If the main reason you wait for rainy days is just so you can drive down the street and splash hapless pedestrians on the sidewalk, you may not want to move to Canada.  An Ottawa company van was caught on camera engaging in that puerile pursuit, and the driver not only lost his job but was threatened with criminal charges by a local police sergeant.  


According to the CBC:  The driver of a van who was filmed splashing pedestrians near the University of Ottawa has been fired, according to both Ottawa police and the company the driver worked for.
Dash cam video emerged online late last week of a white Black & McDonald van that appeared to be intentionally veering toward large puddles on King Edward Avenue and soaking some people on the sidewalk.

Ottawa police Sgt. Mark Gatien (below) said the driver could face criminal charges of mischief or even assault.


“There’s no doubt it was deliberate,” Gatien said. He said he was concerned some of the pedestrians could have been flattened by the weight of the water.  “They might’ve gotten hurt, so the driver could be hit with an assault charge as well."

In a (since deleted) tweet Saturday, Gatien asked Black and McDonald to reach out to him and “give up” the driver’s name.  I’m sure management is not impressed, just like thousands who will see this with your name on the van,” Gatien said.  

On Sunday, Black & McDonald issued an apology on its Facebook page about the "unacceptable" incident. "We apologize to everyone impacted by the recent incident in Ottawa of unacceptable driving by one of our van drivers. We want to reassure the public that safety is our #1 priority. This is an isolated incident and the individual is no longer employed with Black & McDonald."

I think this is a classic overreaction on behalf of the company and the police.  Does it rise to being the primary reason to fire the driver?  Does it rise to the level of being a crime?  I can't see either of those, it should, at worst, be cause for a verbal or written reprimand, and if 'splashing' is not even a civil infraction it should at most be explained that such horseplay can be unsafe.  If I was Canadian, I would be more upset with the police and the B&M Company having such Draconian reactions to somebody who wasn't violating any explicit laws or company policies.

In disclosure, I have been victimized by such 'splashers' (including one from my brother, who gets such a thrill in remembering how well he drenched me), yet have never had the opportunity to do this to others.  If one presented itself to me, I do not know whether I could resist, even with a company vehicle, even with a possible criminal charge.  

What are your thoughts?

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years ago I used to work for a company that had a diesel work van. For some reason if you let up on the gas peddle then floor it the exhaust would bellow out a huge plume of black smoke, now known as rolling coal.  My boss , the driver would also do the same as the water splasher van except he would totally black out any pedestrians along the street or road way.I have to admit it's still pretty funny but I wasn't the victim.

I would have been more concerned with him hitting the curb and losing control. I think that's the real issue, not the splashing. First of all how stupid can people be by walking so close to the road knowing full well there are puddles of water just waiting to be sent air born by vehicles. As teen drivers operating our parent's car, we discovered that while driving and turning off the ignition, the gas vapor would build up in the muffler. After about 5 seconds we would turn the ignition back on and out from the tail pipe would come a sound similar to a canon being fired. Boy would we scare pedestrians and other drivers. It was funny until the cops figured out what we were doing. As far as I'm concerned the splashing was inconsiderate and stupid not criminal.

If the video showed the driver doing something inherently unsafe, like intentionally splashing a bicycle or motorcycle on the roadway, I would be among the first to say something needs to be done, but in looking at the video, I just don't see the van driving unsafe or illegally.  Definitely inconsiderate and stupid, but I cannot help but laugh when I see it happen to somebody else and begrudgingly laugh when I allow it to happen to myself.

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