Comment
Racetrack on Highway 400
by Michelle Minnoch

This past week, Innisfil lost a member of its community due to the senseless act of three individuals who decided to use the Hwy as their own personal race track.

After the collision days before due to racing on Hwy 400, these three men continued to pay no heed to their activity, disregarding any harm that could not only come to themselves as a result of their actions, but harm that could come to others. And in the end, it did.

Two men from Etobicoke riding in one vehicle are charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle while street racing, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, criminal negligence causing death, common nuisance endangering life and criminal negligence causing death by street racing. The Mississauga man in the other vehicle is being charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. The two Etobicoke men are being held in custody, while the third was charged and released.

No matter what car caused the initial chain of events, I think all three men should be charged with the same crimes. They were all there with the same intent; to street race down a stretch of highway. Should one get a lessor sentence that the others? Not in my book. They were all using the same handbook to play their game.

The men all knew what they were doing when they started racing; they all had the same goal in mind - to beat the other in the race. There was no regard for the others on the road, no regard for the man driving down the highway, doing his job, making a buck, and at the end of the day, going home to his family.

A few weeks ago, the sentence was handed out to the two individuals who street raced and killed a Toronto cab driver. The man was working, making a decent living, and hoping to bring his family over to the country he now called home. The two individuals, willing participants racing along Toronto streets, got 12 months house arrest.

The maximum sentenced the two youths could have received - 14 years in prison.

In the case of the death of the Innisfil man, the lawyer for one of the accused in custody, says her client should be studying for his exams right now, not sitting in jail.

Really. Mr. Virgoe should be at home with his family right now.

Remember, these are not youths, they are 20 year old men. They acted that way, so they should be treated that way. Study for exams? Maybe they should be studying the walls of an 8X10 prison cell.

Editor's Note: At press time, the accused were at the second day of a two day bail hearing.