50 Mini's got pulled over on the Hwy 400 Sunday.

The organizer informed the OPP of their spring "The Rattler" (Muskoka #13) event.

"Apparently" 1 OPP officer met them at the Colossus starting point and informed them that the 400 was clear, just him and his Sargent on duty.
As they travel up the 400 in the middle lane the convoy is pulled over.
"A News" is already there waiting to film the group being pulled over.

looks like they are targeting club cruises now.
Just like fishing in a barrel.

Disclaimer. I took this from another web site, so not sure of all the facts.

None of the Mini's were caught doing over 123 Km/h.

Watch from after 2:12
http://www.anewsvideo.ca/videos/161/monday-april-26-2010-a-news-at-6-webcast

The footage earlier on the website has been taken down.
Where the OPP dangerously cut off the Mini Coopers convoy.

http://www.somc.on.ca/images/fbfiles/images/Ontario_Italian_Job.jpg


http://www.somc.on.ca/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=36&func=view&id=28888&catid=50&limit=6&limitstart=156

http://thegarageblog.com/garage/ontario-provincial-police-collars-mini-convoy-part-1/#more-12481

http://thegarageblog.com/garage/opp-vs-mini-convoy-part-2/

Insane! I can't stand the OPP! I saw more cruisers along HWY 17 per mile than I do driving through the rough areas of town here!

from: http://thestar.blogs.com/wheels_world/
May 03, 2010

Cops bust Mini convoy - what really happened?

http://thestar.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341bf8f353ef0133ed29bbab970b-320wi

Okay, let's get this blog rolling.

I read the link on Autoblog to the story of a convoy of Minis out on a cruise north of Barrie, who got pulled over in an apparent sting by the OPP. According to the story, an organizer with the Southern Ontario Mini Club sent a note to the police as a courtesy to let them know about the convoy driving through, so as not to cause any problems with local traffic. In response, the police set up a speed trap and pulled them all over, busting three of them driving 123 km/h in a 90 km/h limit. But the cops had also put the word out to the local TV station, which filmed the whole thing and reported that 11 drivers had been charged with 50-over (a lose-your-car-and-licence offence), as well as four of them being reported to child services because of doing this with their children in the car.


Pretty bad, huh? As of now, 187 people have commented there about how terrible the police are.

Here's where the Internet shows its dangers - never trust anything you read online, unless it's a Star story or blog, of course. The Autoblog people took the story from Gary Grant's The Garage Blog site, which accurately reported the initial concern by some people that this may have happened, but the facts didn't match up. So I made some calls.

And here's what happened. The OPP had a plane in the air above Hwy. 400, right around the point where the speed drops from 100 km/h to 90 km/h. The convoy of 17 Minis was driving up from Vaughan to Weber's hamburger stand, at the speed of traffic and mostly in the right lane, and the plane officer clocked their speed the old-fashioned way, with a stopwatch and pen and paper. The officer radioed down and the police cruisers parked up ahead pulled over the convoy and charged three of the drivers, just as they'd been pulling over drivers all day long.

I spoke with the lead driver and he was concerned that there may have been collusion with the cops, because they'd had a police vehicle driving along with them for much of the way north. I spoke with the organizer of the rally and he was also suspicious, but I think this is giving the police too much credit - there was a speed trap on a highly-travelled road and the Minis drove into it. Yes, they were speeding, but not - say the drivers - so much as to exceed the flow of traffic.

But that story of the TV station's reportage? I spoke with the News Director and she told me the station was invited to watch the police in action through the day and just happened to be there when the Minis were pulled over. In his report, the reporter accurately quoted the police stats for the day before, which showed that in six hours, 45 drivers had been given tickets, 11 of them were driving 50 km/h over the limit, and four of those had had kids in the car. But one of the clips the reporter showed while voicing over this was of the Minis being pulled over. Hence the link.

You can't see the clip because it was taken down - the News Director says it was for "technical issues" and was done before she first spoke with the Mini organizer, though she says she may put it back up once the issue is fixed.

So what are the facts?

The Minis were speeding like everyone else, though not racing and not being driven irresponsibly.

The police chose to be flashy and pull them all over to charge three of them, instead of all of them.

The Mini drivers now say they'll drive the speed limit in future, which means they'll hold up traffic and tick off other drivers.

The cops lost all kinds of goodwill, especially thanks to the exciteable nature of the Internet.

Are we a step ahead for all this, or a step back? Seems pretty clear to me.

- mark r.

So, they were speeding and got tickets. Where's the story?

So, they were speeding and got tickets. Where's the story?
They (the Minis') were selectively targeted.
As other vehicles were in the passing lane going by them & not stopped.

Other vehicles were waved by before they pulled over the Minis'; including some non-vehicles that were in the pack.

The OPP dangerously cut off the convoy of Minis' to issue tickets.
(If you seen the original video in full) you would of saw the cluster **** that it caused, when 40+ minis' had to slam on the brakes & avoid each other & the OPP cars/people.

from a person at the cruise:
hi everyone...

I was in this cruise that day....and I must say...for the record that NO MINI was going 50 kms and over( not that it's not capable ...cause OMG..IT CAN... but not on this day mind you)..and NO MINI had children in the car..and NO MINI was impounded...that was on the part of A Channel News-Barries TOTALLY MISLEADING reports and what most of you didn't see was the FIRST video that A Channel-Barrie aired that has since been REMOVED... HUMMMM....GEE...wonder why that is... ??.. Maybe its because what you dont see in the EDITED video is.. and OPP cop..STANDIND..and i repeat...STANDING in the MIDDLE lane of a three lane highway!!!!....waving his arms at the oncoming "pack" of MINI's and one NON-MINI car...and may i add..that this NON-MINI car snuck behind the second MINI..(making it the third car in the "pack"...)for about 5 to 6 kms prior to getting "pulled-ever"... and was doing the same speed and keeping up with the first two MINI's BUT...was WAVED on as the MINI Cruise was FORCED OVER!!..and in such a dangerous manor!!!... to have cars put on their breaks in front of you very suddenly..is NOT a nice feeling.> at all!!
and to hear people breaking all around you is scary as well!!...