OHTA.ca

Recently, a friend was charged with fail to yield entering a roundabout. The one charged had damage on the front driver corner, and the other vehicle in the rear passenger corner panel. The vehicle with rear damage wasn't able to drive due to tire damage. both vehicles limped off the roadway and parked off to the side until the responding police force was able to attend.

The officer that arrived about 2.5 hours later never went out to the3 lane roundabout to see if there was any damage, vehicle parts or signs to corroborate one version of the story or the other. One vehicle, with rear damage, had 2 adults in it, both of whose wrote their statements while side by side in their secondary vehicle that arrived on scene, while the one driving the car with frontal damage wrote their statement in their car.

2 questions. Is there an obligation for statements to be written independently? Also, should the officer not have gone out to look at the scene. When he laid the charge of failing to yield, he said in his professional opinion it was the right charge for the circumstances followed by a statement that he's unsure how many demerit points, if any, the charge carries. I know it's 3, but in the professional opinion of the officer this wasn't known?

Is it worth disputing the ticket.

Always worth disputing every ticket in my opinion. Plead not guilty and request a trial. Once you get notice of trial, request copy of officer notes and a copy of all witness statements and any will-say statements.

The officer is not required to know how many demerits a charge carries... that is the MTO's job to decide that.

Not sure about the statements. Although at trial you could question them both about making them the same.

To answer your first question, the obligation is on the witness not to lie while giving a statement. Could the officer have had separated them? I guess, but it's a fender bender where one driver had the right of way and the other didn't. It's not a crime scene investigation.

As to the second question, it's a roundabout. I'd imagine whatever happened was pretty straight forward. One driver had the right of way and the other didn't. The driver entering the roundabout has a responsibility to do so safely. Based on the damage and statements, the officer came to a conclusion. Demerit points have nothing to do with the officer. They just lay the charge. Demerit points are given out by the MTO as a penalty system. It's irrelevant to the officer. They just lay the appropriate charge. Whatever happens after that is out of their hands.

Whether or not you want to dispute the ticket is up to you. A conviction is a conviction whether there's demerit points or not. The MTO cares about your points, your insurance provider does not.

Award for most concise and clear post goes to bend !