CBC - Street racing: thousands charged, few convicted

[Ringmaster]

The National is the 10:00pm news. That was regional. I caught the part a little after 6:30pm and I'll keep my eyes open for the continuation tomorrow.

Your right...don't normally watch the news but tonight there was a good reason too.

[d8ve]

What needs to be done now is this...call in to radio and tv talk shows and flood them with comments about this situation.

Jim Kenzie was on CFRB tonight talking about it and taking calls.

[Homewrecker]

A friend of mine was riding his VStrom a while back and was crossing some bumpy train tracks. He raised his butt slightly off the seat as is customary when crossing bumpy tracks.

A cop was behind him and saw this and pulled him over. He then told my friend what he just did was considered 'stunting'. My friend, who's been riding for longer than I've been alive tore a strip off the cop. The cop just looked at him and got back in his cruiser and drove away.

Now if they consider this stunting then why does the MTO handbook and the various M1X courses tell you to raise your butt of the seat when crossing over tracks, etc.

Just another example of how idiotically this law can be applied.

[Katatonic]

A friend of mine was riding his VStrom a while back and was crossing some bumpy train tracks. He raised his butt slightly off the seat as is customary when crossing bumpy tracks.

A cop was behind him and saw this and pulled him over. He then told my friend what he just did was considered 'stunting'. My friend, who's been riding for longer than I've been alive tore a strip off the cop. The cop just looked at him and got back in his cruiser and drove away.

Now if they consider this stunting then why does the MTO handbook and the various M1X courses tell you to raise your butt of the seat when crossing over tracks, etc.

Just another example of how idiotically this law can be applied.

It is in all the manuals and handbooks because that is the safe thing to do. However, the wording of bill 203 states that the driver must remain in the drivers seat, so according to the bill, he was stunt driving.
It all comes down to the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
Chances of the charges standing up in court, slim to none. But your friend would still be stuck with the thousands of $$$ in fines, as many others have been.
As so many others have pointed out, this is one of the flaws with bill 203. It directly contradicts what one branch of the government deems as safe and deems it 'unsafe stunting'.
This is also one of the many reasons why something must be done.
I'm all for getting speeders, careless drivers and unattentive drivers off the road, but this is not how to go about it.

[82Seca750]

in the Ottawa Citizen this morning

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/...b-bb9423d60b8b

John Oakley's show on AM640 is calling now too

[Rob MacLennan]

It is in all the manuals and handbooks because that is the safe thing to do. However, the wording of bill 203 states that the driver must remain in the drivers seat, so according to the bill, he was stunt driving.
It all comes down to the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
Chances of the charges standing up in court, slim to none. But your friend would still be stuck with the thousands of $$$ in fines, as many others have been.
As so many others have pointed out, this is one of the flaws with bill 203. It directly contradicts what one branch of the government deems as safe and deems it 'unsafe stunting'.
This is also one of the many reasons why something must be done.
I'm all for getting speeders, careless drivers and unattentive drivers off the road, but this is not how to go about it.

And potentially another couple of thou$ for arguing it with the cop. Wonderful, no?

[Rob MacLennan]

in the Ottawa Citizen this morning

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/...b-bb9423d60b8b

John Oakley's show on AM640 is calling now too

It's good to finally see some movement on this issue. Looks like the snoball is starting to roll downhill and gain some size.

[TorontoRider]

What drives me nuts about the police's response is that they bleat on about the speed being reduced. Great. No problem. Street racing bad. But getting pulled over because you crept along between stationary cars to get to your nearby exit? Changed lane around a car turning left, and back, and accused of weaving? On the recent CBC show set up by a member here, the police deliberately misdirected attention away from the non-speed related charges when questioned by the reporter at the end. I'm going to write to CBC to point that out and see if they can focus on it.

Plus the constitutional aspect - drives me double plus nuts! - any word on if the rumoured challenge went ahead last week?

[maxpowers]

Kudos to 'G' for getting on the CBC news and driving a story which I think is a very good start at building up the 'other' side of the story.

The example of crawling through a sea of parked cars then being nabbed by 203 is a perfect example for the public to hear.

As mentioned, there should be another story on tonights news at 6. They seemed to focus on the fact that only a 1/3 of drivers are actually convicted....but all are penalized financialy (which is a good angle to get the average Joe to understand whats going on).

Cam pulled his usual tricks and probably didn't even answer her question and blurted out that high speed related deaths are down 40%. A great follow up question would have been how many of those deaths were the result of going 50km/h (<1% probably.....so your point is worthless Cam). The way the scene was cut....it sounded like Cam didn't want to have a real interview.

[Rob MacLennan]

What drives me nuts about the police's response is that they bleat on about the speed being reduced. Great. No problem. Street racing bad. But getting pulled over because you crept along between stationary cars to get to your nearby exit? Changed lane around a car turning left, and back, and accused of weaving? On the recent CBC show set up by a member here, the police deliberately misdirected attention away from the non-speed related charges when questioned by the reporter at the end. I'm going to write to CBC to point that out and see if they can focus on it.

Plus the constitutional aspect - drives me double plus nuts! - any word on if the rumoured challenge went ahead last week?

The most recent talking point is that "speed related crashes are down." They neither define what a "speed related crash" is, how it's determined, nor if collisions as a whole are down. This sound bite was restated during last night's broadcast.

Until they can state that collisions as a whole are down by a substantial amount, this particular piece of misdirection is meaningless drivel.

[spankayf]

A friend of mine was riding his VStrom a while back and was crossing some bumpy train tracks. He raised his butt slightly off the seat as is customary when crossing bumpy tracks.

A cop was behind him and saw this and pulled him over. He then told my friend what he just did was considered 'stunting'. My friend, who's been riding for longer than I've been alive tore a strip off the cop. The cop just looked at him and got back in his cruiser and drove away.

Now if they consider this stunting then why does the MTO handbook and the various M1X courses tell you to raise your butt of the seat when crossing over tracks, etc.

Just another example of how idiotically this law can be applied.

Show them this letter from the MOT

http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforum...ad.php?t=51799

[eastcoast_gsx]

People always focus on the 50 over... that is the least of my worries with this puppy.

Simply look at g4gmoney... that was totally unwarranted.

[eastcoast_gsx]

New article...

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/sto...et-racing.html

[sinic]

Before this law went into place, I organized a meeting with Donna Cansfield (who was the MOT at the time) and she sat there and smiled and assured us that it simply wouldn't and couldn't abise their power because of the way the legislation was written

We all called her on it and she said that if the law was absused, she would move instantly to correct it because the government wouldn't put up with it ...

It is obvious the power is being abused ... Donna is no longer the MOT ... and the government remains silent ...

Need yet another reason to never vote Liberal?

[dropgear]

Has anyone ever tried bribing a police officer? I'd rather give them $1k than pay for towing. Thoughts?

[camber]

"Speed related fatalities"

I hate when the quote nebulous statistics. I wish that someone would get Fantino & Co. to report stats, that have some sort of definition and they would show the overall number of fatalities since the legisilation was enacted.

The OPP seems to be focused on the speed part of 172. I wonder what their position is on the other infractions that they can use these new powers on?

[82Seca750]

Kitchener's News570 will be interviewing me tomorrow "live" at 10:05am

here we go folks

[Rob MacLennan]

Has anyone ever tried bribing a police officer? I'd rather give them $1k than pay for towing. Thoughts?

Care to risk up to 14 years in Kingston? Give it a try.

[eastcoast_gsx]

Kitchener's News570 will be interviewing me tomorrow "live" at 10:05am

here we go folks

Keep it up.

If you need help with anything please let me know.

[82Seca750]

Keep it up.

If you need help with anything please let me know.

it gets better

at 645am tomorrow morning....I'll be on Toronto 640 (AM640) on the John Oakley show

I'll be on one line.....on the other line....Sgt. Cam Woolley