The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld two earlier decisions acquitting Ryder Truck Rental Canada of violating a provincial law that automatically blames truckers for accidents when wheels break off their rigs.
Ryder was charged in a 1997 accident in which one of its trucks threw its dual wheels, hubs and axle. But the court said the accident was not caused by the failure of the wheel-fastening mechanism, which is the law’s main concern, the Toronto Star reported.
Thus, Ryder could not be convicted under the "flying wheels" law, enacted in 1997 after a string of accidents, some fatal, caused by wheels breaking off trucks at highway speed.
The law itself was struck down in 1999, but that decision was made by the lowest branch of Ontario’s court system, so it did not have the effect of abolishing the law (9-13, p. 38).
Justice John Laskin said provincial prosecutors could have resorted to another section of the law that prohibits operating dangerous or unsafe vehicles on highways.
