OHTA.ca

Hello,

I received a ticket for going 65 in a 40, no excuse and I’m usually more careful but I just wasn’t paying attention to my speed and it was downhill so I gained some momentum. Anyways, the cop was on foot? I saw what I thought was a pedestrian heading out in to the street and just thought said pedestrian was going to cross the street, couldn’t really tell he was a cop from when I saw him (it was dark and nothing reflected) I obviously stopped, a car behind me went in to right lane clearly not knowing what was happening, thought they would go around but the car also eventually stopped. He then signaled for me to pull off to side street which I did. The way he did this, would there be any grounds for ticket being thrown out? As I think about it more, it was unsafe for him, unsafe for me and unsafe for the other cars. Is there not something procedurally wrong with that? Why was he in the street and not in a cruiser?

If nothing wrong with this, should I go for early resolution or trial option?

megabytes wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 1:13 am

The way he did this, would there be any grounds for ticket being thrown out?

Officers stepping into the road to direct vehicles to pull over is a normal occurrence.

Even if you don't agree with the safety of it, it would be considered irrelevant to your charge.

At best, you are free to file a complaint and that would be a process completely independent of your speeding. That's about it. However, I wouldn't count on it being investigated.

At an Early Resolution Meeting, an offer may be made available to you. It'll probably be safe to assume it would be something like 15km over if your charge hasn't already been reduced. An Early Resolution meeting isn't the time or place to make any sort of argument. You will either decide to take the offer or not. If not, they can set you up with a trial date.

With a trial, you'll pretty much go through the same song and dance as an Early Resolution. They will make you an offer before going to trial. So unless you are set on taking a deal as quick as possible and moving on with your life, you might as well get a trial date.

Thank you for your reply, I’ve obviously seen cops do this at red lights and what not but just never for speeding. He wasn’t even recognizable as an officer and that just seems off to me. No point in making a complaint, nothing would happen.

Courts are already 1-1.5 years behind, no new dates have been scheduled since March of last year in Toronto so it’ll be a long time until this is resolved. I have another ticket pending so I’m worried about insurance implications. No tickets since I’ve been driving and now I have two in past 6 months from my own stupidity.