OHTA.ca

Hi,

I was reading the forum around to see if I could find a similar situation as mine. I was also charged with careless driving for a rear end that happened on the highway.

Basically in a nutshell. I was driving behind another car about to get off into the collectors. As the car in front merged I did as well and decided to change the radio station which took my eyes away from the road. I didn't notice that he slowed down to a 90 and I rear ended him at 100. When we got out he argued that the 427 was a 90 zone (its a 100 zone) and that I was speeding, I told him otherwise. I'm not sure what he said to the cop but I got a careless driving ticket. This was at 2am in the morning. I'm not sure if any speed was recorded from what was told to the police but I made sure to state in my statement that I was doing 100 and that the other care slowed down to a 90 when he changed lanes.

The entire trunk of the other car was smashed in. My car, however, was fine (Pathfinders are very durable). Insurance was involved.

I have went ahead and pleaded not guilty, however, I am not sure how to proceed in court. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

The general advice on these forums with a careless charge is to seek legal representation. While it is a difficult charge to prove, the consequences (particularly in terms of insurance) are quite serious on conviction. In your case I'd say you're certainly at fault in the collision, and there's a reasonable prospect of conviction if you provided any type of statement admitting that you weren't paying attention while merging.

If you really don't want to use representation, I'd at least speak with the Crown and see if they're willing to offer you a plea deal to a less serious offence such as follow too close or fail to turn out to avoid collision.

Just one word of advice: Do not testify. (I would still do what Stanton suggested, which is get legal help for this charge) If you testify that you took your eyes off the road to change a radio station and in so doing banged a vehicle that was going 90 km/h, that would be enough for many JPs to convict you of careless driving. You must also be truthful when testifying (perjury is a criminal offence), so if the Prosecutor asks: "Did you take your eyes off the road, and why" ... you are toast.

A paralegal or traffic lawyer would be able to put together a pretty good defence, or help you plead it down to something less.

The speed does not sound critical to a conviction, it is more about your actual driving and the fact that you took the eyes off the road.