can't think of a defense Sad

Keanna · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Kingston

side street she was coming off of was the only stop sign. she pulled her car out far enough to see both directions to which nothing was coming.
my uncle's theory:
"she did everything she could to comply, to
check for traffic and yield to it, and therefore should not be found
guilty."
That is the last bit of my uncles email. sorry this is short and unedited and prolly full of grammatical errors, but I am headed to bed with a migraine. Crying or Very sad