Interesting.
So are you saying that in Ontario, a driver who did not commit a crime (in this case, pass a school bus with its lights flashing) can be convicted of that crime nonetheless? Surely there is more to it than that.
How is it a crime to fail to predict the future behavior of a driver to whom you lend or rent a car?
What a terrifying prospect.
~STS~
It's about responsibility. I wouldn't lend my car to anyone I didn't know really well, and yeah, if I lent out a piece of machinery that's potentially as lethal as a gun (or more so, given that it can do mass damage), then I
do bear some responsibility. If you lend to someone who's not going to own up to what they did while they were driving your car, that leaves you on the hook.
As for rental companies, if you read the contract you sign, you'd end up being dinged for any fines accrued during your rental.
It's rather like the tolls on the one toll highway we have in Ontario. We don't have toll booths--the cameras just take a picture of your license plate, and the owner is billed.
I don't really find it terrifying at all. What I find terrifying is the prospect that someone could potentially get away with murder because the state won't prosecute because the car "might" have been borrowed. Think about it--the whole reason why folks in the States can do this and get away with it is that they know that unless an officer of the law is right there to stop them, positive identification can't be made, and they can't be convicted. All they have to do is say, "I think I loaned my car to so-and-so that day," and they're off the hook.
I don't see this type of thing happen very much at all in Ontario, and I live in an area where a lot of kids take school busses.