Driving on the shoulder after being boxed in.

I was driving on the 403 quite a long distance before the Erin Mills exit. I ended up behind an elderly couple who was going 80. I tried to pass them on the left but someone sped up from behind. Meanwhile, a large truck - one of those 16 wheelers - who was behind me began to tailgate me after I failed to pass the car in front of me (grill in mirror). Panicking, I move to the right SHOULDER to pass them. They were not happy and started beeping at me. Understandably. Now, I think the passenger got my liscense as I think I saw him write it down. I should be concerned, shouldn't I?

I asked this question once before out of general curiousity. The general consensus was, that if they get your plate number and call it in, the cops may be on the look out for your vehicle, and may follow you to see if they can catch you doing anything else stupid. Some people mentioned receiving letters from the police because they had too many complaints phoned in about them.

That's about all that will happen, they can't charge you or anything, unless the cop himself witnessed it. HOWEVER, the exception to this is if you don't stop for a school bus with the lights on. The school bus driver can copy your plate number down and call it in, and they will send you a ticket. Doesn't matter whether you were driving the car or not, since you own the car you get the ticket, just like a red light camera.

In the future though, be patient and wait to pass on the left, and don't let anyone intimidate you into doing something dumb (it's your license, not theirs), not even an 18 wheeler. If you had hit a rough patch or some gravel you could of lost control, taking out the elderly couple, 18 wheeler, and god knows who else with you. At which point, if you were still alive, you would need to be extremely concerned about the consequences.

manwithaplan wrote:

That's about all that will happen, they can't charge you or anything, unless the cop himself witnessed it.

Not entirely true. If the witness can identify you as the driver, you could still be charged. It's probably not likely, and a simple warning is the most likely outcome, but there is no requirement for police to witness any offence. The witness would simply provide a statement and attend Court if necessary. It's no different then driver's being charged in an accident, the majority of which police don't witness themselves.

Stanton wrote:

manwithaplan wrote:

That's about all that will happen, they can't charge you or anything, unless the cop himself witnessed it.

Not entirely true. If the witness can identify you as the driver, you could still be charged. It's probably not likely, and a simple warning is the most likely outcome, but there is no requirement for police to witness any offence. The witness would simply provide a statement and attend Court if necessary. It's no different then driver's being charged in an accident, the majority of which police don't witness themselves.

Well, with an accident, in addition to witnesses, there is presumably some evidence as to what happened most of the time. With the OP's scenario it's a lot less likely (I'm going to assume that a police officer automatically gets more credibility on the stand than the average joe would, thus the witness could be discredited easier).

Good point though, thanks.

People write down licence plates all the time. At the risk of sounding flippant, unless they actually were able to identify you or they phoned it in as it was happening (offence in progress), this is probably the response they got:

"Uh huh... uh huh... Okay, thanks for calling." *Click.*

You may get called by police, but that is not likely in this case. Usually they'd be looking for a collision or really psychotic driving behaviour before they got heavily involved with this kind of a report, given that it is the GTA.