Video Transcription:
Surprising Ontario traffic laws. I want to take this time to talk to you a bit about some interesting legislation. We call them highway traffic laws, we call them sections under the Highway Traffic Act, but there are some interesting ones that have come up over my many years of doing this type of work.
One of the ones that sort of gets a smile is legislation under the Highway Traffic Act, section 77(1). That particular legislation makes it an offence to be driving around in a sleigh—presumably in winter—and if you’re caught doing that sort of thing, you can expect to see a $5 fine, which certainly will raise an eyebrow. It’s more humorous than anything else.
Another interesting piece of legislation you may come across if you take the time to simply go through the Highway Traffic Act is crowding of the driver’s seat. That’s found under Section 162 of the Highway Traffic Act. If you’re found doing that, there’s an $85 fine, which is kind of irrelevant, but what people don’t know is what that legislation is really talking about.
The best example that I’ve seen in several cases is some people having their pet, their animal, in the driver’s seat with them. You can imagine if it’s a 100-pound German Shepherd that gets scared and jumps into the driver’s seat with the driver, it certainly creates a bit of a hazard. That’s the legislation that I’ve seen from time to time. It’s always interesting when that comes up. The most recent example wasn’t the German Shepherd, but actually a small five-pound Chihuahua that jumped in the driver’s lap. That particular person ended up with a ticket for that charge. We were successful in defending that, but that’s the type of thing you see with a charge like that.
That being said, another particularly fascinating section that I found is a frightened animal under Section 167. A great example of what that’s talking about is, imagine a mounted police officer—RCMP or local—on a horse, and some adolescent male squealing their tires right near that animal, causing it to jump or spook or run, maybe into a crowd of people, or maybe throw the rider. That’s what they’re talking about under Section 167.
Probably the last notable one I can think of off the top of my head is a fascinating section. You’ve got to know the history of this particular section of the Highway Traffic Act. It’s under Section 177. It’s a very minor fine, but the purpose of that legislation is what’s fascinating.
Years ago, we didn’t have things like cell phones or dash cameras, and certainly there weren’t cameras on every corner, and prostitution in some municipalities was a problem. One of the ways they dealt with sort of cleaning up neighborhoods and getting prostitution off the streets was to create a section that dealt with people standing around on the corners of streets. You’ve heard of red light districts. One of the enforcement tools used was under, again, 171 of the Highway Traffic Act, and it’s called solicit a ride.
What the police were doing at that time was if they found someone they suspected of prostitution standing around a little too long, you would see a charge of soliciting a ride being issued to that particular individual.
