Adedokun Waliyu 
Police at numerous levels of agency are taking aim at bad actors who make life difficult for law-abiding gearheads that just want to enjoy their car on a nice summer day.
As part of an effort to crack down on the scourge of so-called takeovers and other illegal gatherings of the sort, cops throughout the province are introducing new rules and steep penalties for anyone caught taking part in one of these boneheaded meetups. Generally organized through social media or other casual communications, it is not uncommon for hundreds of vehicles to suddenly appear in a commercial parking lot and hang out for a few hours – to say nothing of the dweebs who take over public intersections for the purpose of performing asinine vehicle stunts.
The danger is real at the latter, with no shortage of footage cropping up online of pedestrians getting mowed down by someone who has no idea how to rip a donut in their car. Meanwhile, the OPP is pointing to new legislation around careless driving which it will enforce to stamp out reckless behaviour. Since the rules now include parking lots and not just the open road, it is now a lot easier for cops to haul people off before they even exit the confines of a parking area. “Can YOU afford a $490 fine with 6 demerit points?” OPP asks in a post on X.
It is true that every single car nut here at Driving abhors nonsense like intentionally rowdy meets unsanctioned by the business whose parking lot is filled with vehicles at midnight; and the less said about buffoons who take over intersections, the better. Throw the book at ‘em.
But we hope the new inclusion of parking lots in the careless driving legislation isn’t abused or applied without thought by the constabulary. It is not a long walk from the introduction of these laws to the spectre of small town cops (or big town cops, for that matter) descending en masse over a dozen cars simply parked at an old shopping mall on a Friday night, arresting the drivers under such pretenses.
Assuming that doesn’t happen, we’re all for eliminating intersection takeovers. Brampton has introduced fines between $800 and $2,000 for those involved in illegal rallies, while Vaughan is fining spectators $500 and charging participants up to $2,000. In Toronto, nearly a hundred new speed cameras are set to crop up, as well.
