Ontario NDP seeks to make it illegal for drivers to pass on solid double yellow lines
CTV
Chad Belanger was left with a broken neck, ribs, collarbone and sternum, a bruised heart and lungs, a concussion and PTSD following a crash caused by a truck that crossed a solid double yellow line to pass another vehicle in northern Ontario.
Chad Belanger was left with a broken neck, ribs, collarbone and sternum, a bruised heart and lungs, a concussion and PTSD following a crash caused by a truck that crossed a solid double yellow line to pass another vehicle in northern Ontario.
His New Democratic member of provincial parliament, Guy Bourgouin, was surprised – as are many other Ontarians that Bourgouin has heard from – to learn that it is not actually illegal to cross double lines when overtaking another vehicle.
Current laws penalize operating a vehicle unsafely, including improper passing, and caution against crossing into oncoming traffic in certain conditions, but Ontario is the only province that does not make it explicitly illegal to cross two solid lines to pass, said Bourgouin.
The representative for Mushkegowuk-James Bay in northern Ontario has introduced Chad's Law, a private member's bill that aims to change that, named after Belanger.
"I got a lot of citizens emails saying that they were, like me, surprised this wasn't already the law," Bourgouin said at a recent news conference.
