These driving offences now come with an automatic impoundment, licence suspension in Sask.

New penalties surrounding high-speed driving offences and stunting come into effect in Saskatchewan on Wednesday.

Drivers who are caught stunting, street racing, or committing high-speed offences will now automatically lose their drivers’ licence for a week and their vehicle for a month.

Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) announced the new penalties in February.

“The tough new penalties are intended to further discourage drivers from stunting, street racing and driving [at] excessively high speeds,” Minister Responsible for SGI Dustin Duncan said in February.

Before Wednesday, the penalty for stunting was a three-day vehicle impoundment for second and subsequent offences with no licence suspension. Street racing came with a 30 day vehicle impoundment but no licence suspension, according to SGI.

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Exceeding the speed limit by at least 50 kilometres per hour came with a week-long impoundment.

In October 2022, tickets for stunting and street racing in Saskatchewan were raised to $580 and increase to $1,400 and $2,100 for second and third offences in the same year, SGI said.

The cost of speeding fines depend on how fast a vehicle was travelling at the time it was clocked by police.

SGI said examples of stunting include:

• Attempting to lift some or all tires from the roadway (including driving a motorcycle on one wheel)
• Attempting to spin a vehicle to cause it to spin or circle
• Driving a vehicle while not sitting in the driver’s seat
• Driving in the oncoming lane longer than is needed to pass
• Driving a vehicle in a way that prevents another vehicle from passing
• Stopping or slowing down to interfere with the movement of another vehicle