OHTA.ca

I was on my way to work one typical morning, and I stopped at the subdivision stop sign, then proceeded only to be pulled over by the police.

I received a ticket from a cop who told me that I didn't stop at the stop sign for long enough, I did in fact stop, it wasn't a rolling stop, he indicated that I didnt stop for 3-5 seconds ...

Is there such a rule in the Ontario Highway Traffic Act that stipulates this? I obeyed the stop sign but didn't count 5 steamboats, what the?

I was also charged with an out dated insurance slip, that was out of date by 5 days ... 5 days!! The police officer told me to take the new insurance slip to the court and they would waive it. The new slip is on my kitchen counter, I just haven't swapped it in my vehicle yet. Now I have to take time off work to go to the court

I received two "questionable" offenses, can anyone provide any help?

Thanks in advance

There is no guarantee that the prosecutor will "waive" (withdraw) the insurance charge, regardless of what the officer said. That is often what happens, but the officer cannot bind the prosecutor to a course of action.

With respect to the stop sign charge the HTA just says that a vehicle must come to a complete stop. It doesn't say anything about how long you have to be at a complete stop for.

Frodamob wrote:I did in fact stop, it wasn't a rolling stop, he indicated that I didnt stop for 3-5 seconds ...

As Simon says... the HTA only says you have to stop. There is no time period specified. The only requirement is that your forward motion must cease, even for a split second. I'd file for disclosure and see what his notes say. If they say something like "vehicle did not stop for at least 3 seconds" it's PARTY TIME! Okay, not really... but you should be able to either get the charge withdrawn, or win in court, if that's the case. Driving schools often teach 3 seconds, but that's not the law... and in Toronto you're just inviting the person behind you to pass you and run the stop sign, or the person who is waiting for you to go ahead.

You could argue the fact that if the officer did not stop you for the alledged stop sign violation, he never would have asked for your insurance slip..... like Radar said, file for disclosure.