Ontario's new laws take toll on dangerous, drunken driving
By Becky Rynor
Canwest News Service
August 18, 2008

For the first time in Canada, vehicles seized from a couple of repeat drunk drivers have been handed over to new owners under Ontario's drinking and driving vehicle forfeiture law.

On Monday, Attorney General Chris Bentley handed the keys to the forfeited vehicles to members of the Ontario Community Council on Impaired Driving. The council will use the two cars in its work raising awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving.

"We're keeping Ontario's roads and families safe from vehicles used by people who repeatedly choose to drink and drive," Bentley said in a news release. "This new law is a message to drunk drivers: stop your irresponsible behaviour or you could lose your wheels."

Ontario's new drinking and driving civil vehicle forfeiture law took effect in February.
Police also said Monday that another relatively new piece of provincial legislation has netted a "scary" number of violators charged with street racing, extreme driving and stunt driving.

In less than one year, the number of dangerous drivers charged under Bill 203 has exceeded all expectations of both urban Toronto and Ontario Provincial police.

"I think it's terrible," said Sgt. Tim Burrows of Toronto Police traffic services. "When we look at just the Toronto numbers, the 505 that were charged up until last week, when we consider the urban environment that Toronto is, that's far, far too many people being charged with this."Bill 203 came into effect on Sept. 30, 2007 giving police in Ontario the authority to seize vehicles and to suspend licences if drivers were caught street racing, stunt driving or practising what has been termed "extreme" or dangerous driving.

With more than a month to go before the legislation's one-year anniversary, Burrows said province-wide, police have laid "thousands of charges and seized thousands of vehicles."  
Burrows said the majority of violations in Ontario - 5,351 - were for speeding at 50 km/h or more over the posted speed limit.

"When you look at our streets, which are anywhere from 30 km/h to 90 km/h, a speed of 50 over in an urban environment is just absolutely inexplicable, why anybody would want to or need to drive that fast," he said. "In an urban environment with cyclists, pedestrians, streetcars, massive amounts of traffic, it's scary when you put it into that kind of context."

Burrows said Toronto police expected "the occasional high flyer coming off the highway." But he said the new legislation has revealed that street racing "is not just an OPP problem. This is an urban traffic policing issue as well."

Burrows also said the average age of the people charged, 31, came as a surprise.

"It was a lot higher than we would have expected . . . I figured it would be more towards the 18-24 age group."

OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley credits the street racing legislation with a decrease in fatal crashes and speed-related collisions.

"This legislation, frankly is getting a lot of drivers to think twice," he said.

By Aug. 16, Woolley said OPP had charged a total of 5,622 drivers and impounded their vehicles under the street racing legislation.

"When we look at the number of people killed to date this year versus last year, over 80 lives have been saved, there's been an over 30 per cent total drop in fatal collisions to date and about a 40 per cent drop in speed-related crashes . . . a lot of drivers don't want to take a chance when they know they're going to face an immediate roadside sanction," he said.