May 22nd, 2006
Ontario highway blitz nabs crazies year after year
This long weekend in Ontario, many Torontonians packed their things and headed up north to the cottage. Each year, the Ontario Provincial Police, who patrol the highways up into cottage country, nab hundreds of drivers for all kinds of infractions. Even though everybody knows that the OPP runs a blitz during long weekend, many people choose to ignore the warnings (and the traffic laws) and do silly things that get them into trouble.
One of my favorite things to read about is the absolute stupidity of some motorists. This year, the OPP reported on several rather amusing incidents, which I will share with you now.
One driver was caught doing 185km/h (approx 110mph). When the police
pulled him over, they found that not only was he speeding, but he was
intoxicated as well! Another driver was clocked doing 170km/h and claimed that he was late for a round of golf.
A truck driver who was operating a semi filled with steel was pulled over when officers noticed that he was swerving. The police were astonished to find the man stagger out of his vehicle wearing only his underwear clutching a bottle of vodka. Amazingly, that’s not even the craziest story this weekend.
Possibly the most unusual case involved a minivan carrying 15 people up to cottage country. How they managed to jam 15 people into a minivan is beyond me, but that’s not even the best part. The minivan’s wipers weren’t working, and two of the passengers were operating them manually - by pulling strings back and forth! To add icing to the cake, not a single one of the occupants of the vehicle had a driver’s licence.
All totalled, the OPP charged over laid over 600 charges for impaired driving, unsafe driving, and speeding just this weekend. At least one drunk driver is in hospital, having been critically injured when his pickup truck rolled over. Sadly, it’s doubtful that anyone will learn their lesson because this is a story that seems to be repeated every single year.