Driver doing 201 km/h on Ontario highway asks cop for warning; Mississauga man charged 

A Mississauga driver who tried to talk police out of giving him a ticket wound up with a stunt driving charge after an officer pulled over a car that was travelling at 201 km/h on the QEW in Oakville early last Wednesday morning.

Ontario Provincial Police said the vehicle was clocked at twice the posted speed limit at around 1 a.m. near Fourth Line on the busy highway.

According to the OPP Burlington detachment, the driver of the car asked the officer who had pulled him over if he could let him go with a warning.

A 20-year-old Mississauga man was charged with stunt driving and had his driver’s licence suspended for 30 days, police said. The vehicle was impounded for 14 days.

Stunt driving in Ontario is defined as travelling at:

• 50 km/h or more over the speed limit where the posted limit is above 80 km/h
• 40 km/h or more over where the limit is 80 km/h or less
• a speed of 150 km/h or more on any road or highway

Drivers who are involved in stunt driving and street racing could be subject to:

• 30-day licence suspension at roadside
• 14-day vehicle impoundment at roadside (whether it’s your vehicle or not)
• minimum fine of $2,000 and a maximum of $10,000
• jail term of up to six months
• six demerit points
• upon conviction, a further licence suspension of one year for the first conviction, three to 10 years for the second conviction and an indefinite suspension for third conviction

The incident on the QEW in Oakville comes as OPP in addition to police in Peel and across the Greater Toronto Area wind down their annual awareness/enforcement campaign to crack down on illegal street racing, stunt driving and illegal car rallies.

Known as Project ERASE (Eliminating Racing Activities on Streets Everywhere), the multijurisdictional campaign runs each year from May through October and sees police officers in Peel, Toronto, Hamilton, Halton, York, those with Ontario Provincial Police and elsewhere proactively target the most dangerous drivers on the road.

Police say dangerous driving continues to be a troubling trend that puts lives at risk on roads and highways in Mississauga, Brampton, the GTA and across Ontario.

(Cover photo: OPP X)