Careless driving in Ontario is an offence under section 130 of the Highway Traffic Act: driving without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other people using the road. A conviction can bring a fine of $400 to $2,000, up to six months in jail, a licence suspension of up to two years, and six demerit points. It is a provincial offence, not a Criminal Code charge like dangerous driving, but it carries real consequences for your licence and your driving record. If you were handed an offence notice, you have 15 days to choose how to respond, and doing nothing can lead to a conviction entered without a hearing.
Section 130(1) of the Highway Traffic Act says a person drives carelessly if they drive a vehicle or street car "on a highway or in a specified place without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway or specified place." That gives the offence two branches:
The offence is not limited to public roads. Since a 2024 amendment, a "specified place" includes parking lots, parking structures and garages, public or private, and the driveways or roads that connect them to a highway (s. 130(8)).
As with any charge, the presumption of innocence in section 11(d) of the Charter applies: the prosecution has to prove the charge, and you do not have to prove you were driving carefully.
The two charges are easy to confuse. In law, they come from different statutes and lead to different kinds of records.
| Careless driving | Dangerous driving | |
| Law | Highway Traffic Act, s. 130 (Ontario) | Criminal Code, s. 320.13 (federal) |
| Wording | Driving "without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons" | Operating a conveyance "in a manner that, having regard to all of the circumstances, is dangerous to the public" |
| Type of offence | Provincial offence | Criminal offence |
| Where it is recorded | Your Ontario driver record | Your criminal record, as well as your driver record |
If police have laid a criminal charge, the HTA penalties in this article are not the ones you are facing. Our guide to dangerous driving in Ontario explains how that criminal charge works.
Under s. 130(2) , a person convicted of careless driving is liable to a fine of not less than $400 and not more than $2,000, or to imprisonment for up to six months, or both. The court can also suspend your licence for up to two years.
Ontario has passed amendments to s. 130 (S.O. 2026, c. 7, Sched. 5) that would raise the fine range to $1,000 to $5,000 and require police to take a driver's licence at the roadside when they believe on reasonable and probable grounds that the driver drove carelessly. That roadside step would bring an administrative licence suspension of seven days, or 30 days where the careless driving is alleged to have caused bodily harm or death, separate from any penalty a court later imposes. As of e-Laws' October 15, 2026 currency date, these changes are not in force. They take effect on a day to be named by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, so check the current text of s. 130 for an offence after that date.
When careless driving causes bodily harm or death, s. 130(3) creates a more serious offence. On conviction, the fine is $2,000 to $50,000, imprisonment is up to two years, or both, and the licence suspension can be up to five years (s. 130(4)). At sentencing, the court must treat harm to a vulnerable person, such as a pedestrian, a cyclist, or someone working on the road, as an aggravating factor (s. 130(6)).
A careless driving conviction adds six demerit points to your record under Ontario Regulation 339/94 . That is one point below the highest number on Ontario's demerit list. According to Ontario's demerit point guide , points stay on your record for two years from the offence date. For a fully licensed driver:
One detail in the regulation is easy to miss: if the court imposes a licence suspension as part of the penalty, no demerit points are recorded for that conviction (O. Reg. 339/94, s. 3(1)).
Novice drivers face lower demerit thresholds: a warning letter at 2 to 5 points, a second letter at 6 to 8, and a 60-day suspension at 9 or more. Separately, Ontario's escalating penalties for novice drivers apply to any Highway Traffic Act conviction worth four or more demerit points, and the province lists careless driving as an example. A first such conviction means a 30-day suspension, a second means 90 days, and a third means losing your novice licence and starting the licensing process over.
Ontario's standard 3-year driver record shows Highway Traffic Act convictions, suspensions and your demerit point total. The province notes that driver records are requested for purposes such as employment and vehicle insurance, so a careless driving conviction is visible to anyone who reviews that record for those reasons.
A careless driving charge can be started with an offence notice, which is the ticket form, or with a summons that requires you to attend court ( Provincial Offences Act, s. 3(2) ). Look at which one you received, because the options are different.
If you received an offence notice, the Provincial Offences Act gives you these choices:
Paying is not a neutral step. Under s. 8(2), when the court office accepts your payment, that counts as a guilty plea and a conviction, and the demerit points and any novice-driver sanctions follow from the conviction. Doing nothing has a similar result: if 15 days pass after you were served and you have not chosen an option, you are deemed not to dispute the charge, and the clerk can enter a conviction without a hearing (s. 9).
Before you choose, it is worth having a traffic ticket lawyer look at the charge. A lawyer can request disclosure, review what the prosecution would have to prove under s. 130, and tell you whether a trial, a meeting with the prosecutor, or another course makes sense on your facts.
A careless driving charge affects your licence, your record and your options for years after the fine is paid. Mass Tsang LLP has practised criminal, quasi-criminal and traffic defence exclusively since 2013. We can review your offence notice or summons, explain what the prosecution has to prove, and help you choose a response before the deadline passes. Contact us for a free, confidential consultation.
Careless driving in Ontario is a Highway Traffic Act offence with a fine of $400 to $2,000, possible jail and licence suspension, and six demerit points, with much higher penalties when someone is hurt or killed. It is not a criminal charge, but paying the ticket or letting the 15-day window pass both lead to a conviction. Reading the charge carefully and getting advice before you act gives you more room to respond.
Six. Ontario Regulation 339/94 assigns six demerit points to a conviction under s. 130 of the Highway Traffic Act. The points stay on your record for two years from the offence date. If the court suspends your licence as part of the sentence, no demerit points are recorded for that conviction.
No. Careless driving is an offence under Ontario's Highway Traffic Act, which is provincial law. A conviction goes on your Ontario driver record. Dangerous driving is the separate criminal offence, under s. 320.13 of the Criminal Code, and a conviction for it is a criminal conviction.
The fine on conviction is $400 to $2,000, and the court can also impose up to six months in jail and a licence suspension of up to two years (HTA s. 130(2)). If the careless driving caused bodily harm or death, the fine is $2,000 to $50,000 (s. 130(4)).
Yes. A G2 is a novice licence, and careless driving is a four-or-more-point HTA offence, so Ontario's escalating penalties apply: a 30-day suspension for a first such conviction, 90 days for a second, and cancellation of the novice licence for a third. A court can also order its own suspension.
Yes. A careless driving prosecution can start up to two years after the facts it is based on (HTA s. 130(7)). If police use an offence notice or summons under Part I of the Provincial Offences Act, it must be served personally within 30 days of the alleged offence (POA s. 3(3)).
Yes. Section 130 applies on a highway or in a "specified place," which the Act defines to include parking lots, parking structures and garages, whether public or private, and the driveways or roads connecting them to a highway.
Not under that name. The Highway Traffic Act uses "careless driving" in s. 130. Driving that is dangerous to the public is charged under the Criminal Code as dangerous operation of a conveyance, s. 320.13. "Reckless driving" is not the name of either charge.
Yes. Under s. 8(2) of the Provincial Offences Act, when the court office accepts payment of the fine, that payment is a guilty plea and a conviction. The demerit points and any novice-driver penalties then apply. If you want to contest the charge or discuss a resolution, choose one of those options before paying.
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Legally Reviewed by
Jeff Mass
| Updated: October 21, 2026
