Trying to make a getaway

By Jane Switzer - Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

Robert Stainforth/Alamy/Getstock

Britain’s largest parking authority is trying to out deadbeat owners of foreign-registered luxury cars.

Westminster Council claims the owners of these vehicles routinely ignore parking restrictions because parking officials cannot access overseas drivers’ personal information to follow up on parking fines. So it is making public the models, licence-plate numbers and country of registration in an attempt to get witnesses to come forward and identify offenders—and recover nearly $6.5 million in unpaid parking fines. At the top of the most-wanted list: the owner of a Rolls-Royce Phantom who failed to pay 18 parking tickets totaling $3,000.

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Watch your speed, it’s an emergency

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 1 Comment

Photograph by Istock

When responding to medical emergencies, paramedics say that exceeding the speed limit is just part of the job. But how fast is too fast? Citing safety concerns, Island EMS, the company that operates ambulances on Prince Edward Island, has tightened its cap on speeds—despite the fervent protestations of the paramedics union. “We’re not talking about these people wanting to be cowboys,” says union spokesman Bill McKinnon. “We’re talking about professionals who have always had discretion and used it wisely.”

The dispute began last November, when Island EMS introduced a policy further limiting speeds. Relaxed slightly in February, it now prohibits ambulances from going more than 10 km/h over the speed limit in town, and more than 20 km/h over it on highways. According to Island EMS general manager Craig Pierre, speeding is a safety hazard which, on narrow P.E.I. roads, doesn’t necessarily result in an earlier arrival. “When you’re travelling fast you have to brake harder,” he says. “Slower, more controlled driving actually gets you there in the same time.”

McKinnon, who claims the cap is more restrictive than in other Canadian jurisdictions, says the union was unable to find a single accident in P.E.I. involving an ambulance in emergency mode directly related to speed. As well, he cites an incident in New Brunswick when an elderly patient died after paramedics, prohibited from exceeded a speed cap, didn’t arrive in time. “We’re really concerned that a similar incident will occur here,” he says. (Ambulance New Brunswick, a subsidiary of the company that owns Island EMS, has since reviewed its policy and relaxed the caps.)

Unable to reach a compromise, the parties have called for government intervention. A communications officer for P.E.I. Health Minister Carolyn Bertram says that, for now, she is staying out of the conflict. But after discussing the issue with Island EMS earlier this month, Bertram told the Charlottetown Guardian, “From what I see, [the Island EMS policy] is ensuring patient safety.”

Street racer or good samaritan?

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 3 Comments

To quote the justice of the peace, “this is a highly unusual case.” It all began in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2008, when an Ontario man, Taki Christopoulos, was driving home from his cousin’s house in downtown Toronto. As his blue BMW headed north of the city, another driver pulled up beside the car, extended his middle finger—and waved a gun. Here’s the really unusual part: when Christopoulos phoned 911 to report the incident, the operator told him to “get the plate” of the other vehicle. So he hit the gas pedal.

Unfortunately for him, a traffic cop noticed both cars barrelling down the freeway… and pulled over the wrong bad guy. Christopoulos was charged with “chasing”—a violation of Ontario’s new stunt driving law—and lost his licence, and his bimmer, for seven days. Continue…