31 people arrested after Mississauga street racers shut down major highway
Published February 22, 2024 at 2:53 pm
Nearly three dozen people are facing well over 100 charges after police busted an alleged street racing group that undertook the illegal activity on a Mississauga road before shutting down a major highway a short time later.
Peel Regional Police said in a news release on Thursday that an operation by the force’s Safer Roads Team dubbed Project Speedbump has resulted in 31 arrests, 53 Criminal Code charges and another 69 charges laid under the Highway Traffic Act.
Those arrested are from various places across the GTA.
According to police, the charges are related to a series of incidents that unfolded on a Saturday night last November (Nov. 18) and continued into Sunday when SRT officers were monitoring 100 to 150 vehicles that had “set up to race at multiple locations,” including on American Drive in Mississauga’s east end, by Pearson Airport.
At the time, police said, officers identified “numerous drivers for various dangerous driving offences.”
A number of people returned to American Drive on the Sunday and set up to race on the road, police said.
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A crash a short time later involving a Corvette and a BMW that were allegedly racing led to numerous dangerous driving and racing charges against a 21-year-old Markham man.
A 19-year-old Toronto man was also charged with similar offences, police said.
“The other street-racing vehicles then left from this location following the accident and proceeded to set up to race on Highway 427 north, at Finch Ave West (Peel/Toronto border),” police said in their news release. “The vehicles proceeded to park along all the live lanes of the highway and blocked all traffic for over 25 minutes. The occupants of these vehicles left to spectate the races on the highway.”
The monitoring of those areas that November weekend by SRT officers led to the formation of Project Speedbump, which looked into the illegal street-racing events.
“Dangerous driving behaviours such as those which took place on Nov. 18 and 19, 2023, will be vigorously investigated and the appropriate charges will be laid,” said Peel police Road Safety Services Insp. Tim Nagtegaal.
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