Ottawa police had their hands full on Limebank Road this week after a road safety officer caught two drivers travelling at wildly unsafe speeds through what's supposed to be an 80 km/h zone.
What happened
On Thursday, an Ottawa Police Service traffic officer working a dedicated road safety patrol on Limebank Road clocked one driver doing 140 km/h and another doing 145 km/h — nearly double the posted limit. Both drivers were pulled over and face significant charges under Ontario's Highway Traffic Act, which treats speeds of 40 km/h or more over the limit as "stunt driving," a designation that comes with immediate licence suspension, vehicle impoundment, and steep fines.
Limebank Road, which runs through the city's south end near Riverside South and Findlay Creek, has increasingly become a flashpoint for speed complaints as new subdivisions bring more traffic — and more pedestrians and cyclists — to a corridor that many drivers still treat like an open highway.
Why this matters for Ottawa
Speeding remains one of the top safety concerns raised by residents across the city, and Riverside South in particular has seen a wave of growth over the past few years, with new homes, schools, and families moving in faster than road infrastructure can always keep pace. Ottawa police have leaned on dedicated road safety units and mobile speed enforcement to respond to community complaints, and Limebank Road has shown up repeatedly on the radar of local ward councillors and residents' associations pushing for traffic calming measures.
Under Ontario's stunt driving rules, a driver caught going 40 km/h or more over the limit faces an on-the-spot seven-day licence suspension and seven-day vehicle impoundment, plus fines that can run into the thousands of dollars once the case works through the courts. For a zone posted at 80 km/h, that threshold kicks in at 120 km/h — meaning both drivers nabbed on Limebank Road were well past it, at 140 and 145 km/h respectively.
What's next
Ottawa police haven't indicated whether additional patrols are planned specifically for Limebank Road, but the force has continued to use targeted enforcement blitzes on roads flagged by the community as speeding hot spots. Residents in Riverside South and Findlay Creek have long called for physical traffic calming — think speed bumps, narrowed lanes, or photo radar — arguing that enforcement alone can't keep up with how quickly the area has grown.
For now, the message from police is a simple one: officers are watching, and the penalties for extreme speeding in Ottawa are serious. If you're cutting through the south end on Limebank Road, it might be worth easing off the gas — a road safety officer could be waiting just around the bend.
Source: Ottawa Citizen
