i was travelling East on highway 401. I was doign about 115 kms/hr. I saw emergency vehicles in the distance. I wanted to move to the outside lane but was prevented from doing so by a silver Volkswagen golf. I decided to slow down. The Golf slowed down at the same rate of speed and so I was still prevented from moving into the left lane.

I was pulled over and tciketed for failing to pass an emergency vehicle with caution. The officer explained that I should have changed lanes. I told the officer there was no way I could have changed lanes safely. He returned to the car and it indicated that i had not slowed down. This is not the case.

What was the speed that you were travelling at when you have passed the cruiser? Make him lie on the witness stand to get a conviction. You can use the law itself to defend yourself, saying in court that you could not change lanes due to that Golf, and the cop will either lie that you haven't slowed down, or he'll drop the ticket.

Getting legal representation can increase you chances of winning this ticket.

I was probably going about 90-95 kms when I passed the cruisers. BTW, this was a trap because there were probably four cruisers on the side of the highway.

Not only was i doing about 90 kms when I passed teh cruisers, but it really bugs me that the ticket indicates ther there were no witnesses when my wife and father-in-law were both inthe car with me. what is that about?

90 to 95 is not good, as it is just under the speed limit, I can see why they ticketed you.

What time of day was it? Were there many cars on the road? Were there any vehicles stopped?

I understand that I was still going fast. The truth is that I wanted to change lanes and never imagined that the Golf would slow down at the same rate of speed. By the time i put my foot back on the break we were already beside the emergency vehicles. The 401 was fairly busy. We were close to chatham and it was about 1 p.m.

why is it that the officer didn't indicate that there were witnesses in the car?

You can bring the passengers to testify that there truly was a vehicle blocking your lane change at all times. Make sure to request the disclosure though. If his notes do not mention that silver car (whatever he may term it) then you have excellent chances of winning the ticket.

Good luck!

I have never been to court before. what do you mean when you say I should ask for "full disclosure"? Is this something I have to do beforehand?

401 is NEVER busy at 1pm in the Chatham area....even on a long weekend.

The witness box is for other drivers/police officers, not people in the same vehicle.

there are 2 sections of the offence.....section 1 is move over, section 2 is slow down....for those that like to assist with these matters, you will have to tell them which offence you were charged with.....as the other offence is not relevent to a defence.

NancyT wrote:

I have never been to court before. what do you mean when you say I should ask for "full disclosure"? Is this something I have to do beforehand?

See here, download and print off sample disclosure, fill it out, and mail it with your ticket. Disclosure is any and all evidence against you. And yes, if you get it beforehand, it's much more useful than after the trial.

I've got to dissent on this one. S 159.1(1) is slow down and S 159.1(2) is slow down and move over. Slow down is not an option, it's mandatory. At 90 km/h, this is not a sufficient reduction to the posted limit. It may have been a significant reduction to what you were driving but that doesn't matter - you were speeding before.

It also doesn't matter what the Golf was doing if you didn't slow down significantly. For example, if you had managed to change lanes but you were still going 90 km/h, you would still be guilty though less likely to be stopped. While you can concentrate on the "I couldn't move over" story, the risk is both you and the passengers will have to estimate your speed and that's where you'll get into serious trouble.

You need to concentrate on disclosure and stays to fight your ticket and avoid a trial and testifying. The chances of mucking it up are too great.

Bear: Passengers can testify at trial. See R. v. Andrews, 2005 as an unrelated example.

ticketcombat wrote:

Bear: Passengers can testify at trial..

Never stated passengers could not testify......it was about the check box on the ticket I was refering to, sorry for any confusion

Hello, I was travelling to Windsor for the holidays (I live in Toronto) and right about Chatham I saw two police cars parked on the side of the highway. They were in the shoulder and looked like one was just sitting there and the other was ticketing someone. I was driving in the right lane and slowed down to about 80 kms and passed them. As soon as I did one of them followed me and stopped me, hit me with a ticket for not moving to the left lane, $490. I have never heard of this law UNTIL now.

Of course 3-4 kms down the road I passed another 6 cops doing exactly the same thing. Really is Chatham that hard up for money?

On the way home on the 401 near about Milton I saw a cop on the side of the highway and I moved as far left away from him as I could, of course nobody else did. I watched 10 cars just pass him by at full speed.

I want to know what are my chances at a trial?

Slim to none.. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't go to court and dispute your charges. You have other outs (mostly procedural stuff.. check out ticketcombat.com).

For this offence, the cop was fairly reasonable with you. Basically within the lower end of the $400-$2000 scale for the first time around.

Karen wrote:

Of course 3-4 kms down the road I passed another 6 cops doing exactly the same thing. Really is Chatham that hard up for money?

It has nothing to do with money.

There are 2 bridges in Chatham-Kent dedicated towards 2 Chatham-Kent OPP officers that have been killed by vehicles striking them while stopped on highway 401.

1) Sgt Marg Eve Memorial Bridge is at Highway 40/Communication Rd/ Exit 90

2) Cst Jim McFadden Memorial Bridge is at Merlin Rd (about 70km marker)

This does not include 2 cruisers in the past 5 years being side swiped while parked, a 3rd having it's mirror taken off while parked, a 4th cruiser having the passenger side "sprayed" with gravel as the vehicle slid past the cruiser on the gravel shoulder (which is a shoulder farther over than the paved shoulder the cruiser was parked on), and a 5th last winter when an officer dropped to the ground as a vehicle lost control and slid over him while he was walking in the ditch

Needless to say this law is heavily enforced when time and manpower permits.

The law has been in place since December 2002.

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Even if it was not a law, common courtesy and defensive driving should be thought of and move away from anything on the shoulder. I have seen kids playing "tag" around a broken down vehicle. I have seen people changing tires, laying under their vehicle, with their legs on the driving lane. That's just to name a couple examples of many dangers I see.