27 July 2011

An $1811 fine

| johnboy
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ACT Policing has issued a $1811 traffic infringement notice to a 20-year-old Gordon man late last night (Tuesday, 26 July) for speeding well above the posted speed limit.

Around 11.30 pm, police were conducting laser speed detection along Drakeford Drive, Bonython when they saw a vehicle travelling at excessive speed heading towards them.

The vehicle’s speed was checked by the officer at 161 km/h in the 80 km/h zone.

Police stopped the vehicle, a white Nissan Pulsar and issued the driver with an $1811 fine which resulted in the loss of six demerit points.

Officer-in-Charge of Traffic Operations, Sergeant Jeff Knight said that the driver should be thankful that he only received a traffic infringement notice when the penalty for driving at such a speed could have been fatal.

“To see someone caught travelling at 81km/hr over the posted speed limit is appalling. The danger they put themselves in, not to mention other road users obviously didn’t cross the mind of the driver. Speeding at such excess has the potential to have fatal consequences. One of the hardest jobs for a police officer is to knock on someone’s front door and tell them that a family member has died in a vehicle collision,” Sergeant Knight said.

On Monday, August 1, ACT Policing will commence a month long traffic campaign on the use of mobile telephones while driving. While the target will focus on driving distraction, police will also be out in force detecting other offences including speeding and drinking driving.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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Innovation said :

Tooks said :

Mr Gillespie said :

Oh, so they are no longer “targeting speeding” after the end of this month, yet they are still “detecting other offences including speeding and drinking driving”, which means they are still targeting speeding?

How does that make sense? How does this differ from a propaganda exercise of Corbell and his cronies throwing their weight around, hm?

Also, why the hell is Police Media giving this story oxygen when all the other speedsters they catch go unnoticed in the Police press room??

Honestly, are you really that stupid? Do you seriously not know the answers to the questions you just asked?

Ahh ….. I’m not sure who’s dumber. Mr G or Mr T for asking this question……

I have to concede, it’s probably me for asking it.

Evil_Kitten said :

I always thought <30km/h over the limit was an automatic licence suspension. Guess not!

I thought anything +45 was an automatic 3 month suspension… turns out that’s not the case unless you’ve gone over 12 demerit points. NSW on the other hand does give out a 6 month suspension for offenences 45km/h over the limit.

colourful sydney racing identity8:56 am 28 Jul 11

Jethro said :

Mr Gillespie said :

Tooks said :

…….
Honestly, are you really that stupid? Do you seriously not know the answers to the questions you just asked?

I beg your pardon Tooks?

The police media releases are always harping on about speeding offences, traffic offences, but rarely any other police matter ever appears there. The police attend a whole range of other jobs besides traffic, but how often do they appear in the media releases???

Then you lot come out wanting to lynch people for daring to go over the speed limit by far smaller margins (5, 10, 20ks over). As I have said before, do that one for dangerous driving all you like but put the resources spent on marginal speeders into more important law enforcement (high-range speeding, drink driving, stolen cars, drugs, theft, assault, etc.)

It would seem he really is that stupid.

Was there ever any doubt???

“Police stopped the vehicle, a white Nissan Pulsar and issued the driver with an $1811 fine which resulted in the loss of six demerit points.”

It’s amazing how many people misunderstand the demerit point system, including Police Media!

“When issued a driver licence, you start with zero (0) demerit points recorded against your driver licence and demerit points are then accumulated for offences committed where demerit points are applicable.”

http://www.rego.act.gov.au/infringements/infringedemerit.htm

Mr Gillespie8:28 pm 27 Jul 11

Oh alright, let’s put it another way…..

What does the police publicist mean when he refers to “targeting speeding in the months of June and July”, and why aren’t all traffic offences targeted regardless of the month?

Do they mean they are only targeting speeding in June and July, so it’s OK to speed once we have reached the end of July, then only targeting mobile phone use while driving in August, so mobile phone use is OK until the end of July then again after the end of August?

Why not just target all traffic offences?

Tooks said :

Mr Gillespie said :

Oh, so they are no longer “targeting speeding” after the end of this month, yet they are still “detecting other offences including speeding and drinking driving”, which means they are still targeting speeding?

How does that make sense? How does this differ from a propaganda exercise of Corbell and his cronies throwing their weight around, hm?

Also, why the hell is Police Media giving this story oxygen when all the other speedsters they catch go unnoticed in the Police press room??

Honestly, are you really that stupid? Do you seriously not know the answers to the questions you just asked?

Ahh ….. I’m not sure who’s dumber. Mr G or Mr T for asking this question……

Mr Gillespie said :

Tooks said :

…….
Honestly, are you really that stupid? Do you seriously not know the answers to the questions you just asked?

I beg your pardon Tooks?

The police media releases are always harping on about speeding offences, traffic offences, but rarely any other police matter ever appears there. The police attend a whole range of other jobs besides traffic, but how often do they appear in the media releases???

Then you lot come out wanting to lynch people for daring to go over the speed limit by far smaller margins (5, 10, 20ks over). As I have said before, do that one for dangerous driving all you like but put the resources spent on marginal speeders into more important law enforcement (high-range speeding, drink driving, stolen cars, drugs, theft, assault, etc.)

It would seem he really is that stupid.

Mr Gillespie7:37 pm 27 Jul 11

Tooks said :

…….
Honestly, are you really that stupid? Do you seriously not know the answers to the questions you just asked?

I beg your pardon Tooks?

The police media releases are always harping on about speeding offences, traffic offences, but rarely any other police matter ever appears there. The police attend a whole range of other jobs besides traffic, but how often do they appear in the media releases???

Then you lot come out wanting to lynch people for daring to go over the speed limit by far smaller margins (5, 10, 20ks over). As I have said before, do that one for dangerous driving all you like but put the resources spent on marginal speeders into more important law enforcement (high-range speeding, drink driving, stolen cars, drugs, theft, assault, etc.)

NSW has automatic suspensions for speeds 30km/h+ over the posted limit. About time they started introducing that sort of thing here. The system is already in place for drink driving so wouldn’t be too difficult to encompass speeding offences as well.

dvaey said :

shirty_bear said :

A TIN for 161 in an 80 zone? WTF??

Makes me wonder what it takes to get a dangerous driving charge.

I think a dangerous driving charge, requires there to be some danger to other road-users. One would imagine at 11:30pm on a Tuesday night, theres not too much traffic to be a danger to, on the road.

So that’s the stupid attitude that causes accidents.
“Oh its night, theres no-one around, I’ll just speed to the point that if someone happens to walk out or a car pulls out of a driveway suddenly that I have no control whatsoever of my car and kill all involved instantly. But thats not dangerous is it? Because its night and theres no one around, and thus absolutely no chance of an accident because accidents are caused by other people, not me, who happens to be the only one on the road.”

Good one idiot.

I always thought <30km/h over the limit was an automatic licence suspension. Guess not!

The more important question is how the hell did he get to 160km/h in a nissan pulsar?

Start on the Parkway and hope for green lights ????

Holden Caulfield5:12 pm 27 Jul 11

Artie_F said :

The more important question is how the hell did he get to 160km/h in a nissan pulsar?

A well maintained N14 SSS could manage it quite easily, with another 50-odd km/h left to spare.

160km/h is not that hard to achieve, tbh. Doing it safely is another matter altogether.

The more important question is how the hell did he get to 160km/h in a nissan pulsar?

60km over the limit should be automatic 5 year disqualification + car siezed and auctioned off for a ridiculously low price with proceeds funding victims of dangerous driving.

creative_canberran4:33 pm 27 Jul 11

shirty_bear said :

A TIN for 161 in an 80 zone? WTF??

Makes me wonder what it takes to get a dangerous driving charge.

Given the infamous Mully, not enough since he was on the roads and not locked up after doing far more than just dangerous driving over the years.

Mr Gillespie said :

Oh, so they are no longer “targeting speeding” after the end of this month, yet they are still “detecting other offences including speeding and drinking driving”, which means they are still targeting speeding?

How does that make sense? How does this differ from a propaganda exercise of Corbell and his cronies throwing their weight around, hm?

Also, why the hell is Police Media giving this story oxygen when all the other speedsters they catch go unnoticed in the Police press room??

Honestly, are you really that stupid? Do you seriously not know the answers to the questions you just asked?

Driving down Adelaide Avenue this morning do the speed limit when a Nob in a Audi came through at high speed…….straight into the arms of a police officer with a hand held speed camera about 400 metres down the road.

Said Nob was explaining his actions to the nice policeman as I drove by. Made my day!

colourful sydney racing identity1:45 pm 27 Jul 11

Mr Gillespie said :

Also, why the hell is Police Media giving this story oxygen when all the other speedsters they catch go unnoticed in the Police press room??

What do you want your own press release? ‘RiotAct resident nutter, stalker and general Knob Jockey caught speeding.’

Mr Gillespie said :

Oh, so they are no longer “targeting speeding” after the end of this month, yet they are still “detecting other offences including speeding and drinking driving”, which means they are still targeting speeding?

How does that make sense? How does this differ from a propaganda exercise of Corbell and his cronies throwing their weight around, hm?

Also, why the hell is Police Media giving this story oxygen when all the other speedsters they catch go unnoticed in the Police press room??

… and you damn kids stay off my lawn!!!

Mr Gillespie1:08 pm 27 Jul 11

Oh, so they are no longer “targeting speeding” after the end of this month, yet they are still “detecting other offences including speeding and drinking driving”, which means they are still targeting speeding?

How does that make sense? How does this differ from a propaganda exercise of Corbell and his cronies throwing their weight around, hm?

Also, why the hell is Police Media giving this story oxygen when all the other speedsters they catch go unnoticed in the Police press room??

dvaey

An $1800 would also cripple me for a while.

I guess my point was that it would be a bigger deterrent if my driving privileges were immediately removed and I was faced with being charged, photographed and fingerprinted before spending an entire day at court to front the beak. Even if there were no monetary penalty at court, I think that the experience would be far more valuable lesson.

As it is now, this clown is still driving around, and able to wait the 21 days you have to pay before pleading for time to pay and coming up with an installment plan of $100 per month.

I’ve given up figuring how the policing system in the ACT works. People who should be severly punished get away and the good ‘ol citizens like us doing the right thing are often abused and ridiculed.

shirty_bear said :

A TIN for 161 in an 80 zone? WTF??

Makes me wonder what it takes to get a dangerous driving charge.

I think a dangerous driving charge, requires there to be some danger to other road-users. One would imagine at 11:30pm on a Tuesday night, theres not too much traffic to be a danger to, on the road.

kezzafezza said :

It should be legal for police to deliver a bag of roundhouse kicks to the head for idiots like these. One roundhouse kick per km over the limit should do it. And then they should be strapped to a pole in civic so people can throw rotten fruit and veggies at them. A bit of public humiliation to straighten them out maybe.

Tempting, but those are the old ways, and there must be more modern ways to deal with manic drivers. Perhaps some type of speed limiter fitted to his car for a certain time, or perhaps a GPS tracker and software that can determine how fast he must have been going to get from A to B, or something similar to monitor his driving behaviour and punish speeding for a certain time.

A TIN for 161 in an 80 zone? WTF??

Makes me wonder what it takes to get a dangerous driving charge.

The question we have to ask, I think, is whether this penalty is proportional given the penalties handed down by the courts for crimes like assualt, burglary, etc.

So cars are impounded for people doing burnouts/donuts/etc, but you only get 6pts and a (big) fine for doing double the speed limit in a semi-residential area?

Not in favour of burnouts or anything, but just seems going that fast is inherently a lot more dangerous than a burnout.

“Sergeant Jeff Knight said that the driver should be thankful that he only received a traffic infringement notice when the penalty for driving at such a speed could have been fatal.”

Penalty? Doesnt he mean consequence? A fatal penalty, would equate to capital punishment. Maybe we just found the guy whos writing all these press releases, without thinking of what he’s saying.

dks00k said :

Double the speed limit at 80km/h over the speed limit and we get a fine and 6 demerit points?

It should be licence suspended until we front the Magistrate. But I guess the $1800 fine is likely to be more than the court would hand out anyway.

‘a fine’? How would an $1800 fine affect your budget? I can tell you right now, for some it means no eatting for them or the kids for the next month, or risk not paying the fine and getting done driving unlicenced. Well, unless its a richkid, in which case, it’s a simple matter of a cheque from daddy, then another cheque from daddy to pay the lawyer who gets him off the fine with an apology from the judge.

Double the speed limit at 80km/h over the speed limit and we get a fine and 6 demerit points?

What a crock.

It should be licence suspended until we front the Magistrate. But I guess the $1800 fine is likely to be more than the court would hand out anyway.

It should be legal for police to deliver a bag of roundhouse kicks to the head for idiots like these. One roundhouse kick per km over the limit should do it. And then they should be strapped to a pole in civic so people can throw rotten fruit and veggies at them. A bit of public humiliation to straighten them out maybe.

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