More Options For Off-highway Vehicle Infraction Enforcement

Enforcement officers now have more options to enforce the Off-highway Vehicles Act.

The amended regulations allow enforcement officers to issue a summary offence ticket for some offences, as well as the original option of a long-form information, which requires a court appearance. The person issued the ticket can pay without a court appearance, or go to court and face a fine within the range specified in the legislation.

The fines for infractions under the Off-highway Vehicles Act start at $250, and increase to $750 for repeat offences under recent amendments to the province's summary offence ticket regulations. Tickets can also be issued for other infractions, such as operating off-highway vehicles on wetlands, in provincial parks, on coastal or highland barrens, sand dunes or other special places, which carry penalties of between $500 and $2,000.

The regulatory amendments are another step in government's implementation of the province's action plan for off-highway vehicles. The action plan is designed to help encourage the safe and responsible use of all off-highway vehicles in Nova Scotia.

Offenders can be fined $250 on first offence, $500 on second offence and $750 if someone is charged three or more times for such things as driving without proper safety training, or operating on private property without written permission.

People can also be ticketed up to $750 for not following rules aimed specifically at keeping younger drivers safe. For example, tickets can be issued for allowing:

• someone younger than 14 to use an all-terrain vehicle anywhere other than an approved closed course
• someone younger than 14 to use a vehicle with an inappropriate engine size
• anyone up to age 16 to operate an off-highway vehicle without direct supervision
• anyone up to age 16 to operate off-highway vehicles if they and their supervising adult have not successfully completed the safety training program by the required date.

Under terms of the Off-highway Vehicles Act, all money collected through these summary offence tickets will be forwarded to the province's Off-highway Vehicle Infrastructure Fund to help support safety and education programs, and the development and maintenance of off-highway vehicle trails.

For a complete list of regulation amendments, see the website at www.gov.ns.ca/just/regulations/regs/SOT-ohv.pdf .