It’s close to eleven on a Friday night on Highway 10, heading north out of Brampton, when a set of red and blue lights comes up fast in the mirror. The driver figures the cruiser wants to get past, moves into the right lane and keeps going at the limit. It takes about a kilometre, and a siren, before she works out the lights were for her. By then the officer is writing up something a lot more serious than the burnt-out tail light he originally pulled her over for.
Two of the heaviest charges in Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act come down to the same idea, which is stopping when the law says you have to. One is stopping for police. The other is stopping, and staying, after a collision. Both can carry jail time, and both get treated far more seriously than most drivers expect.
Failing to stop for police is the one people tend to underestimate, mostly because they assume it only applies to someone deliberately running from a cruiser. The page at https://www.trafficparalegalservices.com/failing-to-stop-for-police/ covers how the charge works in Ontario, and the short version is that intent isn’t always the deciding factor.
What failing to stop for police means
The offence sits under section 216 of the Highway Traffic Act. To make it stick, the prosecution generally has to show that the officer was in uniform or properly identified, that a signal to stop was given, and that the driver was aware of it, or ought to have been. That last part is where a lot of these cases are actually decided, because “ought to have been aware” depends on visibility, traffic, whether there was a siren, and what the driver did in the seconds that followed.
The penalties are heavy for a provincial offence. A conviction can mean a fine of $1,000 to $10,000, seven demerit points, a licence suspension and up to six months in jail, and the vehicle can be impounded on top of that. If a driver flees to get away from police, the charge can be laid under the Criminal Code instead, and that’s a criminal matter that needs a criminal lawyer rather than a paralegal.
For what it’s worth, the safest habit when lights appear behind you is to signal, slow down and pull onto the right shoulder as soon as you safely can. If there’s no shoulder, on a bridge or a stretch of the 401 with concrete barriers, putting the hazards on and slowing right down while you look for a spot makes your intention obvious to the officer behind you.
The duty to stop after a collision
After a crash, section 200 of the Act requires drivers to stay at the scene, help anyone who’s hurt, and hand over their name, address, licence and insurance details. Section 199 adds the duty to report it. In Ontario, a collision has to be reported to police when someone is injured or the combined damage looks to be more than $2,000, and in much of the GTA that means going to a Collision Reporting Centre rather than waiting at the roadside for a cruiser.
The main charges compare like this, using the figures Traffic Paralegal Services lists.
| Charge | HTA section | Demerit points | Possible jail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fail to stop for police | 216 | 7 | Up to 6 months |
| Fail to remain at the scene | 200(1) | 7 | Up to 6 months |
| Careless driving | 130 | 6 | Up to 6 months |
| Careless driving causing death or bodily harm | 130(3) | 6 | Up to 2 years |
| Fail to report a collision | 199(1) | 3 | No |
Careless driving deserves a word of its own, because it gets laid after a lot of collisions where nobody is entirely sure what happened. The fine runs from $400 to $2,000. A collision on its own doesn’t prove that anyone drove carelessly, though, and the prosecution still has to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt, which can be harder than the ticket makes it look when the only evidence is the damage and a witness who heard the bang but didn’t see it.
What to keep a record of
Whether it’s a police stop or a collision, details you write down that night are worth far more than whatever you remember in four months’ time.
- Photos of the vehicles where they stopped.
- The other driver’s licence and insurance.
- Names and numbers of any witnesses.
- Light, weather and road conditions.
- Dash cam footage, copied off the card.
It’s also sensible not to give police a long, detailed statement about who caused the crash before you’ve had advice. You still have to stop, identify yourself and report, but explaining the whole thing at the roadside while you’re shaken up rarely helps, and anything you say can end up in the officer’s notes.
Insurance and paying the ticket
Paying any of these tickets registers a conviction, and insurers look at convictions when they set premiums. Fault for insurance purposes is decided separately under Ontario’s Fault Determination Rules, so even a careless driving charge that gets withdrawn doesn’t automatically change what your insurer decides, and a conviction doesn’t automatically settle it the other way either.
Getting help
Traffic Paralegal Services is based in Caledon East and handles provincial traffic offences across Ontario, with licensed paralegals in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario and more than 15 years in practice. Its work in these cases usually starts with disclosure, meaning the officer’s notes, witness statements, photographs, collision reports and any video, and looking for what’s missing from them.
If you’ve been charged after a crash, https://www.trafficparalegalservices.com/fighting-accident-charges/ goes through how the firm handles careless driving, failing to remain, failing to report and the other charges that tend to follow a collision.
Neither of these charges should be paid without a look first. The penalties are high enough, and the facts are usually messy enough, that an hour with someone who reads disclosure for a living is worth it.
