Ontario Provincial Police are warning drivers about the dangers of illegal u-turns on highways after a sergeant livestreaming information about a closure on Highway 410 encountered a driving school car going through a median to turn around.
At around 10 a.m. on Monday, Sgt. Kerry Schmidt was streaming video on Periscope showing a two-car crash that temporarily closed the northbound lanes of Highway 410 near Queen Street as crews worked to move the vehicles off the road.
In addition to that closure, Highway 410 was completely closed in both directions just north of the area from Bovaird Drive to Mayfield Road due to a police and SIU investigation. The second closure started at 2:30 a.m. Monday and lasted well into the afternoon rush hour.
The video shows multiple drivers stuck in deadlock traffic pulling U-turns across the median to get to the southbound lanes of the highway.
Schmidt, who narrates what is happening, can be seen getting into a vehicle and driving forward to “stop that behaviour right now” as the northbound lanes had just been cleared by emergency crews moments before.
He also warned drivers, “Please don’t do that, you’re driving into live traffic … that’s more of a danger for people driving on the southbound side.”
As Schmidt pulled over, the video shows a “New Method Driving School” sign on the top of a car stopped in the middle of the median, and two women — an instructor and a student — get out of the vehicle. In the video, the instructor told Schmidt she was going to take down the sign and “make the turn” for the student driver.
“And you were going to go southbound, right?” Schmidt said.
“Yeah,” the instructor replied.
The student driver, who covered her face and did not want to be on camera, said in the video that she was on her way to take a G test and had been stuck in traffic for about 30 minutes.
“I was just following the instructions,” the student said.
“What were the instructions?” Schmidt said.
“To just pull over and we were going to switch spots,” she replied.
The student said she wasn’t sure what the “game plan” was going to be after that.
“You can’t drive on the shoulder like that. It’s illegal,” Schmidt said to the student and the driving instructor. In the video, Schmidt told the student he won’t be giving her a ticket.
The driving instructor apologized, saying, “We were running late.”
Schmidt interrupts, saying there are “thousands of people here that are running late as well” as he pans the camera to the backed-up traffic.
WATCH: Global News speaks with Sgt. Kerry Schmidt, who calls out drivers making illegal U-turns on Hwy. 410
Schmidt called the manoeuvre “incredibly dangerous” during in an interview with Global News on Tuesday.
“For a driving school to take this kind of action and be this kind of an example to the student is completely irresponsible,” he said.
“This is exactly what we don’t want to see. I have seen crashes happen because of this, and people die because of this.
“I certainly hope that other driving schools will take notice and this driving school will take notice and realize that this was completely over the line, beyond the line, that should never have happened in the first place … This is no method for instruction.”
New Method Driving School responded to Global News’ request for comment on the video.
“We have seen the video footage and do not condone the actions of the instructor,” the driving school’s office manager said in a statement.
“We are currently taking necessary actions to ensure that this incident does not happen in future. We take the safety of our students and community very seriously, and this video doesn’t represent who we are.”
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