Texting and driving, he kills a rider and our justice system let's him go free.

I am in shock, I feel sick to my stomach - what the HE double Hockey Sticks is wrong with our justice system?

One man dead, 3 others severely injured and the perpetrator? Texting while driving and not guilty of  dangerous driving causing death or the three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm he faced.
All four motorcyclists were/are members of the Barrie Chapter of the Southern Cruisers Riding Club.

What is the point of putting a law in the books if it has no teeth?

We have distracted driving laws that have NO TEETH.

If people can get off scott free AFTER they have admitted to texting an driving - then what is the point to the law?

Begin Quote: 
The officer who worked on the case, OPP Const. Trina Gosse, she she was also disappointed with the verdict.

“It is troubling when you see so many people injured,” Gosse said. “The deceased’s daughter was crying pretty hard.”

She noted that even Rogers admitted he had been using his cellphone while driving that day, however the judge could not find beyond reasonable doubt that he was using it at the time of the crash.

Gosse said this was her first case involving an alleged texting while driving causing death.

“But sadly, it is not all that uncommon," she said. End Quote

It is my firm hope that there will be an appeal.

The OCC - Ontario Confederation of Clubs does not appear to be on the rampage about this verdict, but from my personal experience with them -they appear to focus more on 1% issues than ALL rider's rights issues.

Regardless I would have thought that they would be outraged and sitting on the steps of their provincial legislature asking for the judge's decision to be reviewed or for a retrial.
I would have thought we'd see a statement or a press release, but nothing anywhere that I could find.

We NEED a national riders rights organization - a watch dog - someone to protect our rights as citizens and human beings.

Just because this happened in Ontario does not mean riders from other provinces can't have an impact.

The more we flood the Attorney General's office with letters of outrage - the more likely a review of the case will take place.  PLEASE - take 5 minutes and DO SOMETHING....

So - how can we, Joe Q Citizen have any impact on this particular injustice?

Write to the Attorney General of Ontario:

The Honourable John Gerretsen, Attorney General:

E-mail at attorneygeneral@ontario.ca

Mailing address:
Ministry of the Attorney General
McMurtry-Scott Building
720 Bay Street, 11th Floor
Toronto, ON
M7A 2S9

You could also flood the Crown Council's Telephone Lines in Barrie asking for an appeal:
Barrie Crown Attorney’s Office - (705) 739-6188

UPDATE - here is my letter to the Attorney General:

Dear Honourable John Gerretsen, Attorney General of Ontario,

The Justice system failed motorcyclists and all victims of distracted driving yesterday with the ruling by Justice Cory Gilmore in the case of Michael Rogers, a 24 year old who was, by his own admission texting and driving, crossed the centre line and killed one rider and injured 3 others.

According to the article in the Barrie Examiner today:
Crown attorney Dave Russell argued that Rogers was looking at a text message on his cellphone as he swerved out of his lane into the path of the riders.

Defence lawyer Lydia Riva argued Rogers committed no crime, but rather the tragic incident was a “moment of inattention,” and not an act of dangerous driving as defined by the Criminal Code. End Quote

Distracted driving is an offence and according to a Ministry of Transport statement on their website: http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/distracted-driving/index.shtml
There is a ban on hand held cellular device use while driving in Ontario.

Would you please explain how using a hand held cellular device to read a text is not distracted driving, which is also dangerous driving?
Why was it is not considered Dangerous Driving causing death and causing bodily harm in this case?
If the person had been drinking it would be, would it not?
If the person had been stoned it would be would it not?

Why is this case any different?

What can be done to force an appeal?

I am a moto journalist who travels by motorcycle in Ontario usually once per year. I will be sharing your response with the riding community of Canada. Thank you

There is a lot going on in the news today - please check it out at www.beltdrivebetty.com where our work is keeping You informed!

I leave you with a few funnies shared with me by friends on Facebook and via Email - after the crap in the news - I need a laugh:

Have a great weekend everyone

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

I'm probably not going to be too popular today.

The results are in on our 6th Annual Beat the PMS Blues Online Show ‘n’ Shine.

We will announce the winners in the newsletter that your newspaper comes in, tomorrow morning.

I will be contacting the winners and organizing for their prizes to go out. 

I have some things to say, they are hard to say but they must be said.

There are a few people who made this, our sixth annual - FREE Show 'n' Shine hard to deal with - they took all of the fun out of it for me.  

You see I truly love seeing all of the entries and knowing what my friends and other community members ride. I get a kick out of it and it really does ease up some of the dreadful PMS that I suffer with - Parked Motorcycle Syndrome, for those not in the know.

When we do it again next year there will be some measures put in place just for those who think they need to win at all cost.  Or they think someone is cheating so they should too, to win.

People do not seem to understand the power of social media and if one person has lots of friends voting for them, their tallies go up - fast. 

There is a right way and a wrong way to win. This is the right way, getting your FRIENDS to vote for you.

Everyone was encouraged to contact us if they had any issues. 

Many people did, their problems or challenges resolved, one rider had friends that Sasktel was blocking from accessing our site for some unknown reason, he emailed us, we verified the problem and worked through friends, to get the issue with Sasktel resolved, and he gave us the names and phone numbers of people who were having trouble voting for him and he was given the appropriate number of votes.

We verified that their IP's had been showing up consistently and then all of a sudden all 5 stopped.

We do everything in our power to keep it fair and real.

We can tell you if some one is cheating or not by the IP addresses that they use and the time stamp.

When someone has 50 or 60 friends voting for them and they all have different IP addresses – there is no cheating.

However when you see the same IP on the show 'n'shine page 25 and 30 times a day.... 

We remove those votes, we email the offender and tell them they were removed – so there really was no point to the effort. And this of course, would therefore be, the wrong way to try to win.

The reason I no longer do calendar contests is for a similar sort of reason.

Back biting, name calling, horrid, horrid behavior from people who are supposed to be adults and of course the attempts at cheating.

I hold contests for FREE – the prizes, we spend hours and days gathering, the labor it takes to host a contest is mind numbing - we do it because we want to have some fun, lighten things up – we have enough grief and enough challenges to deal with every day as riders and people. 

Does it help our business – yes, but my primary purpose, especially with this contest, is to have some FUN.

BUT - there comes a time when one really has to look at the whole thing and ask yourself – is it worth it?

Our community is based on the fundamental principles of life – being respectful is one of them and another is standing up for what you believe in.

Well I believe in fair play.

I believe that if I don’t like what someone has to say, I don’t need to take it in to my soul and then lash out hatefully. 

I believe that if someone is a jerk, you don’t keep poking them – you walk away and give them no energy.

Soon enough, they go away.

These are but a few of the core and fundamental values of being a good human being, I believe.

I have never pussyfooted around an issue that was important to me, much in my life.  

I listen to other people’s opinions, I decide what if anything they have to say resonates with my core values, makes sense to me on any level and look to understand their point of view, but understanding their point of view and adopting it or taking it into my soul are two different things. Understanding lets me hopefully find a better way of working towards a resolution to a challenge but I do not have to take that person's viewpoint on as mine in order to work to a resolution.

AND I am not pussyfooting around this issue either.

RESPECT is one word that I believe in and the disrespect shown to Ali who busts her hump, our sponsors who supply the prizes blows my mind.  

As the idiot who does all of the legwork; the obtaining sponsors, the emails and letters, the promoting – I am just discouraged. 

Next year will be far, far different.

We will be putting in every safe guard we can find to ensure a FRIENDLY AND FUN contest. 

And if we can’t find a way to prevent the nastiness – then we won’t be doing it again. 

I do not get paid enough to put up with some of the situations I have been put in over this.

This was supposed to be a fun thing. 

But there were some people who took the fun out of it for me.

That won’t happen again – I do not do things like this unless they make people feel good. PERIOD.

Belt Drive Betty,

Editor & Rider