Topic: Mom Street Racing her Volvo in School Zone

[Thinking Out Loud]

101 in a 50 school zone.  THIS  is where the law makes some modicum of sense...

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/491265

[tenpenny]

Yup, that makes sense.  She should know better, selfish .

[DriverJeff]

Indeed she should be punished for her selfish, foolish actions, but it does not make this particular law any more correct or reasonable. 

I got a kick out of the ominous data provided in the article too:
"At 101 km/h, a car moves at just over 28 metres per second and would not stop under full braking for another 53.54 metres, said Traffic Services Sgt. Steve O’Donovan.

O’Donovan estimated that it would take about 95 metres – roughly equivalent to the length of a football field – for a car travelling at that speed to come to a complete stop."

Was this information for specifically that woman's car?  You can't really generalize this information.  Braking, as we all know, depends on a lot of different factors including the type of car, the condition of the brakes, the condition of the tires, the condition of the road surface (incl. wet, dry, icy, smooth, rough...), the weight of the car (including load, # of passenger, cargo), etc.....

[WagonMan]

I like the how the Star focuses on the school and daycare nearby.  Got to have babies and children in danger to make a good story!

That section of Mt. Pleasant is four lanes and only has a few interesections on it.  As well the intersection at Elm has lights and in the morning a crossing guard.  

There is no excuse for 101 in that zone, but it is also not as insane as the story makes it sound.  As well she should have known better then to speed like that on Mt. Pleasant as that intersection is only about 1km south of the area where a taxi driver was killed by a couple of street racers a few years ago.  One of the high profile incidents that ended up giving us this nice street racing law in the first place.

I bet she will fight it and get it reduced by a good lawyer.  Especially since at 101 they can call into question the accruacy of the radar equipment.

[Schmengie]

Indeed she should be punished for her selfish, foolish actions, but it does not make this particular law any more correct or reasonable. 

I got a kick out of the ominous data provided in the article too:
"At 101 km/h, a car moves at just over 28 metres per second and would not stop under full braking for another 53.54 metres, said Traffic Services Sgt. Steve O’Donovan.

O’Donovan estimated that it would take about 95 metres – roughly equivalent to the length of a football field – for a car travelling at that speed to come to a complete stop."

Was this information for specifically that woman's car?  You can't really generalize this information.  Braking, as we all know, depends on a lot of different factors including the type of car, the condition of the brakes, the condition of the tires, the condition of the road surface (incl. wet, dry, icy, smooth, rough...), the weight of the car (including load, # of passenger, cargo), etc.....

That's completely irrelevant. She was speeding in a SCHOOL ZONE with, you know, KIDS!! It doesn't make much difference to a kid playing in the road if it takes 95 meters or 55 for her to stop if he's only 20 meters in front of her. 

I hope this stupid pays the highest price possible including permanent confiscation of her car. Anyone that stupid shouldn't be allowed to procreate.

[quadzilla]

So I guess the 150kph speed limiter wouldn't make any difference in this situation. 

[WagonMan]

Indeed she should be punished for her selfish, foolish actions, but it does not make this particular law any more correct or reasonable. 

I got a kick out of the ominous data provided in the article too:
"At 101 km/h, a car moves at just over 28 metres per second and would not stop under full braking for another 53.54 metres, said Traffic Services Sgt. Steve O’Donovan.

O’Donovan estimated that it would take about 95 metres – roughly equivalent to the length of a football field – for a car travelling at that speed to come to a complete stop."

Was this information for specifically that woman's car?  You can't really generalize this information.  Braking, as we all know, depends on a lot of different factors including the type of car, the condition of the brakes, the condition of the tires, the condition of the road surface (incl. wet, dry, icy, smooth, rough...), the weight of the car (including load, # of passenger, cargo), etc.....

That's completely irrelevant. She was speeding in a SCHOOL ZONE with, you know, KIDS!! It doesn't make much difference to a kid playing in the road if it takes 95 meters or 55 for her to stop if he's only 20 meters in front of her. 

I hope this stupid pays the highest price possible including permanent confiscation of her car. Anyone that stupid shouldn't be allowed to procreate.

Like I said above this is a four lane road, with no driveways for houses and a limited number of roads accessing it in that area.  There would never be any kids playing on that road and any kids crossing it would be at the lights at Elm.  I drive that stretch daily and have never even seen anyone j-walking in that area.  The private school at that intersection also has a covered walkway going over Mt. Pleasant that was built to protect students given the nature of the road in that area.

An additional fact is that after the street racing incident in the area that killed the taxi driver the speed limit for that stretch was dropped from 60 to 50 in a knee jerk reaction to the accident (as if the street racers in question were paying attention to the speed limit  ).  Given the type of road the speed limit is too low, and it is an easy picking ground for the police.  If it were still at 60 we would never have heard about this ticket.

No excuse for that speed, but lets not over hype the real danger involved in the incident.

[DriverJeff]

Indeed she should be punished for her selfish, foolish actions, but it does not make this particular law any more correct or reasonable. 

I got a kick out of the ominous data provided in the article too:
"At 101 km/h, a car moves at just over 28 metres per second and would not stop under full braking for another 53.54 metres, said Traffic Services Sgt. Steve O’Donovan.

O’Donovan estimated that it would take about 95 metres – roughly equivalent to the length of a football field – for a car travelling at that speed to come to a complete stop."

Was this information for specifically that woman's car?  You can't really generalize this information.  Braking, as we all know, depends on a lot of different factors including the type of car, the condition of the brakes, the condition of the tires, the condition of the road surface (incl. wet, dry, icy, smooth, rough...), the weight of the car (including load, # of passenger, cargo), etc.....

That's completely irrelevant. She was speeding in a SCHOOL ZONE with, you know, KIDS!! It doesn't make much difference to a kid playing in the road if it takes 95 meters or 55 for her to stop if he's only 20 meters in front of her. 

I hope this stupid pays the highest price possible including permanent confiscation of her car. Anyone that stupid shouldn't be allowed to procreate.

Sorry, my point wasn't clear.  As I did clearly state, she should be punished -- no excuse.  My point about the braking distances is separate and simply speaks to the apparent need of the media to elevate the drama in their story.  The fact that she was excessively speeding, was caught and is being punished has nothing to do with the braking distances of some 'general' car.  Likewise, as Wagonman suggested, the only reason the school zone was referenced was to help further vilify the woman and present her as some beastly, child-squashing monster.

[mrthompson]

Any speed over the limit in an urban area is dangerous, IMO.  There are too many potential hazards.

[johngenx]

Any speed over the limit in an urban area is dangerous, IMO.  There are too many potential hazards.

I never speed in residential areas.  Kids, dogs, cats, the mail-person, whatever.  Too many things that are near/on the road at any time and you need to keep stopping distances super-short.

You can go on about four-lanes, lights, crossing guards, whatever.  100km/h is freeway/highway speed, not urban residential.

She can fight the accuracy of the LIDAR/RADAR (whichever) unit, but good luck with that.  New LIDAR units are deadly accurate and have pinpoint widths so that there is little or no question of which car is being targeted.  Courts have determined that those speed measuring devices are excellent evidence.

Now, she might be able to cut a deal to have the ticket reduced, but I'm not sure if the crown will go for it considering the media coverage.  She will do well to get a court date some time out and then the heat will be off in terms of press coverage.

However, I do hope she eats a big fine and possibly a license suspension.  Moron.

[Thinking Out Loud]

[That's completely irrelevant. She was speeding in a SCHOOL ZONE with, you know, KIDS!! It doesn't make much difference to a kid playing in the road if it takes 95 meters or 55 for her to stop if he's only 20 meters in front of her. 

I hope this stupid pays the highest price possible including permanent confiscation of her car. Anyone that stupid shouldn't be allowed to procreate.

I believe the point of the article was intended to drive home (or 'STREET RACE' in this case) the point that the police are especially out in force patrolling school zones given school has just restarted and both kids and drivers are 2 months out of practice with each other's peculiarities.

Police ALWAYS have a special school efforts to curb speeding or passing school busses with lights flashing this time of the year - like the OPP do on long weekends - not sensationalize the story and demonize the driver.   This is no different than making an example of some loon ripping up the 400 at 185kph on a long weekend. 

I suppose if the Volvo driver's kid was hit by somebody doing what she did, they'd be a different story.........

Maybe 'Street Racing' isn't a perfect solution, but I'm glad it's being applied equally.

[safristi]

..I says we needs ta teach the Lard Arse kids ta RUN FASTER............

[mrthompson]

[vdk]

Woman, Volvo, kids... 101 in a 50 zone? C'mon...

[The Fuzz]

Now, she might be able to cut a deal to have the ticket reduced, but I'm not sure if the crown will go for it considering the media coverage. 

They will. It's all about the conviction for them.

[dr_spock]

Fortunately no taxi drivers were harmed or killed in this speeding incident. 

[sailor723]

Maybe people would have fewer problems with this law if they called the offense something other than "Street Racing"? How about charging these people with a new offense.....say,something like "Driving like an Idiot and deserving to lose your license and pay a huge fine"?

[tpl]

Surely some combination of
Criminal Negligence ( causing death or injury)
Dangerous driving    (     "                                  )
Reckless driving
and
Driving without due care and attention

 and adding "while impaired" to any of themcover everything?


Street racing is DD or RD if no one is hurt rapidly rising to DD causing death

[WagonMan]

Any speed over the limit in an urban area is dangerous, IMO.  There are too many potential hazards.

When it comes to the 40kph limits in residential areas I am usually the driver holding people up.  I am always annoyed when people are going 50-55 through neighbourhoods.

However, if you stick to the "any speed over the limit" is bad rule on this stretch of Mt. Pleasant you will be impeding traffic flow and creating additional risk for everyone. Generally traffic flow in that area is about 60-65 kph.

[gta_driver]

Sounds like from the Star Article, the mom was speeding around Branksome Hall, which is an expensive private school. I would hedge a bet, that she's probably one of those uppity mom's from Leaside, Davisville, Rosedale or another one of those very high income areas. Good for the police catching her. That secion of Mt. Pleasant is notorious for speeding and racing. A few years ago an innocent taxi driver was killed just a bit north of there by two university students racing a BMW and Mercedes.