As felony defence legal professionals, we frequently get calls from individuals who have been charged with “highway rage” incidents. It’s vital to notice that highway rage, in and of itself, is just not a felony offence. Nevertheless, there are various varieties of behaviour that may escalate and result in felony fees. These fees might embody assault, assault inflicting bodily hurt, assault with a weapon, mischief, harmful driving, careless driving, and extra..
What’s a “highway rage” cost?
Driving is normally an fulfilling or at the least bearable expertise. Nevertheless, tempers can rapidly flare up and frustrations can mount, altering our expertise. This sudden shift from calm to anger may be triggered by elements similar to working late as a result of building, encountering drivers who aren’t as environment friendly or courteous as we anticipate, or going through heavy visitors. Many people have coping mechanisms like expressing our disbelief to a passenger, listening to music, or taking a number of deep breaths. We seek advice from this expertise as highway rage, a time period generally used to explain the extreme frustration and anger we really feel whereas driving.
“Street rage” is just not an precise authorized time period outlined in Canada’s Prison Code or Freeway Visitors Act. Giving into highway rage, nonetheless, is unsafe and may result in a variety of very actual felony fees.
A few of these fees beneath the Prison Code of Canada can embody:
- Prison Negligence – Part 219
- Prison Negligence Inflicting Demise – Part 220
- Harmful Driving – Part 249
- Failure to Cease at Scene of Accident – Part 252
- Uttering Threats – Part 264.1
- Assault – Part 265
- Assault Inflicting Bodily Hurt – Part 267
- Assault with a Weapon – Part 267 (This contains utilizing the car itself as a weapon)
- Aggravated Assault – Part 268
- Mischief (This contains willful injury to a car) – Part 430
It’s not arduous to think about what number of of those occasions may occur within the blink of an eye fixed. Think about this situation as an illustration:
A driver is reduce off on the 403 and rear-ends the automotive in entrance of them. Each drivers understand the opposite one to be at fault they usually start yelling at one another. One driver will get again behind the wheel or reaches for a weapon and the subsequent factor you recognize one is fleeing the scene.
Prison offences aren’t the one kind of offences that highway rage can result in. Two of the extra main offences beneath the Freeway Visitors Act that may stem from highway rage are:
It’s simple for a lot of drivers to really feel nameless and highly effective whereas masked in a car. Aggressive-driving behaviours, similar to tailgating, rushing, failing to yield the right-of-way and reducing in entrance of somebody too carefully, might trigger different drivers to turn out to be annoyed and indignant and result in a highway rage battle between drivers. An indignant driver might try harmful retaliatory motion.
If you happen to’re in search of some data on how the felony course of works and what to anticipate first, we now have extra sources right here:
If you happen to’ve already gotten behind the wheel and slipped into highway rage, we can assist.
The percentages of success with any responding to any of those fees are a lot larger with the perception and steering of skilled counsel. If the Crown is in search of jail time, you want your car to your employment, or you possibly can’t afford years of exorbitant insurance coverage will increase – then it’s strongly advised that you just retain competent authorized counsel.
The legal professionals in our agency supply skilled authorized illustration for severe visitors offences like careless driving. You may attain us 24 hours a day by calling (416) 999-9389 or complete a consultation form here