You could be charged with stunt driving
The reading on an OPP officer’s radar — 90 km/h — after pulling over a transport truck in a 50 km/h zone in Canfield, Ontario. This met the threshold for “stunt driving” and the truck was impounded on the spot.
Farmers Forum staff
OTTAWA — Pay very close attention to your speedometer when entering the outskirts of any rural Ontario village from a swift drive in the country. The road may be straight and smooth as glass, but the potential punishment can be immediate and harsh if the motorist fails to ease off on the accelator and is more than 40 km/h over the limit.
Coasting past that 50 km/h sign at 90 km/h triggers the recently revised legal threshold for “stunt driving” in Ontario. Prepare to immediately lose your vehicle for 14 days, and your licence for 30 days.
A Carleton County farmer found out the hard way. Earlier this year he was stopped and charged for the second time for driving 40 km/h over the speed limit as he sailed into a village south of Ottawa. His vehicle was immediately impounded for two weeks. He called a friend to get a ride home.
More recently, a 22-year-old tractor-trailer driver was schooled on speed June 22 when an OPP officer recorded the rig travelling at more than 90 km/h in a 50 km/h zone in the rural Southwestern Ontario village of Canfield, south of Hamilton. The large rig was impounded and the young trucker’s licence was taken on the spot. The driver must also answer to speeding and stunt-driving charges in court. Prior to 2021, he would have received a whopping ticket but still would have been able to drive off in the truck.
Since 2021, the law treats motorists as stunt drivers if speeding 40 km/h above a posted limit that is less than 80 km/h. The threshold used to be 50 km/h over the posted limit in all cases. But that higher bar now only applies when the speed limit is 80 km/h or more.
