Infamous Canadian Motorcyclist Found Not Guilty in 186-mph Highway Stunt

Evans Brasfield
by Evans Brasfield

We don’t know if this is a case of a guilty man going free or of a braggart facing trial for something he didn’t do. Either way, Randy Scott, 26, was found not guilty of a Trans-Canada Highway run at 299 km/h in April 2012.

The viral YouTube video of a Yamaha R1 rider weaving in and out of traffic was used by police to track down Scott with the help of a concerned neighbor’s tip. While you’d think that would be enough drama for one trial, the plot became more convoluted than a made-for-TV movie.

First, the R1 in question had been recently registered to Scott’s mother. (An attempt to throw the coppers off the scent?) The police seized the bike without a warrant and sold it at an auction.

Some other person — described as tall and thin and calling himself the ÒGhost RiderÓ left a note at a local restaurant, saying the police had the wrong guy. The police never claimed the note nor reviewed the restaurant’s surveillance footage because they believed they had their guy.

One of the witnesses to the stunt, who just so happened to be a police officer and gave the correct description of the make and model bike, described the rider as being “5-foot-eight to 5-foot-11, and about 170 pounds.” But Scott measures about 5-foot-5 and is relatively muscular

Without a firm grasp on the identity of the rider, there was enough reasonable doubt to allow Scott to escape prosecution.

So, the question remains, did a guilty man go free or did a guy narrowly avoid paying an extremely high price for claiming to do something he did? Either way, everyone on the road that day was lucky to escape unharmed. Wait for the mini-series to appear any day now…

Evans Brasfield
Evans Brasfield

Like most of the best happenings in his life, Evans stumbled into his motojournalism career. While on his way to a planned life in academia, he applied for a job at a motorcycle magazine, thinking he’d get the opportunity to write some freelance articles. Instead, he was offered a full-time job in which he discovered he could actually get paid to ride other people’s motorcycles – and he’s never looked back. Over the 25 years he’s been in the motorcycle industry, Evans has written two books, 101 Sportbike Performance Projects and How to Modify Your Metric Cruiser, and has ridden just about every production motorcycle manufactured. Evans has a deep love of motorcycles and believes they are a force for good in the world.

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