Street racing or stunt driving is when an individual or individuals recklessly operate a motor vehicle much faster than the law allows, in a manner that is unsafe for traffic conditions.  Engaging in street racing or stunt driving is absolutely prohibited by Ontario driving laws and puts the safety of others at serious risk. In the past several years there have been many, many individuals convicted of “criminal negligence causing death by street racing” in Ontario. Particularly, in Hamilton, the unfortunate wrongful death case of our client Sara Hoang, is terribly tragic. In this case, the individuals who caused Sara’s unfortunate passing were street racing in the middle of the day down Queenston Road in Hamilton –  lost control, and t-boned Sara’s small car. One of the vehicle’s speedometers was stuck at 126 km/hr at impact, in a 50 km/hr zone.  The individuals involved were convicted of criminal negligence causing death by street racing.  One of the individuals was convicted of impaired driving, while the other was convicted of fleeing the scene. You can read the media reports here.
Unfortunately, many cities in Ontario, including Hamilton, have a well-established culture of vehicle modifications and illegal street racing activity. Ontario Provincial Police released statistics last year which indicated that street racing (i.e. driving at over 50 km/hr or more) was mostly prevalent in Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton. Men were engaged in speeding more than five times as often as women and males, aged twenty-five to thirty-four were bar far the worst offenders. Tragically, over 75 people died in reckless speed and street racing accidents in 2018.  Even more shocking is that the in the month of May alone, last year, OPP engaged in a blitz and laid 304 street-racing charges on the 400 series highways.