Hot on the heels of `stunt-driving granny’ winning her speed-racing case, another Ontario judge has followed suit and recently ruled in favour of a woman with similar charges. Both judges have found that the new stunt-driving law is severely flawed and unconstitutional.

According to the TorontoSun.com last week in Speeding law hits 2nd bump, a Newmarket judge threw out the case of an 18 year-old woman who was charged by police for driving 157 km/h on Hwy 407 in March, 2008. Alexandra Drutz pleaded not guilty and in response:

“Judge Peter West ruled the law isn’t constitutional because a person charged under the legislation can’t mount a defence even though the violation carries a possible penalty of six months in jail.”

This ruling echoes the decision from Judge Griffin of Napanee who overturned the conviction of Jane Raham, a.k.a. `stunt-driving granny’, a few months ago in September. While the province has appealed Griffin’s decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal (a decision is expected in January), the Attorney General said that he will wait for a ruling on Raham case before appealing West’s ruling.

The province maintains the speed-racing law is an important public safety initiative that saves lives and will continue to be enforced despite this second ruling.

From the Toronto Sun:

The law gives cops the power to impound an accused speeder’s car — on the spot — for seven days and sets fines of between $2,000 and $10,000.

Vincenzo Rondinelli, a lawyer in the Drutz case, said that despite the worthy motivations behind the law, it’s flawed. “Obviously it came on the heels of some very horrific types of crashes on our highways,” Rondinelli said. “No one is going to doubt that that is a problem and we all want to fight it. It just has to be done in a way that meets the constitutional paramaters we have in Canada,” he said.

Rondinelli and lawyer Paul Cooper successfully argued that the potential for a jail term, while remote, is an infringement of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because the law doesn’t permit the accused to mount a defence or give reasons for why they might have been speeding.

Although the law will continue to be upheld by the authorities, this second ruling provides hope for the hundreds of people who have pending stunt-driving charges. If you have a speeding ticket or stunt driving charge to fight, contact Legal Action today and ask for a free consultation from our paralegal team.