Bump up the kids allowance – there might be a $100. ticket to pay. Skate board fines might be in the works.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  October 6, 2010  –  Redo that budget and get in some money for the $75.00 fine the city wants to levy for those caught using their skate boards on city streets.  Add the victim fee and that $75. which will get you as close to $100. as you want to be.

The city isn`t all that concerned about the money – it just wants to find a way to be able to control the people that are behaving recklessly and feels that a $75.  fine will do the trick.  Problem with the fine is that there are all kinds of legal and Highway Traffic Act concerns.

This is a delicate area – just about every kid that doesn`t use a bike, uses a skate board to get around and the law as it stands now says you cannot use a skateboard on a public road.  You can use it on a side walk or in the bike lane.  All the police can do now is talk to you – there is no penalty for them to levy.

The city thinks that giving the police a tool they can use will solve the problem – and when they do that they shift that problem to the police who are going to be expected to exercise discretion.

The problem is with gangs that see skate boarding as almost an extreme sport.  Ward 1 councillor Rick Craven reports that there are kids who gather at night on Kerns Road where the hills and the grades are great for skate boarding. They get out there with a van and a video camera, film the thrill ride of someone speeding down the hill and post it on You Tube.  The police are powerless for the most part because even if they do catch the kids behaving recklessly they can only warn them off.

Council wants to give the police a bigger stick and wanted to talk about ways that a system of fines could be put in place.  But they didn`t want the police to be slapping a $75. ticket on every kid using a skate board on a public street – they wanted the police to use their discretion.

Can you imagine drivving up the street and seeing this coming at you? Not reckless but not the safest thing to do either.

Police didn`t attend the Committee of the Whole meeting – city staff said they were invited, the police say they weren`t.  Our information from our media man at Regional Police was that :“ I have spoken with the Burlington Operational Inspector who advised me they were aware of the meeting you are referring to, but they (police) were not asked to be in attendance for it.“   Go figure.  Methinks staff were being a little disingenuous.  The police are aware of the problem and they too would like to see a solution.  They are the people that have to attend when there is an accident and report that a young person has suffered serious head injuries.

Giving police the ability to issue a ticket and then expecting them to use their discretion reflects a bit of misunderstanding as to what police do.  They are there to enforce the law.  Give them clear rules and they will do their job – expect them to use their discretion and you invite nothing but problems.  I suspect too that traffic offence lawyers will have great fun with this one should a ticket case every get to traffic court.

That said, there is a problem.  Kids are creating dangerous situations in parts of the city where there are really good hills they can speed down.  The city put up signs saying Skate Boarding was Prohibited – the kids tore down the signs.

The problem however is not limited to parts of the city with steep grades.  Recently there was a serious accident involving a van and a young man on a skate board who was luging along a flat street.  Luging is when a person lays flat on a skate board.  The driver of the van just didn`t see the person on the skate board.

This problem is going to call for some very creative thinking by people who are very familiar with the Highway Traffic Act.  A new fine of $75. and expecting the HRPS to exercise discretion isn`t the answer to this problem.

Educating the kids isn`t going to solve this problem either.  The vast majority of the kids who glide along quiet residential streets with buds plugged into their ears meaning they don`t hear traffic approaching are harming no one.  It is just a few that are creating a problem – let`s find a stick that won`t cripple them when they are hit with it – but let`s not put our police in a situation where they have to solve a problem we can`t solve.

The Highway Traffic Act says that bicycles can be used on the streets.  Blades and boards can be used on a sidewalk or in a bicycle lane if one exists.  Can you imagine the howls from the public if all the skate boards are suddenly on the side walk ?

Sergeant Dave Cross, the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) media man, advises that HRPS does not have a Skate Board Swat Team, so we shouldn`t expect to see cruisers out on the prowl along Kerns Road every night

And as for Officer who gave me a speeding ticket for doing more than 60 on Walkers Line, ( I thought the limit was 80)  – he did exercise some discretion and cut it back a bit and saved me some points.  Will that kind of discretion solve our skate board problem ?  Is it worth a try ?

The officer who caught me was parked behind a cluster of bushes – are we going to see officer hiding in hedges along Kerns Road with bicycles at the ready to race after skate board miscreants ?

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