Are the new license plates causing problems?

At the beginning of February, the Ontario government issued new license plates which have caused visibility issues at night.

Sgt. Steve Koopman of the Kingston Police posted a picture of a car with a new license plate on Twitter and in a tweet he asked, “Did anyone consult with a police before designing and manufacturing the new license plates? They are virtually unreadable at night.”

Currently 71,000 new license plates have been issued across Ontario. More than 130,000 plates are in Service Ontario and 35,000 are still in inventory.

Natalya Natyshak is the constable responsible for Corporate Communications for Windsor Police and she explains why it is important for the license plates to be clear.

“If the public saw someone driving erratically and wanted to inform the police then it’s very important to get an accurate license plate, as this helps us to locate that driver. If a license plate is not readable then we would just have a description of a vehicle. For instance, if someone calls and says a person in a black SUV is driving erratically then you can imagine how many black large SUVs would be out there for police to see,” said Natyshak.

In their online statement, Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MAAD] also indicate that visibility issues with new license plates is very serious concern. MADD Canada also asked the government to review the visibility of new license plates.

Madeline Mazak is a student at St. Clair College who recently got a new car with these new plates.

“It looked pretty and I don’t mind the way it looks,” said Mazak. “But recently, I’ve seen people’s posted photos of like what they look like at night and I totally agree that there are some obvious design issues with them that need to be fixed.”

The Minister of Government and Consumer Service’s report indicates that the new license plates will stop on March 4, 2020 and the distribution of new enhanced license plates will start March 16, 2020.