OHTA.ca

My story: Travelling Eastbound on Hwy # 8 between New Hamburg and Kitchener I noticed a couple of OPP cruiser's with lights flashing on the shoulder, I was in the right lane amongst other vehicles when one of the cruiser's pulled out and pulled me over, he stated I failed to move into the other lane and handed me a $490 ticket for this offense. I was not aware of this, although perhaps I should have been but I got my license over 30 years ago so I just did not know. As I was waiting for my ticket at least 50 other vehicles passed me, in the right lane with the cruiser behind me, lights flashing, it appears a lot of people are not aware of this law and I feel that a warning would have been sufficient, this was purely a blitz and money grab. My question is should I plead not guilty and fight it ? and if so what is the procedure.

Please provide your input, thanks

I do not give out warnings for this charge. You put my life in danger and you get a charge. At highway speeds I will tell the speeder( or what ever I have stopped a warning) and go after the car that passed me.

This charge came out of far to may cruisers being struck on t-stops by drivers not paying attention.

OPS

The high fine should tell you it's not meant to be a money grab, it's a serious offence. The law has been well publicized for a few years now, so a warning should not be expected. An emergency vehicle on the side of the road means you need to pull over to the next lane if safe to do so. If not, you need to reduce you speed while you pass.

If you plan to fight it in Court, the fact you were unaware of the law or you observed other drivers commit the offence is irrelevant. My experience is J.P.'s take the charge quite seriously since it's a big safety issue for emergency responders. Your options are basically to go to trial and see if the Crown can prove their case (probably can as you did commit the offence) or see if the Crown will offer you a deal with a lesser charge/fine.

Thanks for the posts, I agree with you, I should have known how serious this offense is and I certainly will move over from now on, honestly though I had no idea of this requirement and do not recall hearing about it as I do not watch TV or listen to the radio, I would imagine I received a bulletin with my license renewal but don't remember reading it. I'm not making up excuses, I broke the law and must pay the fine. Guess I'll take option 2, go to the court and see if they will reduce the fine. Does anyone know if and how much the fine might be reduced for this offense ?

If recall correctly...December of 2002 is when the law came into place. At that time there was wide spread media on the move over law. The law was also published in many licence/renewal sticker packages, that most people just pull out the main portion and chuck the new info.

Part of the law is that "if" you can not move over, you "must" slow down. I slow 20-40km/hr below the speed limit when in this situation (which I have had only to do on a 2 lane area).

They should include towtruck operators in this law. It must be pretty scary hitching a vehicle while cars are zooming past you going 80 - 120 km/hour .

Christian2000 wrote:They should include towtruck operators in this law. It must be pretty scary hitching a vehicle while cars are zooming past you going 80 - 120 km/hour .

Our local MPP is working on just such a law to change the definition to include tow trucks stopped at the scene, although the local paper worded the article poorly and made it seem like we had to pull over for tow trucks driving to a call.

Christian2000 wrote:They should include towtruck operators in this law.

Meh, no matter what is on the shoulder...all drivers should move over. Could be parents with a sick child on shoulder, child all sudden plays trick and runs around vehicle into the lane.