A tow truck takes the car, the officer hands you paperwork, and you are standing on the shoulder of Highway 410 working out how to get home. Your licence is gone for a month before any judge has heard a word. If the car belongs to your father or your employer, there is a harder call to make than the one to a ride.
Stunt driving catches people off guard because the first consequences arrive at the roadside and the serious ones come later. It also sits in a confusing place legally. This firm files it under criminal law because it is so often handled alongside criminal driving matters, and because the stakes can feel similar. But a stunt driving charge is not a criminal charge. It’s an offence under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
What follows is general information about Ontario’s rules and isn’t legal advice. Your options depend on the wording of your summons, your driving record and the evidence the prosecutor holds, and the province’s numbers should be confirmed on its current pages.
Provincial, Not Criminal, and Why That Matters
Section 172 of the Highway Traffic Act prohibits driving on a highway in a race or contest, while performing a stunt, or on a bet or wager. A conviction will show up on your driver’s abstract, but it doesn’t give you a criminal record. For someone worried about travel, employment screening or immigration status, that’s a meaningful difference from dangerous operation under the Criminal Code.
Be careful with the word “only,” though. The penalties reach further than many criminal convictions in terms of day-to-day life. Long licence suspensions can end a job, and in a city with as many drivers making a living in trucking, delivery and logistics as Brampton, losing a licence can mean losing an income. Also, police can lay a dangerous driving charge instead of, or alongside, a stunt charge where the facts support it. If your paperwork mentions the Criminal Code, you are dealing with something different, and you should get advice at once.
What Counts as Stunt Driving
Speed is the most common route to this charge, but it isn’t the only one. Ontario’s speed thresholds are:
- 40 km/h or more over the limit on a road posted under 80 km/h
- 50 km/h or more over the limit on a road posted at 80 km/h or more
- 150 km/h or more anywhere in the province, including freeway stretches posted at 110 km/h
That first threshold is the one that surprises local drivers. On a Brampton street posted at 50, a speed of 90 is enough. It doesn’t require squealing tires or showing off. A driver who is simply late for work can fall within it.
The list in Ontario Regulation 455/07 also covers behaviour with no particular speed involved. Examples the province gives include driving so as to stop another vehicle from passing, intentionally cutting off another vehicle, and intentionally driving too close to another vehicle, a pedestrian or a fixed object. The regulation also addresses things like lifting tires from the road, spinning a vehicle, and racing conduct. Your summons should show which conduct is alleged, and the defence will depend on it.
At the Roadside
Two things happen immediately if an officer has reasonable and probable grounds:
- Your driver’s licence is suspended for 30 days.
- The vehicle is impounded for 14 days, whether or not it’s yours.
These are administrative measures, separate from the charge. They begin before any court process, and you don’t get a hearing first. Winning at trial a year later won’t give those days back. You or the owner will have to pay towing and storage to get the vehicle out, and a reinstatement fee applies before you can legally drive again.
A hypothetical shows how the impound can spread. Imagine a driver in Brampton pulled over in a car owned by a parent, or a delivery van registered to a small company. The owner did nothing, and they’re still without the vehicle for two weeks and facing the storage bill. Leased and financed vehicles aren’t exempt either. It’s sensible to call the owner, and the insurer if needed, as soon as you can, and to keep every receipt in case you need to address the cost later.
Do not drive during the suspension. Driving while suspended is a separate and serious offence, and it could turn a defensible matter into a much worse one.
Penalties if You Are Convicted
The roadside measures aren’t the penalty for the offence. A conviction brings its own, set out by the province as follows:
- A fine of at least $2,000 and up to $10,000
- Six demerit points
- A mandatory driver improvement course
- A possible jail term of up to six months
On top of that comes a post-conviction licence suspension that climbs steeply with repetition:
- First conviction: 1 to 3 years
- Second conviction: 3 to 10 years
- Third conviction: for life, with a possible reduction after 10 years if criteria are met
- Fourth and later convictions: for life, with no reduction
The minimum one-year suspension on a first conviction is the point most people don’t expect. A judge doesn’t have the option of imposing a fine alone and leaving your licence intact. Conviction brings at least a year off the road.
Insurance is the other long-term cost. A stunt conviction is likely to push many drivers into high-risk coverage, and the premium effect can outlast the suspension. Commercial drivers may have further problems with employers and carriers, and novice drivers on a G1 or G2 can face additional licensing consequences under the graduated system.
Your Options at the Brampton Court
A stunt charge is commenced by a summons with a court date, not an ordinary ticket with a set fine you can pay and forget. Provincial offences matters in Brampton are generally dealt with at the Ontario Court of Justice Provincial Offences Court at 5 Ray Lawson Boulevard, not the Hurontario Street criminal courthouse, so check your summons for the correct location and date. If you do nothing, you risk being convicted in your absence.
You generally have several paths.
Get the disclosure first. You’re entitled to the prosecutor’s evidence. Brampton’s prosecutor’s office has a formal process for requesting it. Expect officer notes, details about the speed-measuring device and its testing, and any video. You can’t assess anything until you’ve read it, so make the request early.
Speak with the prosecutor. Many matters get to a discussion about whether a lesser charge is possible, such as a speeding charge at a lower number. Prosecutors are not obliged to agree. Their position depends on factors like the speed involved, road conditions, your record and the strength of the evidence. Any reduced plea still has consequences, including possibly a fine, demerit points and insurance effects, so ask what each proposal would really do to your licence and your premiums before saying yes.
Go to trial. The prosecution must prove the offence beyond a reasonable doubt. Common issues include whether the officer’s speed-measuring device was properly tested and operated, how the officer identified your vehicle in traffic, whether the observed conduct actually fits the regulation, and what the video shows.
Use a representative if it helps. A lawyer or a licensed paralegal may be able to appear on your behalf, depending on the matter. If there’s any possibility of a jail sentence or a related criminal charge, or your job depends on your licence, this isn’t the place to try to save money by going it alone.
The Due Diligence Defence
Speeding-based stunt charges aren’t an automatic conviction once the number is proven. In R. v. Raham, a 2010 decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that this type of offence is one of strict liability, not absolute liability. A driver can raise a defence of due diligence by showing, on a balance of probabilities, that they took reasonable care to avoid committing the offence.
The focus is narrow. The question isn’t whether you were speeding at all, but whether you took reasonable care not to reach the stunt threshold. The Raham case involved a driver who said she accelerated to pass a tractor-trailer. A court would then look at all the circumstances to decide whether the explanation holds up. Passing a slow truck on a two-lane road may be a very different story from cruising at that speed for several kilometres. Also, a medical emergency, a true threat on the road, or a faulty speedometer may be raised in the right case, though a judge will expect evidence, not simply your word, and an honest explanation won’t succeed in every case.
Here is another hypothetical. A driver says their speedometer was miscalibrated after installing oversized wheels. Without a mechanic’s report and evidence that the driver had no reason to know, that’s unlikely to persuade anyone. With them, it may at least be worth raising. Keep repair invoices and preserve the vehicle’s condition if it’s relevant.
Practical Steps in the First Week
Some early steps protect you regardless of how the case goes:
- Write down everything you remember today: traffic, weather, road, what the officer said, whether you asked about the device, and any passengers.
- Keep the summons, suspension notice and impound paperwork together, and photograph them.
- Check for dashcam footage, and save it before it gets overwritten. Vehicle or phone data might also matter.
- Ask witnesses for their contact information while it’s easy.
- Note the court date in more than one place. Missing it can be costly.
- Be careful what you say about the incident on social media or to your insurer. Get advice before giving a detailed account.
Then plan for the period without a licence. If you work in Brampton but live in another part of Peel, check transit routes, ask your employer about duties that don’t involve driving, and be honest about what your job requires. Sometimes employment contracts or insurance policies require you to report a suspension.
Thinking About What Comes Next
Stunt charges reward early planning and punish delay. The roadside suspension runs out quickly, but the court process can take many months, and that creates a false sense of calm. During this time, you can be back behind the wheel while the case hangs over you. A second stunt conviction brings a much longer minimum suspension, so a further allegation in the meantime could change everything. Driving carefully while the charge is outstanding is simply good sense.
If you hold a commercial licence, are a new driver, or could lose your job, it’s worth getting legal advice before your first court date. You can read about related matters on our criminal law page, or contact the firm for a consultation. No one can promise how a prosecutor or judge will respond, but you should know what each choice costs before you make it.