joe80

Every year, the Southern Ontario Mini Club organizes two charity drives – one in the Spring and one in the Fall. Over time, the event has grown from a handful of participating cars to over 30, and as such, this year the organizers let local law enforcement know where the caravan would be and when it would be there as a courtesy. So far, so good, right? Not exactly.

During the first part of the drive, the convoy ran into a few members of the Ontario Provincial Police without incident. One officer even went so far as to tell the organizers that there was only one other patrol for the rest of the route. Turns out that wasn't quite true.

Instead of providing an escort for the convoy or thanking the organizers for a heads up, the OPP set up a speed trap along the route where the limit changes from 100 km/h to 90 km/h. When the parade of Minis came past, officers pulled over the whole lot, and cited three cars for going 121-123 kmh in a 90 kmh zone, or about 76 in a 55. One driver was also cited for having a radar detector and had his equipment confiscated.

Yes, setting up a speed trap on a charity drive is a ***** move, but it gets worse. The OPP evidently called the local television station beforehand so they could film the whole sting. Once the station had the film, they broadcast a story claiming that 11 of the Mini drivers had been arrested for doing 50 kmh over the speed limit and that they had their vehicles confiscated as a result. Even worse, the story claimed that some of the Mini drivers had their children with them and that the OPP had called the Canadian equivalent of child services on the parents.

Members of the Mini club complained to the station, and the video was taken down as a result, though no apology or retraction has been issued so far.


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http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/01/c...e-mini-convoy/


Canada rules!!

UberNoob

OPP is getting out of hands now

by the way, for those who dont know what OPP is, it is the Ontario Provincial Police
all other provinces uses RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) which has less of these ***** cops (not talking about the city level police right now)

joe80

I'm down with OPP

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

*** crack cops..

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

That is the economy for you. Everywhere they are looking to make extra money. Even were I live I notice a lot more Police speed traps. A few months ago when I got a ticket they only asked for my license. No registration, no insurance nothing. They just wrote the ticket quickly and moved on to the next speeder. They just keep pulling people over all day as quickly as possibly.

Jetfire

iTrader: (3)

douche move by OPP.


maybe they thought the minis were pulling an italian job?

mmarshall

This not rare.....there are also places in the U.S. where radar detectors are also forbidden....one of them is my own state of VA. Another is D.C., right across the river. In VA, an operating detector can be impounded (and the State Police have means of detecting when they are in use), though you can have a non-operating one in the car if you are registered out-of-state. So, if that Mini driver knew they were outlawed in Ontario, and didn't turn it off or stash it away, then it's on him, not the cops.

I wouldn't quite use obscenity to describe it like the article did, but I agree it is questionable on the part of the cops to target a charity drive like this, IF in fact that is what they were specifically doing (and the article is probably right to question it). Still, police sting or not, 76 MPH in a 55 zone is a significant offense......in many states here in the U.S., 20-25 MPG over the limit is considered reckless driving.

In this particular Canadian situation, I'm not sure it's just because of the economy.....or for the state to make extra bucks. First of all, Canadians, even those who don't drive or own a car, are already taxed much higher than Americans, so the state pulls in a lot more (per capita) to start with....there isn't much pressure to get it from speeders. Second, for nuisance speed traps that are just designed just to pull in bucks (and, yes, there are some), they're going to set the standards much closer, and nab people going just a few MPH over, not just the 20-25 MPH like these guys were.

ivanz

The problem with this is the fact that it was a staged media show by the OPP...who invited the media to film it. They knew the route since the club mailed it to them. They were also told by an officer at the start of the meet that there were no cops along the way, which appears to have been done on purpose to get them to speed.

While they may have been going faster than the speed limit, the de facto speed limit is usually +20-30 km/h on Ontario highways...you only get pulled over for going really faster compared to others usually.

According to the people at the meet, people going faster than them were allowed to pass while they were pulled over. So it was clearly a publicity stunt by the OPP, which is pushing the so called "speed kills" agenda. This was further exaggerated by the media by saying everybody at the meet was going 50km/h over the speed limit when nobody actually got a ticket for that.

mmarshall

That's about the same (or maybe a little more) than on a lot of U.S. highways....the km/h equivalent of 10-15 MPH.

Of course speed alone does not kill, but it increases the chances of vehicle damage, injury, or death if an accident does occur.


I agree (as I said in my last post) that the whole thing is questionable. My guess is that if these Mini drivers contest the tickets in traffic court, they will probably get the fines lowered some, if not actually removed.

bruce van

If I were in charge at Mini of North America, I would pay for everyone's ticket. How cool of a publicity move would this be? It is clearly unfair of the OPP to target the Mini owners on their charity drive.

How much money do you think all of those tickets would add up to? It would be a super cool PR move if this were to happen.

mmarshall

Yes, I agree it would be a nice PR move in one sense (for charity purposes), but Mini, like most auto manufacturers (at least on paper, if not in actuality) probably doesn't want to be seen as encouraging speeding. So it might be a tough choice.

Like I suggested above, that would be up to the judge (or traffic adjudicator), if the Mini drivers contest their tickets.

Faymester

People having fun with their cars in Canada? That is most certainly NOT allowed!

muhbuhtuh

lmao that is pretty damn lame

bagwell

boo!



(it reads '50' for 50 years of Mini)

Lil4X

Yes, it was a pretty sorry move, but look at it this way. Here was a car club ostensibly conducting a charity event, but leading the run 30 kph over the posted limit is irresponsible in the extreme. That's not a charity event, it's a race - let's put the correct name on it.

The local cops were well within their rights to stop these lawbreakers - and certainly were acting to protect other users of the roadway when this crew of scofflaws decided they were immune to prosecution because they were conducting their event for a noble cause. I wonder what the officials of the charity think of their name being dragged into this?