Harley rider loses appeal of $109 ticket for noise
By Keith Fraser, The Province July 12, 2012
A man has lost his appeal of a $109 traffic ticket for operating a Harley-Davidson with a loud and unnecessary exhaust system in Vancouver.
Ian James Tootill was convicted and sentenced in provincial court following an incident in September 2009.
He was pulled over by a Vancouver police officer who believed he was driving with excessive noise while he was eastbound on Beach Avenue.
The officer, Const. John Bercic, testified that the sound from the aftermarket "Screamin' Eagle' exhaust system was "at least twice as loud as a stock exhaust system."
Bercic used a personal sound level metre to measure the decibels to corroborate his subjective assessment of the noise.
He was ticketed under a provision of the law dealing with a subjective evaluation of the noise, not the provision requiring an objective measure of noise.
Judicial Justice Phillip Lim concluded that the cop was correct in finding that the motorcycle was subjectively unnecessarily loud.
Tootill appealed the ruling, asserting that Lim did not correctly weigh the evidence, made errors in procedures which rendered the trial unfair and reached an unreasonable verdict.
But in a ruling released online Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper found that there was no evidence that procedures at the trial were unfair.
Tootill, who in an online blog says he hates noisy motorcycles himself, was clearly unhappy about the ruling Wednesday.
"I'm adamant that I didn't do anything wrong here," he said.
"Anybody who knows me and my motorcycle, which I no longer own, knows that I was totally respectable on that bike, never rode it like an idiot."
Tootill, an activist who has been trying to get better motorcycle parking in Vancouver, said he is considering an appeal.
He was pulled over by a Vancouver police officer who believed he was driving with excessive noise while he was eastbound on Beach Avenue.
The officer, Const. John Bercic, testified that the sound from the aftermarket "Screamin' Eagle' exhaust system was "at least twice as loud as a stock exhaust system."
Bercic used a personal sound level metre to measure the decibels to corroborate his subjective assessment of the noise.
He was ticketed under a provision of the law dealing with a subjective evaluation of the noise, not the provision requiring an objective measure of noise.
Judicial Justice Phillip Lim concluded that the cop was correct in finding that the motorcycle was subjectively unnecessarily loud.
Tootill appealed the ruling, asserting that Lim did not correctly weigh the evidence, made errors in procedures which rendered the trial unfair and reached an unreasonable verdict.
But in a ruling released online Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper found that there was no evidence that procedures at the trial were unfair.
Tootill, who in an online blog says he hates noisy motorcycles himself, was clearly unhappy about the ruling Wednesday.
"I'm adamant that I didn't do anything wrong here," he said.
"Anybody who knows me and my motorcycle, which I no longer own, knows that I was totally respectable on that bike, never rode it like an idiot."
Tootill, an activist who has been trying to get better motorcycle parking in Vancouver, said he is considering an appeal.
