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Ont. Gov't Seeks To Crack Down On Street Racers, Drunk Drivers
Thursday April 12, 2007

Street racers and drunk drivers could face stiffer punishment here than anywhere else in the country if proposed provincial legislation is passed.

The bill, brought forth by Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, would give police power to automatically suspend the driver's licences of offenders for up to a week. They'd also be allowed to seize street racers' vehicles for the same amount of time.

If made law, the plan would hit guilty parties hard in the wallet, with fines of up to $10,000. That would be the highest fine for such an offence in Canada.

McGuinty delivered the message that neither drunk driving nor street racing is acceptable in the province and those who choose to break the law will face major consequences.

"There can be no tolerance in Ontario for people who put other people's lives at risk on our roads," McGuinty said. "We want to make it clear - if you drink and drive or if you street race, you'll pay and the penalty will be tough."

British Columbia and Manitoba have already brought in tougher punishments for such offences. Attorney General Michael Bryant suggests repeat offenders could face losing their wheels forever.

"In order to increase road safety, repeat drunk drivers would now face the possibility of having a civil court order their cars forfeited forever," Bryant said. "We will use every civil and criminal tool available to us to keep Ontario's roads safe from drunk drivers."

The proposed legislation, if passed, would:

Allow the courts to take away vehicles from repeat drinking and driving offenders

Establish an early ignition interlock program for Criminal Code offenders

Increase roadside drivers licence suspensions for drunk drivers

Take drivers licences away from street racers and increase fines

drift_n_shift

lol yea, i watched that live this morning before i left for school.

don't know what to say about it though....

voltar

JAWHOL MEIN FUHRER!!!

I gotta move out of this god forsaken province.

Bookm

I have a nagging concern that this will increase high-speed police pursuits, which are much more likely to end in death.

Just as a point of interest, it's really quite amazing how things have changed in the last 25 years or so. At 17 yrs.old in 1980, just about every weekend involved beer tours and stop-light drag races. We got our slaps on the rist, but nothing compared to the "beheadings" you get today, LOL. Somehow, we all managed to live through that tiny window of lax alcohol rules, hehe. One time we each bought a case of beer and jumped in our buddies van. We each had one beer out of our open cases when we got pulled over. The driver got pulled down to the station, and failed the tests horribly. Punishment?? Driver got a 12-hour suspension and $60 fine. The cop gave us back 6 out of 7 of our open cases of beer and said, "Have a good weekend boys!"

Obviously, this kind of "pre-MADD" stuff is no longer tolerated. Now you lose your left nut for having an improper valve cover breather on your 4-banger!

As far as racing today is concerned, I sure hope they distinguish between high-speed and low-speed racing. Every time a leave a light, I MUST be first (no matter who's beside me) because I feel safer out front. If some kangeroo court sees this as "racing" then this new law is garbage.

P.S. These high fines only affect the poor. The guys racin' their Corvettes and Porche's don't care about the fine. The poor sap racin' his Civic is gonna' be walkin' for years though!! Another example of where the rich get preferential treatment in the eyes of the law.

drift_n_shift

i was thinking that, but its only impounded for a week, so i dont think many people would run. but, if they were gonna crush my car, i'm not stopping; they better bring out the spike strips. then agian, i dont think i would be put in that situation in the first place.