Charges not needed to seize street-racing cars, AG warns
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | 3:48 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Cars adapted for street racing can be seized and destroyed, even if charges haven't been laid and a race has not taken place, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant said Wednesday.
Bryant warned potential racers that all it takes is a tip from police to seize and destroy their cars. Car junkies who pour thousands of dollars into their vehicles to make them as fast as possible are wasting their money, Bryant said.
"If we can establish someone has parts and they're juicing up their car — obviously for the purpose of street racing — then we can seize those vehicles," Bryant said.
"We will seize it and you will never see it again. We will crush your car, we will crush the parts."
Bryant said cars built for street racing are as dangerous as explosives, and can cause catastrophic damage.
On Monday, a truck driver was killed after a crash on Highway 400 that was blamed on speed and dangerous driving.
Prabhjit Multani, 20, and Nauman Nusrat, 19, face charges including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing death by street racing.
Ravi Badhwar, also 20, has been charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
'A senseless act': Fantino says of crash
"This was a senseless act that cost a man his life and has left his family without a father, brother and grandfather," Julian Fantino, Ontario Provincial Police commissioner, said in a release.
"There is no excuse for street racing and aggressive driving, such as the high speeds and unsafe lane changes we have seen recently."
The crash was the third major accident in four days on the busy north-south highway, and the second fatal one.
Bryant said the government has had enough of street racers, and will have no qualms about destroying their cars.
"We don't need to wait until that car hits the road fully loaded," he said.
Bryant also said the Crown has not yet decided whether to appeal the sentences of two young Toronto men who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death after a taxi driver was killed in a crash.
Wang-Piao Dumani Ross and Alexander Ryazanov, both 20, were each handed two-year conditional sentences and two years of probation for their role in the January 2006 crash.
Their lawyers said they weren't racing, although their speeding did constitute dangerous driving.
