Q&A - Ordered to a Specific Inspection Facility

QUESTION: I recently got pulled over for speeding by a police officer. He gave me a ticket to get my motorbike safety inspected. On the ticket he wrote down where I must get the safety inspection performed. Can he do this? Do I have to get it done where he stated? I have been told he cannot tell me where to get it inspected. Is this true, or will any approved safety inspection facility count?

ANSWER: Your advice is not correct. The officer has the authority in law to order your vehicle to be inspected at the place designated by the officer.

Equipment of motor vehicles

219(2) A peace officer

(a) may require a person who carries on the business of renting vehicles or who is the owner or person in charge of a vehicle

(i) to allow the peace officer to inspect a vehicle offered by the person for rental or owned by or in charge of the person, or

(ii) to move a vehicle described in subparagraph (i) to a place designated by the peace officer and to allow the vehicle to be inspected there by the peace officer, or, at the expense of the person required, to present the vehicle for inspection by a person authorized under section 217,

Powers of peace officer

25.30 (1) If a peace officer has reasonable and probable grounds to believe that a vehicle is, by reason of mechanical, structural or other defect, unsafe for use on a highway, whether or not the vehicle meets the standards prescribed under the Act, he or she may order the owner or operator of the vehicle, either immediately or within such time as is specified in the order, to do one or both of the following:

(a) remove it from the highway and keep it so removed until either

(i) repairs as may be set out in the order of the peace officer have been implemented, or

(ii) the peace officer revokes the order;

(b) surrender the vehicle licence or number plates, or both, for that vehicle to the corporation or to the peace officer.

Going to the inspection facility of your choice is only fulfilling part of the order. While your vehicle may eventually pass at that facility you are still bound by all of the conditions in the order. Failing to follow the order could result in a hefty penalty. While a violation of section 219 is a $109 penalty, a violation under 25.31 for failing to follow 25.30 is $598.