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highway traffic act dropped charges This graphic shows the number of Highway Traffic Act charges that were dropped before and after going to trial in 2024. <\/p>\nHundreds of thousands of Highway Traffic Act (HTA) charges that were dropped last year are a sign Ontario\u2019s justice system is failing to live up to its basic functions and puts Ontario on the road to \u201clawlessness,\u201d said the province\u2019s opposition justice critic.<\/p>\n
NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam urged that the provincial government provide more funding of the court system at a news conference outside the Toronto courthouses on Monday, to avoid further impacting road safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cOntario\u2019s justice system is failing its basic promises of fairness, timeliness, and public safety,\u201d Wong-Tam said. \u201cIf there are no consequences to offenses, if there are no consequences to crimes committed, we become a land of lawlessness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wong-Tam was responding to numbers uncovered in a CTV News and W5 investigation where more than one in ten HTA charges were dropped before trial.<\/p>\n
That number rose from about 57,000 charges withdrawn in 2019 to about 253,000 charges withdrawn in 2024 \u2013 around 10 per cent of all charges.<\/p>\n
In her news conference, Wong-Tam also added in charges that were dropped at trial for a grand total of 338,000, amounting to 13 per cent of all charges laid under the Act.<\/p>\n
highway traffic act dropped charges This graphic shows the number of Highway Traffic Act charges that were dropped before and after going to trial in 2024. <\/p>\n
Some serious charges were withdrawn at greater rates, including: about 8,924 careless driving charges withdrawn, around 31 per cent of the total; 9,302 driving while suspended charges, or about 32 per cent of the total; and 5,464 stunt driving, nearly 42 per cent of the total.<\/p>\n
One of the charges dropped include a driver running a stop sign on Shaw Street in Toronto and colliding with a cyclist. That such incident was caught on video with clear evidence, said Biking Lawyer David Shellnutt.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/JR42XGLJUZGQTERZVRVUAXGRRA.jpg\")
shaw street collision A driver who collided with a cyclist on Shaw Street in Toronto had charges against them under the Highway Traffic Act dropped, despite the incident being caught on camera. (Supplied) <\/p>\n
\u201cThe simple slap on the wrist of the Highway Traffic Act ticket and penalty is not even administered. How crushing is that to somebody who remains off work after being injured by someone?,\u201d he said at the news conference.<\/p>\n
Another of Shellnutt\u2019s clients, Anna Pratt, said she had been hit while on her bike in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really badly hurt. I had multiple fractures to my pelvis, in my sacrum, (and) I had a concussion,\u201d Pratt said.<\/p>\n
Pratt said she followed the charges laid closely, representing a \u201csliver of justice that was really important.\u201d But the charges were dropped, she said, without warning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really was beyond disappointed. I was upset. I was angry. And I really felt that I had been completely, completely ignored by the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trish MacKenzie, the CUPE Local 79 representative for the city\u2019s prosecutors, said part of the problem is a \u201cstaffing crisis\u201d in the prosecutors\u2019 offices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very concerned about this,\u201d MacKenzie said, adding that there are unnecessary barriers to hiring more people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been devastating to the morale of the office. Of course, people feel extremely burdened and overworked and stressed out. There has been difficulty with being able to simply get all the work done.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Ontario court judge also pointed the finger at a lack of a file management system to keep track of the volume of cases, saying that was why the system is in \u201cshambles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of thousands of Highway Traffic Act (HTA) charges that were dropped last year are a sign Ontario\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-194141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}