The holiday weekend proved to be a terrible time for both Ontario’s drivers and police, as the OPP recorded 5 fatalities from collisions on the province’s roads and charged at least 115 people with street racing violations. The numbers mark new records for holiday traffic incidents. From the Toronto Star:

“Victoria Day and Labour Day weekends are the deadliest of the year, said OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley. “For OPP and the people at Sunnybrook, we don’t call it cottage season, but trauma season.”

…Two OPP planes watched the roads for aggressive driving, impaired driving and improper seat belt use. Woolley said thousands of charges were laid over the weekend, two-thirds for speeding.

Last year, 10,000 charges were laid during the Victoria Day weekend, 8,000 for speeding.

Since Friday, more than 100 cars have been taken off the roads by the OPP and 115 people charged with violating street-racing laws. Early Saturday, OPP laid the 5,000th charge since anti-street racing legislation was brought in last September, “a milestone,” said Woolley.

While highway tragedies are expected, the number of street-racing violations is simply staggering. Are Ontario’s drivers prone to having lead feet or is the new law over-extending the reach of individual officers?

Here is a closer look at the weekend’s statistics, from thestar.com:

• The OPP seized 145 vehicles and suspended the drivers’ licences, bringing to 3,884 the number of seven-day suspensions the OPP has handed out since street racing legislation came into effect Sept. 30, 2007.

• The most extreme case of speeding over the long weekend involved a 17-year-old driver who was going 239 km/h in an 80 zone on Highway 26 north of Barrie. His father’s Lincoln was impounded and the youth was charged with street racing, careless driving and failure to surrender his license, according to the Ontario Provincial Police.

• Five people were killed in collisions on roads patrolled by the OPP, down from seven in 2007.

• Provide-wide, police have seized a total of 5,139 vehicles because of drivers going 50 kilometres over the speed limit.

• The OPP laid 5,032 other speeding charges over the weekend.

• Officers laid 489 seatbelt charges.

• The OPP laid 109 impaired driving charges.

• Police laid nine driving-while-prohibited charges.

• They issued 183 12-hour suspensions.

Have you been targeted by the OPP’s aggressive dragnet? While we understand the severe risk that speeding places on Ontario’s roads, we also recognize that new legislation and weekend campaigns can unfairly charge good drivers with serious offences. It’s important that you know your rights and understand that you may have been unjustly pigeonholed as a ‘street-racer’.

Feel free to contact Legal Action, or go through our blog, to get a broader overview of the politics of driving. Don’t delay, get Legal Action today!