{"id":20685,"date":"2026-04-26T21:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/20685\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:26:07","slug":"novice-driver-failed-to-move-over-was-watching-netflix-opp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/20685\/","title":{"rendered":"Novice driver failed to move over, was watching Netflix: OPP"},"content":{"rendered":"

OPP in Thunder Bay say they stopped a novice driver watching Netflix on their phone while speeding on the highway, who also failed to move over for an emergency <\/p>\n

A novice driver is facing charges after Ontario Provincial Police say the driver failed to move over for an emergency vehicle and was actively watching a show on a phone mounted above the steering wheel.<\/p>\n

Police said the incident occurred on April 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cA novice G2 driver was stopped on Highway 11-17 for failing to move over,\u201d OPP said in a social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers also observed the driver had a phone mounted above the steering wheel and was actively watching a show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"OPP Netflix A police photo showing a cellphone playing video mounted to the dash of a vehicle behind the steering. (Ontario Provincial Police\/Facebook) <\/p>\n

Charges were laid for distracted driving and failing to move over.<\/p>\n

OPP Const. Armstrong used the situation to issue a public reminder about staying alert for emergency vehicles stopped on the roadside.<\/p>\n

In a related OPP social media video<\/a>, Armstrong described the incident as \u201cconcerning for several reasons.\u201d The initial reason for the stop was the driver\u2019s failure to move into another lane for an emergency vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I stopped to actually talk to this driver, who happened to be a novice driver, the driver had their phone propped up on the dash right above the steering wheel playing Netflix \u2013 watching the show, driving down the highway at highway speeds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Armstrong also noted this is not an isolated incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that we\u2019re seeing a lot of, unfortunately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Armstrong added that during two traffic stops on the same night, he observed more than 30 vehicles fail to move over. In one stop before the Netflix incident, he was outside his vehicle, standing on the side of the highway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually outside, standing on the side of the highway, just turned around, walking back to the car, walking just off the fog line, a car went by me, probably a foot away from me, at 100 km\/h, not a soul in the left lane, ample time and room to move over and just chose not to,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

Know the law<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Highway Traffic Act<\/a> states that if there\u2019s a tow truck or emergency vehicle on the side of the road, emergency lights on, vehicles need to slow down and proceed with caution and move into another lane if it\u2019s safe to do so and there\u2019s another lane available,\u201d said Armstrong.<\/p>\n

Failure to comply carries a $490 fine and three demerit points, in addition to the safety risks for roadside workers.<\/p>\n

Tips for drivers<\/p>\n

OPP remind motorists of the following requirements when approaching emergency vehicles such as police or other first responders or tow trucks:<\/p>\n

Slow down and proceed with caution.If safe, and there are multiple lanes, move over.\"\"Slow Down, Move Over A police infographic explaining Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act requirement to slow down and move over for emergency vehicles. (Ontario Provincial Police\/Facebook) <\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to comply \u2026 puts lives at risk,\u201d the OPP said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlow down. Move over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OPP in Thunder Bay say they stopped a novice driver watching Netflix on their phone while speeding on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10463,10464,17,10458,10468,10460,10461,10456,10459,938,10462,94,10454,10466,10457,10467,10455,10465],"class_list":{"0":"post-20685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-10463","9":"tag-10464","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-distracted","12":"tag-emergency-vehicles","13":"tag-fail","14":"tag-g2","15":"tag-highway","16":"tag-move-over","17":"tag-netflix","18":"tag-novice-driver","19":"tag-ontario","20":"tag-opp","21":"tag-phone","22":"tag-speed","23":"tag-steering","24":"tag-thunder-bay","25":"tag-watching"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}