| Highway Traffic Act | |
|---|---|
| Legislative Assembly of Ontario | |
| Citation | R.S.O. 1990, C. H.8 |
| Territorial extent | Ontario, province-wide |
| Related legislation | |
| Provincial Offences Act | |
| Keywords | |
| driving | |
| Status: In force | |
The Highway Traffic Act (HTA; "the Act") is a statute in Ontario, Canada, which regulates the licensing of vehicles, classification of traffic offences, administration of loads, classification of vehicles and other transport-related issues. First introduced in 1923 to deal with increasing accidents during the early years of motoring in Ontario,[1] and replacing earlier legislation such as the Highway Travel Act, there have been amendments due to changes to driving conditions and new transportation trends. For example, in 2009, the Act was revised to ban the use of cell phones while driving.
Offences under the Highway Traffic Act are the most commonly tried in Provincial Offences court.[2] Over 1.3 million offences are tried each year under the Act, with the most common charges being speeding (559,013 occurrences, s. 128 - Speeding), running a red light (127,836 occurrences, s. 144 - Red light - proceed before green), driving whilst disqualified (117,470 counts, s. 7 - Drive motor vehicle, no currently validated permit), fail to stop (51,263 counts, s. 136 - Disobey stop sign - fail to stop) and telephoning whilst driving (51,210 counts, s. 78.1 - Drive - hand-held communication device).