Two of Hamilton’s highways and a stretch of road from downtown Hamilton’s core to McMaster University is where police say, last year, they caught the city’s fastest drivers.
Hamilton police data obtained by the CBC shows how many stunt drivers were caught last year and where they were caught most often.
Stunt driving charges are laid when someone is driving 50 km/h over on roads where the speed limit is over 80 km/h or when someone is driving 40 km/h on roads where the speed limit is less than 80 km/h.
The northbound lanes of the Red Hill Valley Parkway topped the list with 11 stunt driving charges.
Nikola Tesla Boulevard had 10 charges and King Street West — last year’s top street — had seven charges.
Industrial Drive saw six charges and Burlington Street East saw five charges laid.
Supt. Dave Hennick leads the police service’s community safety division, which oversees traffic enforcement.
He told CBC Hamilton, Highway 52, the Linc and Upper James Street South have also been problem areas for stunt drivers.
Over 100 stunt driving charges laid in 2024
Hennick also says 2024 may be a record year for stunt drivers.
From January to March, police have laid 104 stunt driving charges. At that rate, police say they will lay over 300 stunt driving charges this year.
Hennick said it’s a “significant increase” given that from January to March in 2023, only 35 stunt driving charges were laid.
“We’re not off to a great start,” he said.
Jackie Penman, police spokesperson, named at least two factors that could be behind the jump in charges this year: a milder winter which gave people more chances to reach stunt driving speeds and a renewed emphasis by police to crack down on stunt drivers.
Hennick highlighted one incident of stunt driving that happened in February.
Police caught a 22-year-old driver with a G2 licence going nearly 100 km/h over the 60 km/h posted speed limit on Second Road East in Stoney Creek. That’s near Highway 52.
Hennick said other cases have involved people driving impaired or running late for work or exams.
Traffic offences dropped in 2023
Last year, Hamilton police laid 176 stunt driving charges, which is down from the 199 stunt driving charges laid in 2022.
2022 was also the year the province lowered the speed threshold for stunt driving charges from 50 km/h to 40 km/h or more above the speed limit on roads where the limit is less than 80 km/h.
During April’s police board meeting, Deputy Chief Paul Hamilton said there’s been a drop in traffic offences across the board.
He said staffing shortages and a strategic shift in the unit are underlying factors.
“We’re only answering about 61 per cent of our calls for service currently, so, for the average front-line officer, the opportunity to do traffic enforcement has been reduced,” Hamilton said.
But he also said the traffic unit has changed its approach, opting to target high-collision intersections instead of “sitting at a fishing hole.”
Hennick said the police service uses city data to help determine high-collision areas.
“We could go down to King and Macklin and every single day of the week, there’s people travelling 20 kilometres over the speed limit, but when you’re talking about really addressing risk to the community … our [officers] are choosing to focus on quality in their work and the seriousness of the offences,” Hennick said.
What if you get a stunt driving ticket?
Steve Petersen, a retired Hamilton police officer who owns traffic ticket law firm Xpolice, said he thinks police are doing the best they can — but also believes they are still sitting at “fishing spots.”
“Those are all the fishing holes that I know,” Petersen told CBC Hamilton when told about 2023’s top stunt driving spots.
Petersen said while more charges being laid may scare the public into reducing their speeds, he thinks laying lots of charges may not necessarily make the roads safer.
The current penalties, he added, are too punitive.
Drivers involved in stunt driving or street racing could get:
- A 30-day driver’s licence suspension and 14-day vehicle impoundment at roadside (whether it is your vehicle or not).
- A minimum fine of $2,000 and a maximum fine of $10,000.
- A jail term of up to six months.
- A post-conviction licence suspension which ranges from one year to a life-time suspension depending on how many convictions you’ve had.
- Six demerit points.
- A mandatory driver improvement course, upon conviction.
Petersen said in lots of cases, officers may not be totally sure if the person they pulled over was speeding because the radar gun fires off for only a split second.
His advice to people pulled over is to not apologize for anything.
Instead Petersen said you should:
- Say nothing to the officer and accept whatever charges you get.
- Take notes about how many vehicles were around you and the circumstances at the time.
- If you think an officer got the wrong person, write it down and with your reasons why.
- Get legal representation.