Ottawa police said they stopped a 26-year-old man on Bank Street near Conroy Road on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 29, for driving 132 km/h in a 70 km/h zone in his mother’s car. Police said his licence was suspended for 30 days and the vehicle was impounded for 14 days. “Mom will NOT be happy,” the service wrote in a social media statement, as CTV News Ottawa reported.
The statement as CTV relayed it does not name the driver, and neither does this story. CTV described the case as a stunt driving charge, and I could not find a court record for it, so everything here rests on the police account. He is accused, not convicted.
Why 132 km/h in a 70 zone is stunt driving
Police didn’t need 132. Ontario’s line is far lower. The Ministry of Transportation’s speeding and aggressive driving page says 40 km/h or more over the limit counts as stunt driving on roads posted below 80 km/h, and 50 km/h or more over counts on any road. In a 70 zone the line sits at 110 km/h. Police put this driver at 132, which is 62 km/h over the limit and 22 km/h past the threshold.
The suspension and the impound both come at the roadside, ahead of any conviction. A conviction carries a separate and heavier set of penalties, which the ministry lists as a fine of $2,000 to $10,000, up to six months in jail, six demerit points, a mandatory driver improvement course, and a first-conviction licence suspension of one to three years. The 30 days he received is the short version of a penalty that could run 12 to 36 months if a court convicts.
The impound follows the car, not the driver
The ministry says the 14-day impoundment for stunt driving applies whether or not the driver owns the vehicle. That is how a 26-year-old’s speed ended up taking his mother’s car off the road for two weeks. Counted from Thursday, the impound would run to about Nov. 12 and the licence suspension to about Nov. 28. That is The Auto Wire’s arithmetic, not a date police gave.
The bill lands on the owner too. The ministry’s impoundment page says owners pay the towing and storage fees to get a vehicle back when the period ends. Police did not say what those fees came to, and the Ottawa statement does not mention them.
The ministry also lists grounds on which an owner can seek a refund or appeal: the car was stolen, the licence was not actually suspended, the owner made reasonable efforts to check the driver’s record, or losing the car would cause exceptional hardship. It attaches those grounds to 45-day impoundments and says 7-day impoundments cannot be appealed. For the 14-day stunt driving impound, the page describes no appeal route and tells owners to ask the police service that took the car. A parent who hands over the keys is, on the ministry’s description, the one carrying the risk.
Ottawa has been writing up more of these this year
CTV News Ottawa reported Ottawa police figures showing 623 stunt driving and careless driving charges between Jan. 1 and Oct. 17, up from 534 in the same stretch of 2025. The figure combines the two offences. CTV also reported that Ottawa police laid five stunt driving charges and 37 speeding tickets on Oct. 24 and 25.
The borrowed car is not new either. An Ottawa Police Service release dated May 10 reported four stunt driving charges from a single Friday, including 140 km/h in a 70 zone on Strandherd Drive and a rented U-Haul van that was impounded for 14 days. In September 2025, CTV News Ottawa reported a stop in which police said a driver in his mother’s SUV was clocked at 134 km/h on Limebank Road.
What happens next
If the driver is convicted, the fine and the one-to-three-year suspension are his. The tow bill and the two weeks without a car were his mother’s from the moment of the stop. Police have not said whether a court date has been set, and the driver’s side of the stop is not in the police statement.
She wasn’t driving, and she’s still the one paying for the tow. Should an impound follow the owner’s car or the driver’s licence?