\u201cI am lucky I didn\u2019t die,\u201d she said. Her life is nothing like it used to be. The ongoing pain from her injuries makes it harder to work, socialize and travel. It makes her irritable, which takes a toll on her relationships. She no longer goes to concerts or runs, two things she once loved to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Franklyne became deeply anxious seeing people bike around the city after that. Taking cabs to get around made her even more aware of how vulnerable cyclists really are, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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On a wet and miserable day, reporter Mark Colley created a vigilante speed trap as Doug Ford <\/p>\n \u201cDriving is something \u2026 that kills a lot of people,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople just need to treat it more seriously than they do.\u201d<\/p>\n Franklyne, like most victims in a Highway Traffic Act case, had no idea the charge was dropped. She only learned about it when her civil lawyer David Shellnutt, who specializes in road safety cases, checked.<\/p>\n Shellnutt said he has seen several cases with strong evidence, like Franklyne\u2019s, withdrawn by prosecutors, which can make it harder for victims to sue in civil court because the insurance company can say the driver was never convicted.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the very bare minimum, the slap on the wrist should be applied and taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n A growing problem<\/p>\n In 2019, there were 13,520\u00a0Highway Traffic Act charges withdrawn before trial \u2014 about five per cent of the cases that came in that year, according to statistics published by the Ontario Court of Justice<\/a>. Between April 2024 and March 2025, that number had ballooned to 165,973, about 20 per cent of all the charges that came in that year.<\/p>\n The highest number of charges dropped were speeding, running a red light and driving without a permit, but they also included stunt driving, distracted driving and driving with a suspended licence.\u00a0<\/p>\n The statistics do not include why charges were withdrawn, which could include not just delay, but other reasons such as lack of evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Highway Traffic Act offences must get to trial in less than 18 months, as set by the Supreme Court of Canada\u2019s landmark R. v. Jordan\u00a0case. But more and more cases have been taking longer, forcing prosecutors to pre-emptively withdraw them or have them tossed out by a justice of the peace.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf prosecutors don\u2019t withdraw those cases and they come up, we win them on a Charter challenge anyway,\u201d said Jason Davie, a Toronto-based paralegal. \u201cI\u2019m successful with at least five a week.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2018 and 2019 a more serious traffic offence would reach trial on average in just under a year, according to Ontario Court of Justice statistics. Between April 2024 and March 2025, it took on average 611 days \u2014 over the 18-month limit.<\/p>\n \u2018System in shambles\u2019<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Justice of the Peace Robert Shawyer called Toronto\u2019s provincial offences court a \u201csystem in shambles\u201d\u00a0as he stayed careless driving charges<\/a> due to delay in a case where an elderly pedestrian was killed and another injured by a left-turning driver.<\/p>\n Shawyer cited several issues: a lack of judicial resources, a huge number of charges coming in, a failure by the city to install internet access in courtrooms until recently, a file management system \u201cheld together by some \u2018bailing wire and twine\u2019 with a hope and prayer thrown in for good measure,\u201d and a wildly inefficient process of getting the evidence collected by police \u2014\u00a0 known as disclosure\u00a0\u2014 to prosecutors and the accused person.<\/p>\n Provincial prosecutors typically handle the most serious traffic offences while the majority are dealt with by city prosecutors.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to union representative\u00a0MacKenzie,\u00a0another major part of the problem is that there simply aren\u2019t enough city prosecutors to handle the increasing volume of cases\u00a0in the required time.<\/p>\n Trish MacKenzie, representative for the prosecutors union, said there is an emotional toll to having to drop a charge where a person was injured or killed. \u201cI\u2019ve had people break down crying in court,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n R.J. Johnston Toronto Star<\/p>\n The number of Highway Traffic Act charges laid in Toronto has tripled in the past six years, according to the Ontario Court of Justice statistics. This is largely\u00a0due to a spike in speeding tickets from the automated cameras brought in by the Ford government in 2019 and which the premier is now seeking to ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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