

Chris Herhalt, CP24.com





An 18-year-old Toronto man has been charged after a Corvette narrowly missed striking a police cruiser attempting to shut down an impromptu “drifting” competition in a North York intersection on Saturday morning.

At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, officers were called to Lawrence Avenue East and The Donway East for a report of up to 12 high-end cars blocking the entire intersection.

A video posted to social media showed a driver of a silver BMW sedan “drifting” in a large circle around people standing in the intersection.

Drifting is when a driver intentionally over steers their vehicle, losing traction on the rear or all four wheels, while turning through a corner.

The vehicle often creates a large amount of smoke from friction on the tires.

When police arrived, they parked their cruiser in the middle of the intersection and began to disperse the crowd.

A Corvette began to approach them at a high rate of speed, running through a red light, narrowly missing their cruiser.

The Corvette then struck another parked vehicle a short distance away.

The driver was later taken into custody.

A suspect identified as Nicholas Paraan was charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, fail to stop at scene of accident and criminal flight.

He appeared in court at Old City Hall on Saturday morning.