Canadian police pull over entire Mini convoyby Zach Bowman (RSS feed) on May 1st 2010 at 11:19AM
Every year, the Southern Ontario Mini Club organizes two charity drives – one in the Spring and one in the Fall. Over time, the event has grown from a handful of participating cars to over 30, and as such, this year the organizers let local law enforcement know where the caravan would be and when it would be there as a courtesy. So far, so good, right? Not exactly.
During the first part of the drive, the convoy ran into a few members of the Provincial Police without incident. One officer even went so far as to tell the organizers that there was only one other patrol for the rest of the route. Turns out that wasn't quite true.
Instead of providing an escort for the convoy or thanking the organizers for a heads up, the OPP set up a speed trap along the route where the limit changes from 100 km/h to 90 km/h. When the parade of Minis came past, officers pulled over the whole lot, and cited three cars for going 121-123 kmh in a 90 kmh zone, or about 76 in a 55. One driver was also cited for having a radar detector and had his equipment confiscated.
Yes, setting up a speed trap on a charity drive is a prick move, but it gets worse. The OPP evidently called the local television station beforehand so they could film the whole sting. Once the station had the film, they broadcast a story claiming that 11 of the Mini drivers had been arrested for doing 50 kmh over the speed limit and that they had their vehicles confiscated as a result. Even worse, the story claimed that some of the Mini drivers had their children with them and that the OPP had called the Canadian equivalent of child services on the parents.
Members of the Mini club complained to the station, and the video was taken down as a result, though no apology or retraction has been issued so far.
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/01/canadian-police-pull-over-entire-mini-convoy/
