A teenaged driver with a learners permit was nabbed doing 124 km/h in a 60 km/h zone in Ottawa over the weekend. Making matters worse for the 17-year-old was the fact that he had three friends in the car with him. The G2 graduated license requires prohibits anything more than one passenger under the age of 19 in the car. The only person who should be in the car is a fully-licensed adult to assist with driver training and practice.
According to news reports, that kid is in a whole bunch of trouble now. His driver’s license has been suspended for a month, and his dad’s car was impounded for two weeks. Those are the automatic penalties for ‘stunt driving’ which includes donuts, burnouts and speeding in excess of 50 km/h over the limit.
Let you who is without a demerit point on your drivers license, cast the first stone.
Young men do stupid things behind the wheel of a car. They want the thrill of driving fast, and looking cool in front of their peers. If only this kid knew that 40 km away is Luskville Dragway, an NHRA sanctioned dragstrip with Time Trials and events for Street Cars on the drag strip.
Police departments need a ‘diversionary program‘ to help young speed demons find a safer outlet for their urges. Some Canadian municipalities have successfully implemented ‘Thin Blue Line Racing Associations’ made up of gearhead cops. The intent of the programs is to encourage responsible driving on the street, educate youngsters on the dangers of street racing, and encourage street racers to compete at a legal racing facility.
Interaction with cool cops, who encouraged us to ‘take it to the track‘ made a positive change on me and my friends as amped-up teenagers. It helped keep me away from street racing and got me started at the race track.
~ by Chris #16 Demaras ~
What’s the fastest you’ve ever driven?
There’s a race track up here called Mosport, and I was on the ‘back straight’ got it up to 190 km/h (around 120 MPH) but since I was driving my own car (Miata engine was screaming) I was worried I might blow it up… so I backed off.
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How about you? Do they even have speed limits down there?
Unfortunately I’ve never had the opportunity to race on an actual track. But once when I was living in Montana, I raced a bf of mine, at night (3 am) when the highways were mostly empty and I hit 125 mph in the Camaro I was driving. I almost lost control on a corner, when it hit some water on the road. It scared the crap out of me, but me being me, I vomited when I came to a stop and then wanted to do it again lol
The speed limit in Montana at the time, was called “reasonable and prudent” so you could go whatever you wanted as long as it was “safe” to do so. They repealed that in 1998 when a supreme court judge called it unconstitutional. So now it’s 80 over there. Here in Texas it’s mostly 75 mph, but one highway does allow 85 mph.
OK, that’s a scary story. Going fast on public roads always freaks me out because you never know the condition of the pavement, or if the ‘other guy’ is going to change lanes in front of you. I’m not judging you, though. Just saying I understand the reaction you had.
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Also…reasonable and prudent sounds hilarious. Just goes as fast as your reasonably can.
Him and I used to race a lot, so he knew to never veer into my lane. We even raced through city streets and alleys to see who could get back to the apartment first and the prize would be….well you can guess lol.
And yeah it was pretty much actually that. IF the weather was nice then you could reasonably hit 100 and they would ignore you. But if it was wet roads, snowing etc. then they expected you to slow way the hell down and use your noodle. But that’s gone now.