OHTA.ca

Hi guys,

I was driving along a major street, Westmount Road in Waterloo, Ontario when I stopped by an officer with a radar gun at a speed trap with 3 cruisers and at least 4 officers. I was operating my GPS on my phone and was frustrated and lost when I pulled over. The police officer thought I was texting on the phone. Then I showed him that infact I was lost and looking for roads and that I did not have any calls or text messages in the past 30minutes convinced him otherwise.

I am wondering if I will get any demerit points, because I don't see any on the ticket that says anything about demerits. I am a 19 year old male post-sec student and this ticket will look very bad and I don't know if this will spike my insurance rate.

24 over = 3 demerit points gained

just an FYI

Hand-held devices prohibited

Wireless communication devices

78.1 (1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a highway while holding or using a hand-held wireless communication device or other prescribed device that is capable of receiving or transmitting telephone communications, electronic data, mail or text messages

There are 3 demerit points associated with this offence. Most insurance companies consider it "minor". So, in short, yes, your insurance will spike, but not too much. However, if you try to fight the charge, or even try to get it reduced (ie plea-bargain), there is a good chance that your insurance will not be affected at all.

@Hwybear

"78.1 (1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a highway..."

Does that apply for local streets as well?

How many days do I have to wait to go to court? And when should I contact the prosecutor (will I be provided from contact info)? Before I mail the ticket in or after?

Thanks for answering my questions.

"highway" includes a common and public highway, street, avenue, parkway, driveway, square, place, bridge, viaduct or trestle, any part of which is intended for or used by the general public for the passage of vehicles and includes the area between the lateral property lines thereof; ("voie publique")

You may have the GPS screen visible to you if you are not holding it (e.g., mounted somewhere). If possible, don't mount it on your windshield - it's rare, but you could get a "windshield obstructed" ticket.

Westmount is a tricky road. It's wide and has shoulders, looks like a 70 km/h road, but the limit is only 50 km/h.

Squishy wrote:You may have the GPS screen visible to you if you are not holding it (e.g., mounted somewhere). If possible, don't mount it on your windshield - it's rare, but you could get a "windshield obstructed" ticket.

rare is an understatement...only hear of that offence once/twice a year, where someone clears an 3" scrape through ice/snow on the windshield.

fortec_man wrote:"highway" includes a common and public highway, street, avenue, parkway, driveway, square, place, bridge, viaduct or trestle, any part of which is intended for or used by the general public for the passage of vehicles and includes the area between the lateral property lines thereof;

That's it exactly. Any public road in Ontario is a highway.

hwybear wrote:

Squishy wrote:You may have the GPS screen visible to you if you are not holding it (e.g., mounted somewhere). If possible, don't mount it on your windshield - it's rare, but you could get a "windshield obstructed" ticket.

rare is an understatement...only hear of that offence once/twice a year, where someone clears an 3" scrape through ice/snow on the windshield.

Okay, so very rare.

I was thinking that this sort of thing might get a bit more attention when the blitzes start on the electronic devices law.