ROADS REPORT

By: David Matthews

A child and her parents were traveling down Highway 401 in Toronto last week, but unfortunately before they came to a stop, only two passengers remained in the car.

Apparently after an argument ensued between the parents, the girl’s mom decided to dangle her one-year-old daughter at arm’s length "oot" the window of the moving vehicle.

The dad brought the Jeep to a stop before the baby was dropped. Unfortunately, the spectacle caused two other minor collisions by onlooking motorists, but no one was hurt.

With back-to-school expenses and the impending holidays all creeping up, one solution may be to take a job in Ontario, get hammered at a company party and then crash your car into things. Linda Hunt did in 1994 and last month her employer was ordered to pay her $300,000 as a result.

Hunt, of Wasaga Beach, admits to having too much to drink at the party and driving drunk. She wound up hitting another car and suffering permanent brain injuries. Her pain was partially alleviated, though, when the government found her employer partly responsible by offering an open bar at the party.

In her lawsuit, Hunt claimed co-workers and the pub staff should have physically stopped her from leaving. (If that didn’t work, they were supposed to have restrained her with loose-fitting rope and sobered her up with reruns of "The Howie Mandel Show" while the tires on her car were removed.)

Ottawa citizen Hal Hewitt and three friends recently drove a restored 37-year-old city bus from Vancouver Island to Ottawa on "aboot" half a tank of diesel. The rest of their fuel came from used vegetable oil from local eateries they stopped at along the route.

Hewitt said most establishments were happy to part with their grease waste which they normally have to pay to have taken away. While he pointed "oot" that most modern vehicles would not be able to run on restaurant waste, he said fuel should be able to be grown.

The purpose of their journey was to point "oot" Canada’s failure to live up to the Kyoto Accord on air quality (whatever that is).

Everyone has a funny story from when they were first learning to drive. But few can compete with that of a Toronto teenager who injured herself and another woman last month after crashing into six cars while trying to park at the very end of her driving test.

After returning to the parking lot of the testing center after her exam, the girl only needed to park the car in order to be awarded her license. But she panicked and accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake, sending the car spinning "oot" of control. After hitting four cars, the teen’s vehicle managed to spin around and crash into two more, injuring a woman who happened to be standing between them.

The girl was hospitalized with minor leg injuries while her instructor was treated for shock.

Well, trips to the hospital might not be free in the States, but at least we can get to one.

According to a study submitted at a sentencing for a Mississauga man police say ran one of North America’s biggest theft rings, Canadians are more likely to have their vehicles stolen than Americans.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the odds of having a vehicle stolen in Canada are one in 99 versus one in 153 in the U.S. In fact, in 1997 car theft accounted for nearly 10% of all crime in Canada.

Most people wouldn’t want to admit to talking to animals. But Vancouver police officer Roy Peterson’s conversation with a duck ended up saving lives.

Feeling a tug on his pant leg, Peterson noticed a mother duck trying to get his attention. He shoved her away, but she came back and grabbed his pant leg again. She then walked over to a sewer grating and sat down.

Peterson went over to check "oot" the grating and found eight ducklings trapped in the water underneath. He was able to get the grating removed and the ducklings were safely rescued.

The mean mother ducker then walked her little ones over to a nearby pond and ripped them all a new one.