Civic Holiday Crash Statistics

Regular readers might well have expected me to weigh in on the recently-released Ontario Provincial Police statistics which, they claim, show how effective the "street racer" law has been in reducing fatalities on our highways.

I started on one, but you see - well, "blogs" are by definition supposed to be short, pithy. When I start digging into statistical stuff, it just burgeons.

So I have done a Carte Blanche column for next week's print Wheels.

Suffice it to say for now that the O. P. P.'s  blather is a complete crock, and we'll tell you why in detail next week.

Bet you can hardly wait!

Comments

[Ray]

Go get 'em Jim. Here's a few more interesting tidbits for you. The poll on the CTV website:
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate?Results&id=97536&pollid=97536&tf=ctvlocal/ctvNewsSub.html&cf=ctvlocal/toronto.cfg&hub=TorHomeNews&subhub=VoteResult

shows 64 percent of respondents think the "street racing" law is unfair.

Also, some news from Wellington County: http://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/index.cfm?page=detail&itmno=1524

which outlines an O. P. P. Sergeant saying that local courts are having "zero success" in obtaining convictions on this law.

[tim]

Thank you Jim!

We applaud your efforts in cutting through the BS Public Relations spew that the OPP publish to defend this Police State mentality of HTA172.

It seems in the articles that I read from mainstream media (non-car related sections) that the reporters themselves are starting to question the OPP's claims and defense of this law.

Hard for folks with a tad of common sense, who've experienced their own lack of driving this year due to "record" high fuel prices and "record" precipitation levels to simply take the OPP's claims verbatim.

I can hardly wait for your piece.

Keep up the great work...it's appreciated.

Oh yeah...another weekend, and yet another 70% chance of rain and T-storms for both Saturday and Sunday.....so the toys are once again parked. I've spent $85 on fuel for the toys this season....2 guzzling V8s, it's mid August, and maybe 600kms collectively. If prices were low like last year, it would've probably cost me $50.

cheers

Tim

[Sean Miller]

Jim

You see the blather in the report released by Fantino, and if these two clowns see the blather, why can't everyone else?

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff272/reallylamename/fu1722.jpg

[Kevin Corrigan]

I can hardly wait until Saturday Jim!

Ever since you started writing this blog, you've been hitting the nails right on the head. Way to go Jim! The Ontario motoring public need someone like you to bring a little sense to what's happening out there.

Keep up the good work!

[John]

Jim,
It's been a long time since I've read such nonsense as your article in todays Star. What we can say is true, is that a driver stopped by the OPP for doing 50 over the limit will absolutely not be the cause of an accident down the road.We can also pretty much gauranteed ( unless they are totally stupid) that they will not be the cause of an accident in the future.
If one life a year is saved. that's good enough for me. I applaud the OPP!

[Aloha Eric]

I was on the 401 to Windsor last weekend and there were stretches where the speed limit had been reduced to 80. Given that normal traffic flow is 120-130, you could have been "street racing" if you happened to miss a speed limit sign. As this is one of the most boring stretches of highway anywhere, it would be way too easy to be caught in a speed trap. Car impounded, huge fine, drivers license suspension, prohibitive increase in insurance rates - this would ruin most people.

I'm reminded of a long weekend years back when a friend was caught speeding north of Winnipeg. He was in agricultural sales so he lived out of his car driving from farm to farm. That ticket, combined with a prior speed trap ticket and rolling through a stop sign ticket would have cost him his license and his new job as he needed a car. The officer recognized that this young man's entire future rested in his hands and if he were to receive another ticket his job and livelihood were done. My friend asked for leniency and he got off with a warning. He's now a national director of sales for a international agricultural company. The damage from a single ticket could have ruined his life. Do we really need such harsh laws where the consequences of the penalty is worse than the action?

Oh, and that fine for rolling through the stop sign was reversed in court, my friend represented himself with pictures of the intersection showing the white line back well from the intersection where he had previously stopped. The officer only saw him further up from the white line and had assumed he rolled through.