Ontario Highway Traffic Act

Speeding is an absolute liability offence. They only have to prove that you were the driver, and as the driver did commit the alleged offence on the highway. Once they've proven that (not terribly difficult), the only defences you have are necessity and duress.

You'd have to get disclosure (officer's notes, lidar manual). The officer needed to ...

Think of this: How/where did the officer(s) observe your actual distance from another vehicle (behind you, beside you)? How did they measure it? What is the requirement for following distance between two vehicles travelling a highway? (As a driving technique there is the "2 second rule," but this is not in the HTA.)

The argument is that the HTA ...

PbFoot wrote:Oh wow! The guy did this at the roadside? Dumber than I though!

He sure did. And it's not the first time I've heard of things like that happening, either.

If the make and model is identified for the car that was ahead of me, but only my vehicle make was written in the notes, with no model/information about my vehicle on the ticket, would that be found as significant if mentioned during trial as an attest to inattention?

Nope.

Also, neither officer mentioned the model of my vehicle, except for ...

jtiburon wrote:I am worried about insurance rates but prior to this I had a 15 km over 1.5 years ago, 10km over 3 years ago and 10km over 5 years ago.

The last two tickets are not on your insurance record. The first one you mentioned (15 km over 1 1/2 yrs ago) will be. I'd follow racer's advice. If nothing else, you can plead it down to a lesser speed.

"highway" includes a common and public highway, street, avenue, parkway, driveway, square, place, bridge, viaduct or trestle, any part of which is intended for or used by the general public for the passage of vehicles and includes the area between the lateral property lines thereof;

That's it exactly. Any public road in Ontario is a highway.

You did specifically tell them to fight it all the way and not take/offer a reduced plea bargain, right?

Even so, your attorney may have got all of the disclosure evidence against you and realized that there was no way they would win in court. Speeding is not that hard for the Crown to obtain a conviction on. The other risk is that if you proceed ...

The items you are entitled to get include the officer's notes and a copy of the relevant parts of the radar manual. Basically, it's the stuff that would allow you to make a "full answer and defence" to the Crown's case. In cases like this, you can ask for a "will say" statement but the odds of actually getting one are low. Definitely mention that ...

Or those idiots who, seeing your signal to enter their lane, speed UP in order to prevent you from executing a safe lane change for no other reason than just because they are feeling territorial on a public highway?


This might be part of the reason why Toronto drivers do not use their signals when changing lanes. Not a justification, but an ...

I'm just completing a FSCO course right now, and some of the fault rules are infuriating, including this one, because even if idiot driver #1 pulls in front of you in some road rage battle and slams on his breaks and you hit him, he was the one who drove carelessly (dangerously, even) but YOU according to insurance rules as they stand are 100% at ...

hwybear wrote:just blame RI for that

Imagining trying to explain myself to Transport Canada...

If I'm understanding what happened correctly, you had a green arrow, and struck a pedestrian who was crossing the street. I'm going to guess that the pedestrian had a "DO NOT WALK" signal... would that be correct? If so, any half-competent paralegal or traffic lawyer should be able to beat the charge, particularly where you had bright sunlight. If ...

The only time that there is no effect on your insurance (rates) is when you are out of the car or when something hits you from the air.


Interesting... they told me "it's a claim so it will affect your rates." :shock: Wonder if I got the right info from them. :?

EDIT: Should clarify - I mentioned the damage to them, so I guess that could count ...

hwybear wrote:If there is a collision report completed, it will eventually get to the MTO and added onto the drivers licence.

When insurance checks the licence, they will see the collision.

Good point. Forgot about that.

hwybear wrote:Wondering if you are that close.... is it too late

We'll find out on Friday.