Ontario Highway Traffic Act

Is this due to the collision where you were charged with "following too closely"? If so, any officer from the scene and/or witness could identify you as the driver if the summons was not delivered at the scene.

To answer your questions:

1. Something like "disobey official sign" under Metro Toronto by-law 32-92. Make sure that the Crown Prosecutor understands that you're not asking for "disobey sign" under the Highway Traffic Act, but a municipal offence. A municipal offence like that one would not be counted as a conviction because it would not go on ...

If the officer testifies "I could clearly see the signal," the JP will accept his testimony unless you can show it wasn't realistic. You'll need to prove, in court, that he couldn't see it. You'll need him to testify what his position was, and then show, using photographs or whatever, that he could not have seen the signal facing you from that ...

Don't plea bargain this one. You could do what hwybear suggests, or, after the trial date is scheduled, you could walk in and meet with a Prosecutor and explain the situation. Bring the evidence with you (photographs, etc). The Prosecutor should then drop the charge.

This was surprising...

A couple of weeks ago, I had just returned from Newark. It was roughly 9:00 AM, pulled into a Tim Horton's drive-thru. This particular one (Lawrence at Curlew in Toronto) often gets backed up with two lines of cars, one coming off Curlew, the other off Lawrence through the parking lot, going into the drive-thru.

Anyway ...

I read in another post that suggested that you quiestion credibility as the officer could not see the light I was facing from his vantage point?

It could work, but you'll have to prove that he couldn't see the signal.

Best thing to do is request a trial. At least that gives you some options, like plea-bargaining, etc.

Or, if you're sure that ...

Can I believe what he is saying and plead not guilty?

You can always plead not guilty. Whether he remembers or not, don't know. He may have written some information down in his notes that will jog his memory about that.

In this case, the first step would be to go to the courthouse with the ticket and a Notice to Appear filled out (print off ...

Best thing to do in your situation is to hire a paralegal who can fight this for you, unless you're in Toronto frequently. Ontario and BC have traffic-ticket reciprocity so if you get convicted of an HTA offence here, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation will notify BC, and they'll apply the conviction to your record. And of course, since ICBC is ...

I find people to be so aggressive that there have been occasions where my life was on the line because of their bully-driving. I'm not just using overblown prose here, either. I've been frightened - not by the speed of the highway as I've travelled the highways (particularly the QEW from Toronto all the way to Fort Erie) on a very frequent basis ...

True but its not what you know its what you can prove. It would be hard to prove intent.

Remember about two years ago near Milton? Two guys got into a road-rage incident on the James Snow Parkway, merged onto the eastbound 401, took off at high speed and then one of them cut the other off and gave him a brake job. The guy slammed on the brakes ...

yes it was on Riverside and Devonshire....lol
How'd you know lol


Well... I used to live in Windsor... lived in Riverside East, was based at Detroit-Metro Airport... so my commute was right down Riverside, with a stop at the Tim Horton's on Walker Road just north of there. :D Windsor Police would always set up with that black Dodge Magnum ...

Should have break checked him.

That's also stunt driving per O. Reg 455/07:

Definition, "stunt"

ii. stopping or slowing down a motor vehicle in a manner that indicates the drivers sole intention in stopping or slowing down is to interfere with the movement of another vehicle by cutting off its passage on the highway or to cause another ...

hwybear wrote:freaking crazy out there....

I still get WTF moments on a regular basis... things I never saw when living in Detroit, Windsor, Vancouver, Memphis or Ottawa, I see all the time here. Driving in the GTA is really good for shock value.

Reflections wrote:I don't concern myself too much about other drivers on the roads that drive the same routes regularly.

+1

Weekends are chock full of erratic, incompetent driving... much more so than weekdays...

Incidentally, the highest driver test failure rates were at:

1. Brampton
2. Scarborough

Coincidence?

There is something so fundamentally wrong with charging $325 when you really don't know who was behind it.

Ditto for photo radar... although Arizona found a way to solve that problem. They have speed cameras set up on freeways in Phoenix, which take high-resolution snapshots of both the vehicle AND the driver, so then the driver gets charged ...