Since the street racing law went into effect a year ago, more than 7,000 drivers in Ontario have had their licences suspended and their vehicles impounded — and fewer people have been killed on the province’s highways.
While Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and provincial police Commissioner Julian Fantino say the law is working because fatalities are down, critics aren’t convinced. They say the downturn in the number of fatalities may not be because of the new legislation but could be the result of fewer people driving in the summer due to high gas prices.
From the beginning of the year to the end of August, 209 people had been killed in 183 crashes on Ontario highways, compared to 309 fatalities in 263 crashes in the same period in 2007, the OPP said in a recent news release.
OPP Const. David Woodford admits it’s impossible to say for certain if the reduction in fatalities is due to the new law, but points out “a lot of our fatalities are the result of high speed and you are eliminating that by us taking the vehicles off the road.”
From the outset, critics have slammed the amendments as unjustly punitive and one constitutional expert says these statistics suggests opponents were not off-base.
