this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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I think that prison and permanent suspension is a little extreme for a first offence. That'll put a significant fraction of male youth into prison and forever screw up their lives.
When I was a kid, it seemed like a racetrack was never more than an hour away and every second slough had an ice-racing track. Maybe we should be looking at ways to explain and maybe even visit legitimate options for these activities as part of driver education.
I never felt much desire to show off on the street because there was street class racing at the local dragstrip every Sunday.
One accident could forever change multiple family's lives, too. The OPP catches people going 200km+ over the speed limit. That's insane!
The problem with stunt driving is twofold: it's something that is done often, not just one time. And from past licence suspensions given by the OPP during crackdowns, it seems a fair number already had their licence suspended, so there should be some jail time to actually get them off the road. This is a criminal sport on public roads, so there really should be zero tolerance.
FWIW, the OPP reported over 8000 charges for stunt driving in 2020. 8000 caught with countless more getting away with it.
How do you balance punishment and risk/evasion in this case?
I do think that more public racetracks should be available for those who want to legally race, but something tells me that these guys aren't looking to legally race.
Nobody is doing 250-300km/h. Our roads aren't that good, and the only tires that won't disintegrate at that speed are made for Lamborghinis and Bugattis.
Sad, but true. 308km/h on the QEW!!
I don't have any good answers. Perhaps the model of other traffic violations can be applied.
Running a red light or stop sign is a pretty minor ticket especially when you consider the potential impact. Yet when you get something like the Broncos and Carberry bus crashes and even much smaller incidents that barely make the news , people go to prison. People are killed pretty regularly as a result of what the fines tell us are pretty minor violations, but we mostly ignore them until a disaster ensues.
For something like stunting, I would be behind a two strikes system for those with a valid license.
Say, $5k fine, 6-12 month license suspension with mandatory classes and retraining, and at least 1 month vehicle impound for first offence.
Second offense could be $10k fine, a few months in jail, permanent suspension, and vehicle confiscation.
If an injury or death occurs or if stunting while suspended or otherwise unlicensed, that becomes a criminal offense with some prison time along with whatever else.
I could be behind that. It's way better than what's currently being proposed.