Online Forum Speeding Boast Leads To Conviction

Meshach writes "In Canada, a nineteen-year-old man has lost his driving license for six months and is facing one year of probation after the police arrested him for dangerous driving as a result of a post on an online message board. The tip apparently came from an uninvolved American who called the Canadian authorities after he saw the post bragging about how fast the man went."

Comments

Re:Without any evidence?

[Haedrian]

You pleaded guilty in public. It came out of your metaphorical mouth. You basically incriminated yourself of your own free will. Do you need any more evidence?

Re:Snitch

[AGMW]

... context is everything. Driving 120km/h in a residential zone (normal limit of 40km/h in Ontario) is ridiculous to the point of insanity. Driving 120km/h on a limited access 400-series highway is considered normal (the limit is 100km/h), and on some 400-series highways, is considered driving slower than normal. Road conditions also play a part in the decision over whether that speeding is unreasonable... using that same 400-series highway, some of them are arrow-straight with no on/off ramps for tens of kilometers in parts (think 401, 416, 417 and QEW). On a beautiful sunny, dry day with no traffic, driving faster is not really a dangerous thing... you can safely drive 160-180km/h as long as your car is in good repair and you're paying attention. Try doing that in a rainstorm or heavy traffic, and you're an accident waiting to happen.

And the speed limit on normal highways is 80km/h, not 100km/h. Some of them have limits of 90km/h, but that will be posted. The only highways with limits of 100km/h are limited access highways, which will always have separated lanes for each direction (freeways).

... and there, in a nutshell, is the problem with posted speed limits. They seldom have any bearing on the prevailing conditions and therefore people are often likely to decide, in their own infinite wisdom, what they think is a safe/reasonable speed. If speed limits were actually right more often than not then people might find it easier to adhere to them.

for example, I'm really not happy about disobeying the 'rules' as laid out in road markings (ie solid white line means no overtaking, etc) because more often than not they are correct (eg it is an indication of an imminent blind bend, or summit, or dips in the road that can hide a car, or junctions ahead, etc), but speed limits are so often plain wrong (and a lot of that is a limit that is too high for the conditions) that I tend to make my own mind up and what I feel is safe.

The problem is that these speed limits have to be set with the worst driver in the worst car in mind, not someone who is perhaps an above average driver (not saying that I am, of course!) in a well maintained car.

for example, I used to drive an MGF - light, two seat, mid engine, convertible. It could stop on a dime (or other small coin) or just as easily swerve around it, and my reactions are pretty swift and I tend to pay a LOT of attention when I'm driving, and yet I have to obey the same limits as the mothers in their behemoth MPVs who are trying to stop their kids fighting and not paying any attention at all!

Not sure what the answer is, but certainly the whole UK "Speed Kills" campaign really pisses me off! OK, at what speed will I die then eh? Obviously speed doesn't kill - that what the Victorians thought when trains were first invented! We're all slashdot folks here and we all know it's the sudden change of speed that's the killer.

For my part, I'd be mortified if I injured someone, and tend to drive accordingly, but all you "think of the children" people out there, how's about hanging on to (and training) your kids and stopping them running into the road in the first place? ... and remember that school gates are made more dangerous by the proliferation of the parents doing the school run and parking their ma-hoo-sive chelsea tractors any-dam-where they please to drop off little Tarquin and Jocasta, who then miss out on the learning experience of walking to school with mum/dad and being shown how to cross the road, etc.