OHTA.ca

Hello,

Need some guidance.

I was pulled over by an officer in Chatham area of the 401 highway for careless driving + being over the speed limit.

The officer stated that he had recieved complaints from 2 witness that I had passed a vehicle in the emergency lane and then slowed in front of the vehicle.

In addition the office gave me a ticket for speeding over the limit at 116km/hr in 100 zone (16 over the limit).

I am not sure what to do. This is something that I did not do and am not sure if how I got caught up in this. There are 2 witness's that the officer has a statement from. The officer did not witness this.

Any advise or help

Thanks

Martin

For a charge of careless driving, I always recommend some sort of professional legal representation, either from a paralegal or a lawyer who deals with traffic.

To support the charge of careless driving, they will need the witnesses to attend court. As for speeding, that's a bit of a different ballgame - they'll need the officer to attend court. What exactly did they mean by "passed a vehicle in the emergency lane"? Drove on the shoulder and then cut the guy off?

Yeah they said I dove on the shoulder and then cut off somone else

They'll need a witness for that. The witness will also have to identify you as the driver, either that or the witness will have to have followed you until the OPP stopped your vehicle without losing sight of you. A licence plate is not sufficient in this particular case. However, to make the argument in court, I would recommend getting some sort of legal advice, as I said above.

Theres a form at the bottom of the page you can also fill out to get in touch with a Paralegal.

Radar Identified wrote: A licence plate is not sufficient in this particular case. .

In court I have had convictions just with the plate before and the witness is unable to keep up with the suspect vehicle. Witness arrives several minutes after vehicle is stopped and gives statement. JP understands that the witness being prudent in driving isnt going to drive like an @$$ to keep up with a suspect vehicle. If witness is fortunate enough to keep up, we have the witness activate their 4-ways so we can identify the target easier.

Didn't seem like they had any witnesses pull over to speak to the officer in this case, at least from what I gathered from the original post.

Radar Identified wrote:Didn't seem like they had any witnesses pull over to speak to the officer in this case, at least from what I gathered from the original post.

yes, will need some statement from a witness, either in person at roadside or over the telephone for the careless offence, unless of course the officer witnessed this action

Hi all,

Appreciate the info. From a bit of info the officer told me, he acted on a complaint and so must have statement via phone from a few persons. There was no roadside witness. The officer did not witness this.