Police charge 85-year-old with street racing
 

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/290796

THE CANADIAN PRESS
An 85-year-old motorist lost his licence and his Oldsmobile for a week and likely faces a hefty fine after becoming the oldest person snagged to date by Ontario’s stringent crackdown on street racers and highway speed demons.

The man, whose name was not released, was making his way yesterday along Highway 407 when he was allegedly clocked doing 161 kilometres an hour — 61 km/h over the posted speed limit.

“He said he was going to the bank and shopping,” said Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Cam Woolley, who noted snow and ice made road conditions treacherous at the time.

Under new provincial legislation, billed last year by OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino as a “shock and awe” campaign, drivers who exceed the speed limit by 50 km/h or more stand to lose both vehicle and licence for one week, along with a fine of at least $2,000.

While no other drivers were involved in yesterday’s incident, Woolley said the legislation — ostensibly aimed at ridding city streets and highways of street racers — is intended as a crackdown on all aggressive drivers.

“It got silly — we were getting crashes at high speeds and the defence was, `Well, if they weren’t racing someone, then they weren’t racing,’ even though the consequences are the same,” he said.

Police statistics show more than 2,300 drivers across the province have been charged under the legislation since it became law on Sept. 30, 2007.

While men in their mid-20s to mid-30s are most commonly labelled as aggressive drivers, statistics show that drivers of all ages are guilty of excessive speed.

In the past three months, 20 drivers aged 65 and older have been charged under the new Ontario law. Three of them were women.

Woolley also said police have already charged two 75-year-old drivers in separate incidents. The youngest person caught to date was a 16-year-old female.

Some of these numbers are underscored by a recent study by Transport Canada which found that most Canadians freely admit to speeding, but underestimate the severity of it.

The report found that the majority of Canadians agreed that driving faster than the posted limit was dangerous, but often felt their own speeding habits didn’t pose any serious harm to themselves or others.

While there are signs the message is sinking in in Ontario, Woolley said, an average of 30 drivers are stopped under the new law each day.

Within five weeks of the provincial legislation passing into law, more than 1,300 drivers had their cars impounded and their licences suspended.

During the initial blitz, police caught a 23-year-old motorcyclist from Ajax speeding at 210 km/h and a driver near Cornwall who was going 230 km/h.

haha wow an 85 year old street racing...i can't imagine that at all

seems like he was just speeding, not sure it mentioned who he was racing

He wasn't racing, just speeding 50km/h over the speed limit. They impose the same penalties for that as street racing.
Did the math and 161km/h is 100mph.

It says: "While no other drivers were involved in yesterday’s incident ..." The law charges violators with "racing" even if no other cars are involved.

On the other hand, go Oldsmobiles!

wow 100 mph...see in my opinion I don't think 85 year olds should be on the road, sometimes they don't know what they are doing on the road and can cause a major accident...it happens alot here in Jersey. Sometimes they dont see the red light and keep on going...its sad

When I get old I want to be just like him :)

^an old person that can still drive at 100 mph? hell ya, me too.

it's pretty stupid that they charged him with racing. He was just excessively speeding.

I blame Canada!!!! (insert South Park)

eh?

:beer:

RAzz: aren't you glad we don't live in Canada?

Ja, they don't have any race tracks there that Ricky Bobby would care to talk about.

HAHA! Love that movie...

Is this story getting a lot of local coverage in Ontario? I would think most people would find these new laws pretty absurd. (as if I have any leg to stand on with some of our laws here in CA....but you guys get the idea)

Must have been this guy.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/4...470170c7a1.htm

He wasn't charged with street racing at all. He was charged with aggressive driving (50 km/h over) under the safer roads act. The safer roads act also has a section about street racing, among MANY others. The media loves to spin it as a street racing bill and ill informed retards love to latch onto it. *cough NVMYRX

what a misleading tittle, booo. and yes, blame canada! (sings the south park hook)

It's likely a first under Ontario's new street racing legislation. A provincial police officer pulled over a fast-moving vehicle on Wednesday just east of Goderich near Lake Huron. It was a garbage truck and it was caught on radar doing 112 km/hr in a 60-kilometre zone.
The 58-year old driver from Clinton, northwest of Stratford, was charged with racing and with failing to inspect a commercial motor vehicle.
The garbage truck has been impounded for seven days and the driver has lost his licence for a week as well.
He will appear in a Goderich court on June 5 to answer to the charges and faces a possible fine of $2,000.

yeah dude jersey old people are pretty bad. i heard about making older folks retake their driving test a while back but i dont think thats happening. it should tho.

Damn. I hope he can at least control it unlike most old folks.

haha.

agree with making older people retake driving tests. i'm glad i haven't seen any grandpa/mas driving that fast here in cali. specially since there's so many asians living here and "asians can't drive".

btw i'm asian so not being racist. admitting the facts. though 99% of the time it's older asian women. NOT BEING SEXIST EITHER.

completely agree. When I got my license I said to someone that its pretty pathetic that all I have to do for the rest of my life is update my pic. WTF? tests should occur at the same rate....:Eyecrazy:

tha shitz is l337 y0 !

my grandma has a prowler. she races me.

I'm glad they caught that 85yr old.

That suma bitch beat me on the track, eh!

i cant blame them.....they only have clear roads with no snow for like 1 month a year....i would lay down as much rubber as i could too....lol