Driver stopped for balancing mattress on vehicle asks for police escort to destination

Police conducted a traffic stop after noticing a slow-moving vehicle with a mattress balancing on the roof in Caledon, Ont. (OPP)

A driver is facing charges after police stopped a slow-moving vehicle cruising along with its hazards on and a mattress balancing on the roof in Caledon.

An officer pulled over the car going 30 kilometres per hour along Mayfield Road near Snellview Boulevard.

“This area is a 60kmh zone, so the slow driving was causing traffic to build and caused confusion and isolated chaos that was not needed,” OPP Const. Ian Michel stated in an email to CTV News.

Michel said the driver was holding onto the mattress with his left hand while an unbuckled passenger held it from the back seat, adding it wasn’t secured in any way to the vehicle.

“Gravity alone is not enough,” Michel stated in a social media post about the incident.

Once pulled over, the constable said the 22-year-old driver from Brampton made an unusual request. “They wanted to go another nine kilometres to their destination and asked for an escort ... No.”

After learning the driver had also tried to use a twisted bed sheet to hold the mattress to the vehicle’s roof, the officer at the scene took the time to educate the driver about how to properly secure a load to a vehicle.

Ultimately, the driver was charged with having an insecure load, unnecessary slow and careless driving.

“The cost of strapping or a proper trailer/vehicle to move items is far less than the potential fines that one may receive for improperly securing items to their vehicle. A little planning and common sense go a long way,” Michel added.

“In this instance the driver was so focused on the load that they were driving in a careless manner which could have caused a serious collision,” he finished.