We received a news story about a woman who was driving so slowly in the passing lane on the 401 highway near Brockville, Ont. that police had no choice but to stop and charge her. The charges were unnecessarily slow driving (this is one we’ll come back to), failing to obey signs and failure to provide proof of insurance.
READ MORE: Woman charged after allegedly driving 60 km/h under limit on Highway 401
The OPP had no choice but to respond and locate this vehicle having received dozens of calls complaining about a car that was a serious danger on the highway. It wasn’t an easy stop for cops either, the news release from the OPP reads, “After some precarious attempts, officers had to make a tandem stop with a cruiser in the front and rear of the vehicle to safely assist movement off the highway.”
She was driving with her bright lights on doing 40 km/h. She later told cops she thought the speed limit was 50. She thought the speed limit was 50 km/h on the busiest highway in the country.
No she wasn’t drunk or stoned.
OK, stupidity aside, you have to wonder why we don’t hear about more cases like this. The only reason this is a story in the first place is because somebody being ticketed for driving too slowly is such a rare thing, and in an extreme situation like this was, the story becomes even bigger.
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Let’s be honest. How many times have you seen traffic slowed to an absolute crawl because of one person driving too slowly? I’m not talking about driving to the conditions during a storm or roads being unusually slippery, I’m talking about standard bare and dry conditions.
What about somebody driving too slowly in the passing lane on the highway? Somebody doing 90 in that lane may cause another car behind them to attempt passing on the right (a big no no) and awkward, sudden lane changes can be a major cause of accidents. Not just accidents but pile ups, especially on a highway. Yet these people dawdle on, oblivious to the issue they’re causing.
I wonder, would they be unaware they’re causing a major issue if they were moving too slowly in a grocery store line-up? Probably not. They’d HAVE to notice the tension mounting in the people behind them and once they did they’d hopefully make a point of moving faster. In a vehicle, their obtuseness is insulated. They may never notice.
So what about this “unnecessarily slow driving” charge the OPP handed this slow driving woman the other day? It’s on the books in Ontario. From the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, “132. (1) No motor vehicle shall be driven on a highway at such a slow rate of speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic thereon except when the slow rate of speed is necessary for safe operation having regard to all the circumstances.”
What about something like that here?
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Ontario is the only province with wording like that on the books. Most every other province has something like “motorists are obliged to maintain a reasonable rate of speed” with no definition what “reasonable” is, or “slower moving vehicles must keep to the right.”
According to the New York Times more and more US states are moving ahead with “slow-poke” laws followed up by rigorous enforcement. In Indiana last year police issued 109 tickets and 1, 535 warnings to people who were “unreasonably impeding the flow of traffic.” The tickets come with a maximum fine of $500. Same in Tennessee, Maine, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, Kentucky and Louisiana with more starting strict enforcement all the time.
I think it’s time for something like that here at home don’t you?
The less road rage and pile ups, the better.
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