Is driving at a high rate of speed really racing?

In May 2007, Ontario passed street-racing and stunt-driving legislation that increased maximum fines to $10,000 – the highest penalty in Canada – and allowed police to automatically seize cars for up to a week for those caught driving more than 50 kilometres an hour above the posted speed limit.

According to section 172.(1) of the previous Highway Traffic Act in Ontario, racing was defined as to mean; driving a motor vehicle on a highway (including any street or road) in a race or on a bet or wager. The minimum penalty was a $200 fine and the maximum penalty was $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

According to the current Highway Traffic Act in Ontario, speeding over 50 kilometres (31 miles) an hour over the speed limit is also called racing. Ontario Regulation 455/072, section 1 states;

“For the purposes of section 172 of the Act, ‘race’ and ‘contest’ include any activity where one or more persons engage in any of the following driving behaviours: Driving two or more motor vehicles at a rate of speed that is a marked departure from the lawful rate of speed and in a manner that indicates the drivers of the motor vehicles are engaged in a competition.”

These two definitions make sense. The Colbuilds Dictionary definition of racing is; “Racing’ refers to races between animals, especially horses or between vehicles.” unquote

Of course, if two or more people are racing their vehicles, especially at a high rate of speed considering where they are racing, be it a highway, street or roadway, and someone is killed, be it another racer or someone not related to the race itself, the charge (under the Criminal Code of Canada) can be criminal negligence causing death and the penalty can be years in prison.

Section 172.(3) of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act deals with ‘stunts’ and subsection 7 states that driving a motor vehicle at a rate of speed that is 50 kilometres per hour or more over the speed limit is a ‘stunt’. Of course, this law doesn’t apply to emergency vehicles.

The problem I have with this current law is that the definition of speeding 50 kilometers over the speed limit is referred to as a ‘stunt’.
Section 3 defines ‘stunts’ to include in part;

1. Driving a motor vehicle in a manner that indicates an intention to lift some or all of its tires from the surface of the highway, including driving a motorcycle with only one wheel in contact with the ground,

2. Driving a motor vehicle in a manner that indicates an intention to cause some or all of its tires to lose traction with the surface of the highway while turning.

3. Driving a motor vehicle in a manner that indicates an intention to spin it or cause it to circle, without maintaining control over it.

4. Driving two or more motor vehicles side by side or in proximity to each other, where one of the motor vehicles occupies a lane of traffic or other portion of the highway intended for use by oncoming traffic for a period of time that is longer than is reasonably required to pass another motor vehicle.

5. Driving a motor vehicle with a person in the trunk of the motor vehicle.

6. Driving a motor vehicle while the driver is not sitting in the driver’s seat.

7. Driving a motor vehicle at a rate of speed that is 50 kilometres per hour or more over the speed limit.

8. Driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention, without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway or in a manner that may endanger any person by,

i. driving a motor vehicle in a manner that indicates an intention to prevent another vehicle from passing,

ii. stopping or slowing down a motor vehicle in a manner that indicates the driver’s 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 vehicle to stop or slow down in circumstances where the other vehicle would not ordinarily do so.

None of these so-called ‘stunts’ are really stunts with respect to the true meaning of the word, stunts. According to the Colbuilds Dictionary definition of stunts, a ‘stunt’ is something interesting that is done in order to attract attention and get publicity for the person or company responsible for it. Further, it defines a ‘stunt’ as a dangerous and exciting piece of action in a film.

The people who do wheelies on their motorcycles are showoffs and motorists doing those other things that are listed in the Act under the heading of ‘stunts’ are really driving carelessly and dangerously. Calling their acts as stunts is an insult to the men and women who are paid to do very dangerous stunts for entertainment purposes.

With respect to the Act’s section with respect to ‘racing’, that aspect of the legislation in that section should be removed and instead be placed under the section of the Highway Traffic Act that deals with ‘careless driving’. That’s the way motorists who drove 50 kilometres over the speed limit were dealt with in the past.

Careless driving is described in the Act as an act by a motorist who drives a vehicle or street car on a highway without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway and on conviction is liable to a fine of not less than $200 and not more than $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months, or to both, and in addition his or her licence or permit may be suspended for a period of not more than two years.

There can be no doubt in the minds of those of us who have driven on our highways, streets and roads, that any driver of a vehicle who does any of the things listed as ‘stunts’ in subsection 3 of section 172 of the HTA is without a doubt, driving ‘without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highways, streets or roads.

Certainly, anyone who drives his vehicle 50 kilometres over the speed limit anywhere in Ontario is driving without any consideration of others in the immediate area of the offending driver.

Imagine if you will, a speeder going 150 kilometres an hour on the 401. That’s 50 kilometres over the speed limit. That person is going as fast as 41 metres or 137 feet a second. The average person who sees someone ahead of him put on his brake lights, will take three quarters of a second before his brain registers that there is a problem ahead of him and another three quarters of a second for him to apply his brakes. That means that in the one and a half seconds, while a speeder who is driving 150 kilometres an hour, his vehicle will have moved 62 metres or 204 feet from the moment his eyes saw the perceived danger until his foot began to apply his brakes.

The average size of a mid-size car is approximately eleven feet in length. (3.3 meters) If a line of such cars are in your left lane and they are moving at a speed of 100 kilometres (62 miles) an hour and you are moving at a speed of 150 kilometres an hour, the differential between your speed and that of the other cars is one third. This means that you would be passing the other cars at a speed of 22 metres (73 feet) a second. That is approximately six and a half cars in a second. At this point, you haven’t even applied your brake pedal to its fullest yet.

Suppose you are driving the speed limit of 100 kilometres an hour and another motorist is coming up behind you to your left at 150 kilometres an hour. He is going 50 kilometres faster than you are at that moment. And let’s say that he is 22 meters behind you. There is a space of approximately seven car lengths between you. You look in your mirror and you decide that you can make your turn to your right in safety.

You turn on your right blinker light and begin your turn into the lane to your right unaware that he is going 50 kilometres an hour faster than you are. Before he begins to apply his brakes, he has just rear ended you and both you and your car are propelled across one lane and then across the grass separating the oncoming traffic from your side of the highway and head on into a large transport truck moving 22 meters a second. Within a second, you will from then on be spoken of in the past tense.

Even if you were as much as 175 meters ahead of the speeding car, the other driver would need as much as 176 meters between you and he from the time he applies his brakes if you don’t want to be rear-ended. However, in real life, many times these speeders that are being clocked at 150 kilometres an hour on major highways are doing so when the highways are to some degree crowded and the distance between cars is not 175 meters or more. That is because the speeder is weaving in an out of traffic.

Admittedly, by the time the car that was previously going 150 kilometers an hour strikes you 175 feet later, he is still moving faster than your speed of 100 kilometres an hour and if he hits either corner of your car, you will spin out of control and it is conceivable that you will then be hit by a large transport truck coming up on your left. Either way, you will probably be killed, or at best, crippled for life.

The Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police recently said that there's no problem with the way Ontario police are interpreting tough new street-racing legislation.

As it is however, many of these speeding thugs when they get to court are negotiating with the prosecutors to get them to let them plead guilty to going 49 kilometers over the speed limit, therefore not being declared as a motorist who was racing.

As I see it, if the evidence is conclusive that the speeder is going 150 or more kilometers an hour, the prosecutors should be prohibited from negotiating a lesser plea.

Further, going that speed or faster should be taken out of section 172 of the Act and placed in the section dealing with Careless Driving or alternatively, in the Criminal Code under the section that deals with Dangerous Driving. That way, the penalty can be increased to a term of imprisonment up to two years or more if the circumstances warrant it. Such circumstances could be the ramming of a car which later causes a chain reaction in which a massive pile up of motor vehicles ensues.

One weekend recently, over a hundred motorists were clocked at going over 150 kilometers an hour on our major highways. Who are these nasty bugs? It’s time to step on these bugs and sweep them off our highways for a long time.