call HART crazy .. but
Good thing .. I guess! Being a local here in Winnipeg … it’s nice to get these assholes off the streets! I remember a few summers ago, it was pretty bad. Not only were people racing between lights after Polo Park Shopping Center (at St.James Street – going west) .. they would sit there at the lights, revving up .. and wait until the last second when it turned yellow or red again. It was quite annoying.
Wed, December 13, 2006
By CHRIS KITCHING, STAFF REPORTER
A pair of Winnipeg teens is facing charges following a landmark police investigation into street races that were captured on video and brazenly uploaded to youtube.com.
It is the first time city police have charged a person, let alone two, in connection with actions in an Internet video.
The five-minute clip — captured on video by a passenger — shows cars racing at high speeds on recognizable streets in Winnipeg. The clip has since been removed from the popular site where people can post homemade video.
Police traffic unit Sgt. Barbara Tobin said the teens are charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle (a Criminal Code offence), and three Highway Traffic Act offences — racing with another vehicle, imprudent driving and careless driving.
“To the drivers that engage in this type of behaviour we will use whatever means at our disposal to proceed with charges,” Tobin said.
“It was the first time we had ever utilized footage from the Internet. We looked to find out if there were ever any precedents on that, which we didn’t find.”
Mark De Leon, the alleged driver, and Mathew Zigue, his alleged passenger and cameraman, are slated to appear in court in January.
While De Leon declined comment yesterday, his alleged sidekick was surprised charges had been laid after learning about them from a Sun reporter.
In one scene in the video, a car races at high speed against a dark-coloured Honda Civic, at one point passing through a school zone near Tec-Voc High School in the West End.
The car also does two sprints. One scene shows the speedometer reaching 120 km/h.
CAA Manitoba president Mike Mager said the “reckless” actions in the video could have injured or killed someone.
“I’m glad the police followed up on it and they’ve taken steps to charge the individuals. It is a deterrent and they won’t do it in the future,” Mager said.
The edited footage was uploaded to YouTube in June and deleted after the link and stinging comments by two people in the local automotive industry were published in the Sun in August.
Two names appeared at the end of the homemade video, and viewers got a glimpse of the driver’s face and licence plate.
In August, University of Manitoba law Prof. David Deutscher said the Internet video may not be admissible as evidence in court.
“The usual test for the admission of photo or video evidence is that you have to have someone there that says, ‘This video accurately depicts what took place,’” he said.
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
SOURCE: Winnipeg Sun
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
