Person caught going almost three times the limit on Riverside Drive

Police laid serious charges against a 56-year-old driver after an officer clocked a vehicle going 172 km/h on a city road.

Around 7:00 p.m., an officer was travelling in an unmarked cruiser on July 18. They were stopped behind a vehicle at a red light on Riverside Drive near Hunt Club Road. When it changed, the vehicle accelerate north on Riverside Drive, reaching a speed of 172 km/h in the 60 km/h zone, police said.

The vehicle passed another marked police car travelling in the opposite direction.

Officials said they stopped the vehicle and charged a 56-year-old Ottawa man with stunt driving, speeding and fail to surrender licence. The whole incident, police said, was captured on the cruiser’s on-board dash camera.

The driver immediately had his licence suspended for 30 days and his vehicle impounded for two weeks. At his upcoming court date, he faces, if convicted, a further $2,000 to $10,000 fine, a one- to three-year licence suspension and possibly six months in jail.

Three times catching the same driver

Days after the high-speed incident, an Ottawa police traffic officer caught a different driver for the third time.

It happened on July 20, on Limebank Road, a rural area in south Ottawa that has been a target for police.

The “lead-foot” driver was caught going 145 km/h in an 80 km/h-zone. When the officer went to charge the driver, they realized they had already charged them twice before.

“Hopefully ‘THIRD time’ll be the charm,'” the message from police reads. “…Makes you wonder what it’s going to take, short of a fatality.

Data shared earlier this year by police to CityNews shows that some people are caught multiple times stunt driving in the nation’s capital.

Since January 2023, there have been 21 people charged twice or more with stunt driving — generally categorized as 50 km/h over the speed limit.

While this is lower compared to overall stunt driving charges laid each year, Philip Kane, OPS’s street racing and stunt driving enforcement coordinator, says the numbers showcase a larger problem. He previously told CityNews in an interview that he’s pulled over several people before who have been caught stunt driving in other parts of the province.

“If I’m dealing with someone at the roadside, I’ll see their driving history, and I’ll see their conviction,” he said. “So, lots of times I’ll see they’ve been charged by Toronto or Halton (police) or OPP with stunt driving elsewhere.”

It’s also happened in the nation’s capital, where Kane will charge someone and then find out they were charged again with the same offence, but by the Ottawa detachment of the OPP.