Insights into Sentencing for Dangerous Driving Offences

Welcome back to our YouTube channel. I want to talk to you today about dangerous driving and specifically the sentencing for dangerous driving. We represent a lot of people charged with dangerous driving. So let’s assume a client of ours pleads guilty to a summary conviction dangerous driving charge. And by the way, dangerous driving is when there’s like a marked departure from the norm of driving. I’ll give you a couple of examples. Let’s say someone’s driving 130 kilometers an hour through downtown Toronto that would be probably per se dangerous driving because it’s a danger to the public, and it’s certainly a marked departure, or someone who’s weaving in and out of traffic dangerously and causing people to swerve, etc. So there’s a whole penalty of a range of dangerous driving, but there’s two very clear examples where a person would be guilty if the witnesses were believed. So what would happen if the person found guilty or pleads guilty? Well, what happens is this, a judge on a first time offence, there’s a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000. Now the fine can be much higher than that to, that’s the mandatory minimum, so that would be more to like a very low-level dangerous driving where the person wasn’t really that dangerous, as opposed to, you know, causing mayhem on the roads and almost causing actions you could face a jail term or under that scenario. The judge also has discretion to prohibit the person from driving for a period of one to three years for a first offender. Typically, a judge, on a first offender will do one year, if it’s really serious, bad situation, it may be higher, maybe eighteen months. I rarely see a judge go three years. I don’t think I’ve seen that on a first offender before but I’ve seen two on a very bad situation. And as I said, you could face jail term. We’ve had clients who, boy oh boy, they it was really bad dangerous driving, someone could have been killed. It’s on the 401., judges look pretty dimly on that. So, we try and minimize the jail term as much as possible in that situation. Now, even if the judge decides not to take your licence, there’s a catch 22 because the ministry automatically takes your license for one year anyway. So it’s the same one year so the judge takes one year, the Ministry of Transportation Ontario also suspend your license for one year. So don’t get all excited if the judge forgets to impose a discretionary driving prohibition. So what happens for a second or third offence? Well, on a second offence, the person is facing a mandatory minimum 30 days in jail. Could be much higher than that to you want to get the mandatory minimum. For a third offence and subsequent offences as well. You’re facing 120 days mandatory minimum. So it’s a serious offence. In hiring a lawyer, you’re trying to minimize, you’re trying to win of course if you can, these are for people who are pleading guilty. Of course, this is where you’re facing, but it’s a very serious offence. With serious penalties and the mandatory minimum, yes, so often, we can get that. If it’s more serious, of course, it’s going to be higher fine, if not jail term if it’s really horrendous driving. So there you have it, there’s a little primer about sentencing for dangerous driving. Thank you for watching our video, we are absolutely committed to bringing you the best possible criminal and DUI educational videos. If you found this video helpful, please like it and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you’ve been charged with a criminal offence in Ontario and require our services, please click on the link in the description below.