Woman clocked at 101 km/h along Mt. Pleasant

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Two drivers on local streets had their licences and cars suspended under the Provincial Highway Traffic Act for exceeding posted speed limits by more than 50 km/h.

A Toronto woman was clocked at more than double the speed limit along Mt. Pleasant Road during the morning rush hour Thursday. The woman was recorded going 101 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, travelling northbound along Mt. Pleasant in a Volvo at 8:34 a.m., according to police. The stretch of road is a school zone, with Rosedale Junior Public School and a daycare nearby.

On Friday, a 29-year-old man was pulled over for driving a silver Volkswagen Jetta 90 km/h in a 40 km/h school zone along Avenue Road near Briar Hill Avenue.

Sergeant Tim Burrows of Toronto Police Traffic Services said Mt. Pleasant Road, particularly along the stretch of the road where the woman was pulled over, is an exceedingly dangerous place to speed.

“It goes slightly uphill, there’s a school and a daycare there, then it goes downhill a bit, then there’s a blind turn,” he said. “This kind of speed is dangerous anywhere, but especially in an area like that.”

Burrows noted that the woman was speeding during the morning rush hour, when it was likely that children would be going to school.

“It was a recipe for disaster,” he said. “All it would have taken was one child running away from their parents or one kid crossing the street.”

At the speed at which the woman was clocked, the Toronto Police Traffic Service Reconstruction Unit estimated that it would have taken the woman at least 95.54 metres to make a complete stop, or roughly the distance of a football field.

Speeders have long been a problem along Mt. Pleasant Road. In January, 2006, two young men were arrested and charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death after one of them crashed into and killed taxi driver Tahir Khan. The two young men were alleged to have been street racing along the road.

Burrows said the road is well-known in police circles as one where officers can nab speeders.

“The speed limit goes from 60 to 50 to 60,” he said. “The speed limit (where the woman was spotted) is 50 km/h, and there’s no reason to do more than that.”

At Avenue Road near Briar Hill, where the Jetta driver was stopped on Friday, there are blue ‘children playing’ signs posted along that stretch of Avenue Road, and the 40 km/h speed limit is accompanied by flashing yellow lights.

Burrows said the driver was not only exceeding the speed limit by 50 km/h, he was also weaving in and out of traffic.

“He had to do a bit of work to get to that 50 over,” he said.

Burrows said police have not noticed ongoing speed problems along that particular portion of Avenue Road, given that it has some curves as it approaches Eglinton. Once again, he noted that driving at such an excessive speed could very easily have turned deadly given how busy the street can be.

“I talked with some of the officers (in the area) and they said there was a bit of pedestrian traffic and bicycle traffic in the area,” he said. “It was pretty much the exact same circumstances (as in the Mt. Pleasant speeding case). The driver didn’t give any excuses.”

He added that, from a policing standpoint, the best way to ensure Toronto’s roads remain safe is through continued vigilance and monitoring. He noted, however, that more drivers should be aware of the speed limit and keep within it.

“The easiest thing would be if everyone drove within the limit, but also used common sense,” he said. “Road safety is everyone’s responsibility.”

The police have not released the names of either driver. Both drivers were charged with speeding and street racing, and both have had their cars impounded and licences suspended for seven days. Street racing carries a fine of $2,000 to $10,000.