Same thing happened to me but I didn't receive a ticket...

http://www.ontariohighwaytrafficact.com/topic4160.html

Always a good idea to back off.

And I can honestly say I didn't feel threatened by this other car but was annoyed. I'm sure that if I had felt threatened in some way (for example, if he had followed me off to the shoulder), I would have dialled 911 immediately and kept a close eye on him. If I had needed to take evasive action, including speeding, I would have had kept 911 informed as to what was going on. In this sense, I think I would have had a strong case if the LEO charged me with speeding - I would have proof with my 911 calls that I was concerned.

But without proof like this, I think it would be hard to explain you used speed because you were scared, IMHO.

The only part that seems unfair to me is that they waited until she hit 150 before pulling her over and charging her. Surely she is already breaking the law at 120 so pull her over if she is speeding or acting in a suspicious manner (like you suspect intoxication). Why not pull her over at 130, 140, 145? Isn't it a responsibility to prevent further offences, like you see a guy with a gun do you wait until they shoot it before you arrest them? More serious perhaps but allowing them to keep going faster when they are already speeding just seems like waiting to see how fast they will go, which seems a bit irresponsible. Unless she floored it and went from 120 to 150 pretty quick, not sure what she was driving. Also surely the police car is also speeding, which is justified for the purpose of pulling over the other speeding car, but they must have then proceeded to keep pace until she hit 150 which also seems a little irresponsible if they could have ended the situation earlier.

Not necessarily any defence, as you say on a multi lane highway at that time of night it is unlikely there was gridlock traffic prventing you from pulling over to let them pass if you thought it was a crazy person tailgating you. My borther inlaw had a crazy person tailgating them on the way home recently, honking their horn, pulling in front and slowing down. Not sure why, maybe they thought they were someone else, but he just pulled over and they carried on their way.

skywalker12 wrote:

Hi radar identified, can you share with us the reason why that defense didn't succeed in the occasion you witnessed? Was it that the justice wasn't satisfied that reasonably the danger was in fact eminent or real? Or did he say something about the legality of the defense?

My notes aren't the greatest but here's what I have. Essentially hk111 hit the nail on the head: If someone is tailgating you, what is the end game for getting rid of them?

In two of the cases I saw, the drivers were in the left most lane and did not make any effort to move to the right. The JP ruled their basis for "I feared for my life" (or words to that effect) was not reasonable, because they did not take any effort to see if the person followed them into another lane. An aggressive driver in the left lane often just wants other drivers to move out of the way, or might be goading them into a race. Instead, the two defendants kept going faster. They also had a legal obligation to move right when a faster moving car approached from behind, which, they failed to do. One of them, when asked, said: "I don't move over for nobody." Why not? "Other drivers go too damn fast." FYI: He was caught going 226. IRONY MUCH?

The third case involved a person who likely had histronic AND paranoid personality disorder, and her theatrics in court pretty much did her in. She claimed (with full waterworks) that because she is so "beautiful" she is "stalked all the time" and she often has to try to outrun these types of people. I think you can imagine how that ended... No wonder the cops call it "Kangaroo Court."