Some wild scenes on parts of Highway 401 on the Sunday of the recent Thanksgiving long-weekend. Police were called after a large gathering of vehicles stopped traffic on Hwy 401 near Mavis Rd around 2AM on Sunday to do donuts. The drivers fled as police arrived.
An hour later at 3AM, vehicles gathered again on Hwy 401, this time near Islington Rd in Toronto. But this time, reports to police indicated the droup was holding drag races on the highway while shooting off fireworks in celebration. Again, the drivers simply left as police approached.
There were no arrests, and supposedly the investigation has continued while videos circulated on social media of the Toronto takeover. Cunning hooligans involved had their plates covered or removed to avoid identification.
“A large number of cars had converged in the eastbound lanes, had stopped traffic and were conducting some illegal activities there. The OPP take these reported incidents very seriously, obviously some of the activities happening are illegal, stunt driving, racing, which is extremely dangerous to public safety.”
– OPP Sgt. Ted Dongelmans
This isn’t the first or the last time that street racers have blocked off major Toronto highways to perform their illegal activities. Portions of the Hwy 401 and Hwy 427 are so close to the airport that police helicopters are not routinely used for Highway Traffic Act violations. Last November, hooligan shut down a stretch of Hwy 427 in a viral street-racing incident condemned by police.
Public opinion is clearly split on the issue. The city of Toronto is pleased to ticket motorists for going slightly over the speed limit while commuting to work, but scofflaws who shut down an stretch of highway for illegal street racing are able to defeat police with nothing but a license plate flipper, rag over their license plates.
Screw speed cameras! They should install speed / racing LASERS!
Pew pew!
“Ah! My paint job! Ah! My eyes! I can’t see!”
I hear you. Law-abiding citizens are going to get pissed off. The gov’t will have to react, and it will not be good.
I fear it’s only a matter of time until cars are mandated to be equipped with “tattle-tale” functions that alert the authorities to speeding. Problem is that hooligans like these will disable the devices, whereas YOU will get ticketed every time you go 5 MPH over on the way home from church.
True. They’ll sell it as a safety feature.
And I’ll start shopping for 40+ year old cars…
That’s how they do it. They tell the people that it’s for their own safety. Or to protect the most vulnerable members of society. But it’s merely a control mechanism.
An people wonder why I drive a 1992 Subaru with only ODB1 port.