Cops aim to ERASE street racers from Ontario roadways

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I haven't seen street racing since since last week. Two chuckle heads , one in an AMG and other in an M4.

We had an incident here in town last yr, high school kids, buddy lost control and spun into a utility pole, killed his playmates. We also had a highschool kid with a 250 ninja bite it, his buddies took a different route and he was beating them to a sub shop, cafe racer style.

You dont see a lot of it since most are at least smart enough to go to the industrial parks.
 
We need to put an end to that sort of thing, dispatch the police helicopter with a sharp shooter to the scene immediately.
 
with distracted driving now the major cause of accidents (I think 2x alcohol now) it is really smart to focus on street racing instead of focusing on the the distracted driver who kills motorcyclists or other vehicles....

BB
 
busabim said:
with distracted driving now the major cause of accidents (I think 2x alcohol now) it is really smart to focus on street racing instead of focusing on the the distracted driver who kills motorcyclists or other vehicles....

BB
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You need a sarcasm font.
 
busabim said:
with distracted driving now the major cause of accidents (I think 2x alcohol now) it is really smart to focus on street racing instead of focusing on the the distracted driver who kills motorcyclists or other vehicles....

BB
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"hey guys, this is what makes the most sense and will bring best value... what other trivial thing can we bring in to avoid doing what makes more sense?"
 
Trials said:
They should call it operation Witch Hunt.
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Man, did you see that Robert Eggers film? Plenty of shudders. Those ladies were serious business.
 
I think they can walk and chew gum at the same time. This isn't likely an "all or nothing" approach. I saw a car pulled over in front of me that was weaving through traffic on the 401 on the way back from Montreal at the weekend. There was an odd couple of cars behind it, one doing something similar but more controlled and then an unmarked cop car (saw the spotlight on the drivers side mirror), they pulled the first car over pretty smartish. Have you ever thought that if Joe Public sees incidents like this they are less likely to act like idiots themselves?
 
Its a political agenda.

"In 2017, York Regional Police Sgt. Karen Hodge said her force laid over 675 stunt racing charges against motorists caught driving more than 50 kilometres over the posted speed limit."
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How many of these "racers" were actually racing?
 
TK4 said:
Busting people for +50K over is political ? Get a grip, illegal is illegal as well as unsafe.
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It is illegal and is often unsafe, but that doesn't make it racing. Declaring it racing is a political statement.
 
TK4 said:
Busting people for +50K over is political ? Get a grip, illegal is illegal as well as unsafe.
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no, I meant the focus and big Public Relations thing, its all for show. For sure its illegal, and unsafe, and so is changing lanes without signalling, or failing to stop at stop signs, but we don't see them cracking down on those behaviours . By showing these "stats" of "racers" they can justify their budgets etc.
 
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Is this different from what they were doing before? Just seems like they'll be enforcing it... this happens every spring no?

In any case, on 401 going west you can travel ~140-150km/h fairly frequently and the traffic around you is doing more or less the same... I can't see how I or anyone else could get pinched by this law if I'm not standing out from the crowd in aggression or speed.
 
This is simply just another "targeted campaign", They have been gone on since the 80's when I was on patrol. We had one back then called S.T.E.P, (Selective Traffic Enforcement Program). The chief would declare this month we are doing seat belts, then it was stop signs, then speeding etc etc etc. NO different.

Spoiler alert next week they will be announcing a BLITZ on the 400 for Cottagers with insecure loads.... lmao
 
kiwi said:
no, I meant the focus and big Public Relations thing, its all for show. For sure its illegal, and unsafe, and so is changing lanes without signalling, or failing to stop at stop signs, but we don't see them cracking down on those behaviours . By showing these "stats" of "racers" they can justify their budgets etc.
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Could be bait tactic, and or a way of a public service announcement. Warm weather is here, so people with toys are going to start to bring them out. Lets give them a warning.

But as mentioned distracted drivers, and dumb dumbs should be an overall target year round.

This jerk last night on Lawrence heading east stopped dead after passing an intersection, right in the far left lane, and put on 4 ways. They could have moved over to the middle turn lane, but didn't just blocked the entire lane. Sat there for a few minutes, then proceed. Doesn't make any sense what people do on the roads these days.
 
Merely traveling at 150 + CAN get you a S172 violation, you need not be aggressive. So keep it at 145 max.

Type17 said:
Is this different from what they were doing before? Just seems like they'll be enforcing it... this happens every spring no?

In any case, on 401 going west you can travel ~140-150km/h fairly frequently and the traffic around you is doing more or less the same... I can't see how I or anyone else could get pinched by this law if I'm not standing out from the crowd in aggression or speed.
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Wingboy said:
Now define racing from the "HTA". Oh oh!
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https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/070455

Pretty much anything a creative cop is prepared to write you up for:

Standing on your pegs going over a speed bump or pot hole is stunting. So is turning left on a green if the car going through in the opposite direction is distracted and sits at the green light.

Weaving is either a series of safe lane changes, or racing under HTA172, depending on the mood of the cop. Would weaving even occur of drivers observed proper lane discipline. It seems to me that by elevating the status of weaving to HTA172 territory, they are tacitly accepting bad lane disciple as ok.

Don't even get me going on the constitutionality of the penalties.
 
I'm not against firm policing of street racing, I think it's dangerous and not the type of activity that deserves no leniency. Sure we loose a few dummies and a few innocents each year, but nothing close to what we lose to distracted drivers.

I think there is some argument about the political nature of launching a campaign against racing. It's an easy sell, and I'm guessing its also pretty easy to police, has big fines and that means big dough. York Region '16 stats show collisions due to Impaired drivers are 1 of 50, confirmed collisions caused by distracted drivers is 8 times higher(likely 25 times higher as confirmation is often difficult to prove). Racing related collisions and deaths are to low to register.

So why other than the political ease of selling a racing crackdown? Wouldn't the dough used for planes, copters, extra police and the courts be better spent on hitting distracted drivers harder? That's maybe too tough to sell -- arresting mom's doing their makeup while driving kids to school is a lot harder to sex up than teenager doing 250KMH in his McLaren.
 
Definitely all just a political stunt. In my experience street racing is such a low cause of MVC's, and never gets the attention these news articles make it out like they do.

When I used to be a dispatcher for the Police we'd get calls occasionally for street racing in industrial areas. Some truck driver would notice and call it in.

Anyways...there was never in my decade of dispatching experience any actual organized effort made to stop the street racers. 2 or 3 cruisers max would attend, sometimes come in from different directions. The racers would scatter. Sometimes an over zealous rookie officer would initiate a chase but it gets called off and everyone except maybe 1 or 2 gets caught. Maybe a license plate gets seen but usually it's stolen or modified to look different.

This was back during the HTA 172 days because I remember being on a ride along and an officer was sitting in a nasty speed trap spot, where the speed had been lowered recently and it was quite easy for him to meet his quota giving tickets to commuters that have been driving the same route every day for decades and didn't notice the speed change. It was also a nice spot for the officer to get their occasional 172 fix.

I'm still a 911 dispatcher and a very very very small fraction of the MVC's that I see at work are from street racing....and most of that tiny percentage it's not confirmed.
 
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slowbird said:
Definitely all just a political stunt. In my experience street racing is such a low cause of MVC's, and never gets the attention these news articles make it out like they do.

When I used to be a dispatcher for the Police we'd get calls occasionally for street racing in industrial areas. Some truck driver would notice and call it in.

Anyways...there was never in my decade of dispatching experience any actual organized effort made to stop the street racers. 2 or 3 cruisers max would attend, sometimes come in from different directions. The racers would scatter. Sometimes an over zealous rookie officer would initiate a chase but it gets called off and everyone except maybe 1 or 2 gets caught. Maybe a license plate gets seen but usually it's stolen or modified to look different.

This was back during the HTA 172 days because I remember being on a ride along and an officer was sitting in a nasty speed trap spot, where the speed had been lowered recently and it was quite easy for him to meet his quota giving tickets to commuters that have been driving the same route every day for decades and didn't notice the speed change. It was also a nice spot for the officer to get their occasional 172 fix.

I'm still a 911 dispatcher and a very very very small fraction of the MVC's that I see at work are from street racing....and most of that tiny percentage it's not confirmed.
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Ugh... this is basically confirmation of every stereotype I've ever had about traffic policing...

On a slightly related note, nothing gets my panties in a bunch more than a bunch of doughnut eaters setting up speed traps on the Easter Long weekend or the first few nice spring days. Makes my blood boil when I see it... ffs, of all the **** they could be preoccupied with, they're out here making sure I'm not going 15 over on my drive to my grandma's place for brunch.
 
slowbird said:
Definitely all just a political stunt. In my experience street racing is such a low cause of MVC's, and never gets the attention these news articles make it out like they do.

When I used to be a dispatcher for the Police we'd get calls occasionally for street racing in industrial areas. Some truck driver would notice and call it in.

Anyways...there was never in my decade of dispatching experience any actual organized effort made to stop the street racers. 2 or 3 cruisers max would attend, sometimes come in from different directions. The racers would scatter. Sometimes an over zealous rookie officer would initiate a chase but it gets called off and everyone except maybe 1 or 2 gets caught. Maybe a license plate gets seen but usually it's stolen or modified to look different.

This was back during the HTA 172 days because I remember being on a ride along and an officer was sitting in a nasty speed trap spot, where the speed had been lowered recently and it was quite easy for him to meet his quota giving tickets to commuters that have been driving the same route every day for decades and didn't notice the speed change. It was also a nice spot for the officer to get their occasional 172 fix.

I'm still a 911 dispatcher and a very very very small fraction of the MVC's that I see at work are from street racing....and most of that tiny percentage it's not confirmed.
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Good to hear from a professional.
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