OHTA.ca

Hello all!

Firstly I just want to say that I understand that the Police hear every story in the books. He's what happen to me, I was driving along the 401 the early hours of the morning last week and I almost got ran off the road by a driver in a black Nissian. He passed me and was swerving between two lanes and driving very erratically. My Girlfriend was with me and we decided that we should do something about this before someone gets hurt.

I made the decision to pull up and get the license plate of the vehicle so that we could call the police. We got it and I turned to her and we were just talking about if we should call 411 and get the local police number or call 911. As this was going down wouldn't you know it that we passed a Cop! My savior..... Nope... Two Cops! They BOTH pulled me over and upon the cop coming up to my windows he asked if I knew how fast I was going, I explained that we were behind a suspected drunk driver. My Girlfriend was sitting there with her phone in hand and a piece a paper with the persons license on it. I said I was right behind him and they could get him. The Officer asked for my license and registration. I politely gave it to him as it appeared he had no interest in the public's safety and just his quota for tickets for the night. After all there was two of them (in two separate squad cars).

He then brought me back my licence and registration along with a nice new little yellow slip. He started to tell me about the ticket that he was issuing and I interrupted and asked, "Are you at least going to take the Plate of the car ahead and try to find him?". He politely replied. "Sure". I read it off and he handed me my ticket.

Here is my question: I noticed that he did not take note of the plate number nor was the officer even remotely interested in trying to catch a DUI. There were two officers at the scene and one of them could have went ahead and caught the guy if they reacted in time. I got a ticket of 138 in a 100 zone, I don't even really care about that because if they caught the guy and possible prevented someone from getting hurt it was worth the money. I know that you cannot break the law to stop someone from doing something but you would think there is some obligation on the officers side! no?

I saw this article :http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/Articl ... ?e=3174090 in this a local kid is a hero for reporting a drunk driver after he got into an accident. I guess you have to wait for something bad to happen before the police will take it seriously. Also, Here is a quote from that article: "As a driver in Ontario, you are allowed to use your cell phone while operating a motor vehicle if you are calling 911 as a result of an emergency, Dufour said."

With all this being said, What should I do about my ticket? If they allow you to use your phone and drive to report a drunk driver, if I spend a little to get the guys plate is that not the same???? Can the Police really turn a blind eye like this??

Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately even if your intentions were good, it does not exempt you from speeding. While licence plates are great, even if you had called in a general description and location, that could be enough for the police to locate the vehicle, particularly on the 401 at night. And in future, you can call 911 for drunk drivers.

Any concerns with how the police dealt with your situation are best directed to the police service itself. I know from your perspective it seemed pretty poor, but there may be other factors you werent aware of. In short, its hard to say without knowing what the actual officers perspective was at the time.