MOMS Act - Proposed New Legislation Aims to Keep Vulnerable Road Users and Young Drivers Safe

June 24, 2021, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

The Government of Ontario Release a Backgrounder paper this spring outlining the actions it proposed to help keep young drivers and vulnerable road users safer. The government aims to curb racing/stunt driving, unsafe driving, and aggressive driving on the roads.

The new MOMS Act (Moving Ontarians More Safely Act, 2021) provides measures to ‘protect vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and highway workers, improve truck safety, and strengthen provincial oversight of the towing sector.”

If this legislation is passed the Government of Ontario says it will:

Fight Street Racing/Stunt Driving, and Aggressive and Unsafe Driving

• Increase the roadside driver’s licence suspension and vehicle impoundment periods for drivers caught street racing/stunt driving from seven days each to a 30-day driver’s licence suspension and a 14-day vehicle impoundment.
• Introduce escalating post-conviction driver’s licence suspensions for drivers convicted of street racing/stunt driving:
  • For a first offence, a minimum of one to three years
  • For a second offence, a minimum of three to 10 years
  • For a third offence, a lifetime suspension that may be reduced at a later date to be established by regulation, and
  • For fourth and subsequent offences, a lifetime driver’s licence suspension.

• Create a lower speed threshold for stunt driving charges of driving 40 kilometres per hour (km/h) or more above the speed limit on roads where the speed limit is less than 80 km/h.
• Introduce a default speed limit of 80 km/h on a highway not within a local municipality or a built-up area.

Protect Vulnerable Road Users

• Introduce an automated camera enforcement framework to allow photo evidence of vehicles that illegally pass streetcars on the left or streetcars with the doors open to pick up or drop off passengers.
• Change how Ontario collects collision data to better track collisions involving car doors hitting bicycles or e-scooters.
• Redefine “power-assisted bicycles” (e-bikes) under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) to set out new standards for three different styles of e-bikes: bicycle-style, mopeds and motorcycle-style.

Protect Workers on or near Highways

• Authorize MTO Transportation Enforcement Officers to close a road, drive along closed roads and direct traffic as part of their duties when responding to emergencies or assisting in collision investigations.
• Permit the use of automated traffic control devices know as “Automated Flagger Assistance Devices” as an additional traffic control tool in construction zones to reduce the need for construction workers to physically stop traffic themselves.
• Permit vehicles used in highway construction to back up on a divided highway, if the movement is made in safety.

Improve Truck Safety and Industry Standards

• Introduce additional tools to address commercial vehicle drivers who violate hours-of-service rules.
• Clarify dimensional limits for trailers.
• Permit technical standards to be incorporated in the HTA by reference rather than requiring a legislative or regulatory amendment to ensure that the most updated version of standards will be automatically incorporated into the HTA and its regulations – for example, Canadian Standards Association Standard D250 – the manufacturing standard for new school buses.

Strengthen Provincial Oversight of the Towing Sector

• Create the Towing and Storage Safety and Enforcement Act, 2021, (TSSEA) by amending the following statutes:
  • Consumer Protection Act, 2002
  • Highway 407 Act, 1998
  • Highway Traffic Act
  • Repair and Storage Liens Act
• Require tow operators, tow truck drivers and vehicle storage operators to be certified under the TSSEA and meet prescribed requirements and standards.
• Set standards for customer protection and roadside behaviours, including penalties for non-compliance.
• Establish a Director of Towing and Vehicle and Storage Standards to provide oversight.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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