TORONTO - It's a universal, unspoken code of the road: a quick flash of the high beams to warn oncoming motorists about a looming police speed trap. But is it illegal?
That act of common courtesy got a Toronto man a $110 ticket and has spurred debate about whether drivers are legally allowed to communicate via their headlights, and whether the police officer in question overstepped his bounds in interpreting the law.
Similar tickets have been fought all the way to the Supreme Court in Alberta and Pennsylvania. A quick web search turns up countless discussions of whether or not flashing the high beams is a crime.
Brad Diamond didn't think he'd done anything wrong when he was pulled over on a Saturday morning last year after flashing his headlights to warn motorists they were heading towards a police radar outpost.
The Toronto police officer told Diamond he'd violated a section of Ontario's Highway Traffic Act, which states "no person shall use high-beam headlamps that produce alternating flashes of white light on any vehicle" other than an emergency vehicle.
Diamond, a producer for the TSN car show Motoring, said his dad taught him the high-beam flip 42 years ago and he didn't think twice about doing it when he saw several cars pulled over at a notorious speed trap just outside downtown Toronto.
He argued politely with the young officer after being ticketed, but went home believing that maybe he was wrong and didn't know the law. After studying the provincial act with a colleague, however, he was convinced the officer made the mistake and decided to fight the ticket.
A few weeks ago he got his day in court and before watching two other drivers fight a similar ticket, his charge was dropped after police came forward with no evidence.
When his story appeared in the Toronto media, radio shows were bombarded with calls expressing nearly unanimous outrage that a police officer would seemingly punish drivers for trying to save others from a ticket.
Even Premier Dalton McGuinty jokingly told reporters he's always appreciated seeing a quick flick of the high beams on the highway - though he quickly added he's never done it himself.
"No (I've never done it), but I have been warned, I've been the recipient-slash-beneficiary of a warning," he said with a laugh.
"I appreciated it," McGuinty said, before quickly urging Ontario motorists to "be careful and drive responsibly."
Spokespeople for the Toronto police have since said that alerting drivers to speed traps is not a crime, and Diamond - who has become something of a folk hero for his efforts - probably should not have been ticketed.
"I'm just concerned about other people who were ticketed and paid the fine - this isn't right," he said.
"They are defrauding the public because it's not us that's being dishonest and breaking the law, it's the police, and I cannot believe they had the arrogance to do that."
Several provinces - British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island - have no law on the books that could be interpreted to penalize high-beam flashing. In Alberta and Manitoba, the laws give police some wiggle room.
A Manitoba transportation official said drivers could potentially be ticketed under a faulty-equipment provision of the law, particularly if a nervous driver claims their lights were malfunctioning rather than admitting to what they were really doing.
In Alberta, a driver can be fined up to $402 and assigned three demerit points if they "perform or engage in any stunt or other activity that is likely to distract, startle or interfere with users of the highway."
At least one driver has been charged with the stunt offence after flashing his lights and took the case to the province's Supreme Court. He beat the charge.
The court ruled in 1974 that the driver - who was pulled over for allegedly flashing his lights four or five times at four different vehicles - did not commit a "stunt" offence.
"There is no evidence that the action of the appellant in flashing his lights did in fact distract, startle or interfere with other users of the highway," the court ruled.
"There can be little doubt that the flashing of the headlights attracted the attention of other motorists but the effect of this might be in many cases to slow them down and induce them to pay more attention to their driving."
A similar case also went to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1998 and a driver was cleared for flashing his high-beams ten or more times after passing a speed trap.
Diamond said the laws must be changed if police want to write tickets similar to his, but he hopes the time-honoured practice lives on, because he believes it builds camaraderie among drivers.
"There's so much road rage out there and flipping the bird, this almost promotes karma."
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