OHTA.ca

First time using this site, wanted to get some info.

What happened was, this is my first accident, I was driving down highway 11 in heavy traffic, towing 2 seadoos (very heavy) i was doing between 30 and 40 km/h, the guy infront of me hit his brakes, i hit mine, and due to the weight of the load and my truck combines, my brakes locked up and i slid into him, only doing about 5km/h when i hit him. Minor damage, trunk was smushed in a bit and left tail light broken, No damage to me and no injuries at all. I left about 3 car lengths ahead of me while driving and actually almost didnt hit him.

Now, my question, on the ticket and accident report i got, there are MANY mistakes, they are: - My middle and last name spelt wrong, My date of birth wrong, My vehicle model wrong, number of passangers in my vehicle wrong, (i named all the people and gave info, so there is written proof of the right number of people in my truck), only the area code on the accident report under my name and no phone number from the other car involved. Im not sure if the smaller mistakes are even mistakes and Im sure if there was just one of the smaller mistakes it wouldnt matter, but i cant believe there are this many mistakes on my ticket, especially when the officer had all my info in his hands when he wrote it all down.

when i take this to court will that give me any sort of advantage? All im hoping for is to get a lesser charge, because i cant justify a careless driving charge with the accident that happened. Iv called for legal advice but wont get a call back for another day,

any info here would be great and would help put me at ease about all this.

It doesn't sound like any of the mistakes are fatal errors, particularly if the mistakes are on the accident report instead of the ticket. Regardless, the Crown is usually pretty quick to offer a plea deal to a lesser offence for careless charges, especially for minor accidents. I'd request a first attendance meeting and see what they offer. You could possibly try fighting the charge outright with legal representation, but unless it's a sure thing taking a gamble on a careless charge is pretty risky. They'll probably offer you a plea deal to follow too close or something similar.

thanks for the reply. There are also many errors on the ticket itself, but i'll have to wait and see how that effects the situation. The only thing im really worried about is i found out from x copper, that if your convicted of an offence, 4 points or more, that G2 drivers get their license suspended for 30 days. Thats a huge blow for me. Chances are i will lose my job if I get a 30 day suspension. Im angered and find it really unfair that theres a chance i will get my license suspended for such a minor accident, also considering I have a spotless record up till now. It frustrates me because i know other people that have been in far more severe accidents, where they where infact being very careless, but instead got lesser charges.

Disregard my suggestion for follow too closely then since it carries 4 demerit points. Another possibility would be fail to turn to avoid collision, section 148(5). It only carries 2 demerit points.