11 June 2008

Dunlop man caught speeding twice the limit - and DUI twice in one night

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A Canberra man clocked doing 142kmh in an 80km/h zone while more than eight times over the legal alcohol limit returned to his car and drove home after police had charged him.

Police say a 24-year-old was driving a Ford ute on Southern Cross Drive, in Canberra’s west, about 1am (AEST) today when he was clocked travelling at nearly twice the speed limit.

After a pursuit he was pulled over and breath tested.

Following a positive result, police took him to Belconnen police station where he returned a reading of 0.177 – more than eight times the legal limit of .02 for a special driver.

“The male was released from custody and his vehicle keys confiscated,” ACT Policing said in a statement.

“Shortly after, police returned to secure the vehicle to find it had been removed from the location.”

Police then went to the Dunlop man’s house and caught him arriving home – behind the wheel of his Ford ute.

He was arrested and taken to the city police station where he returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.146.

A 24-year-old man is due to face the ACT Magistrates Court today on drink driving and traffic charges.

AAP

What an idiot!

Link to article here

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I object to the exaggerating headline, and the police exaggeration,
142kmh in an 80km/h zone, that’s 177.5%, nowhere near 200%.

That said, driving fast pissed, what an idiot.

what a drunkard that man is.he do not know the seriousness of driving with that speed that too after consuming alcohol.
—-
sathyan
DUI

Timberwolf656:53 pm 14 Jun 08

What a dick, I cannot believe he drove his car home.
No the cops will not drive you home, my partner rang me once to come pick him up after he went D.U.I., I told him to walk.

People need to learn the difference between someone who has been drinking, and someone who is ‘drunk’ or ‘intoxicated’ as per the legislative requirements. A person may be over the limit but is not drunk.

But if course the Police should have done something, even if there was no legal scope for them to do so. Or the knob could have just not driven his car, ut surely his ‘personal Jesus’, being the Police, should have prevented that.

“Surely the coppers dropped him home considering he had no car”. Yep, and when they got home they made him a nice cup ‘o tea and wiped his bum after he had his rum poo.

RuffnReady – what about people thrown in the drunk tank? They are not “under arrest”, and yet they are detained until the police decide that they are sober enough to leave. I know this because it happened to me once when I was young and foolish, 12 years ago. Have procedures changed? I spent 8 hours detained in a cell, but not under arrest for anything. Surely, the police could have done the same thing to this guy?

Police may take people into protective custody if they are:

1. intoxicated and disorderly – in other words drunk and doing stupid, aggressive, annoying, potentially dangerous things in a public place;

2. intoxicated and incapable of protecting self – so drunk you are unconscious / semi-conscious in a public place; and

3. intoxicated and behaving in a manner likely to cause injury to himself, herself or
another person, or damage to any property – self explanatory.

I would suspect that following his breath test the offender in this matter was none of the above therefore he could not be taken into protective custody. Police can only act within the limits imposed by legislation – if they did otherwise I have no doubt Ruffnready and other like minded posters would be the first to complain and condemn.

Can anyone come up with another reason why this is somehow the Police fault.

RuffnReady said :

thecman – what about people thrown in the drunk tank? They are not “under arrest”, and yet they are detained until the police decide that they are sober enough to leave. I know this because it happened to me once when I was young and foolish, 12 years ago. Have procedures changed? I spent 8 hours detained in a cell, but not under arrest for anything. Surely, the police could have done the same thing to this guy?

I remember when I, too, was young and foolish. My experience was far worse, I got the “female constable watching me go to the toilet whilst handcuffed”, not a very easy thing to do – especially as she was laughing. (insert jokes here)

In retrospect, it was the best thing for me – i moved out of the slum of a share house, and started to take an interest in the straight and narrow path.

I have always left my car at home when going on a bender, but walking down the parkway at 3am does now seem to be a pretty dumb thing to do…

Especially, back in the day, when I lived in Calwell and my local was the labor club in belco. though it was daylight when i was heading home, had to do the Labor Club / Blind Beggars / Hungry Horse run before i staggered off.

My god – how stupid was I??

Ant, that was really funny. Thanks for the laugh so early in the morning.

How can the Police get a car towed away. If someone indicates positive to alcohol at the side of the road, then the Police take the person back to the station for a breath analysis test.

How would you feel if Police towed your car away and then you indicated below the limit on the breath analysis?

Secondly, you are not arrested but taken into custody specifically for the breath analysis. It is different.

thecman – what about people thrown in the drunk tank? They are not “under arrest”, and yet they are detained until the police decide that they are sober enough to leave. I know this because it happened to me once when I was young and foolish, 12 years ago. Have procedures changed? I spent 8 hours detained in a cell, but not under arrest for anything. Surely, the police could have done the same thing to this guy?

I think the first three words of the original post explains it all.

swamiOFswank10:11 pm 11 Jun 08

“Following a positive result, police took him to Belconnen police station where he returned a reading of 0.177 – more than eight times the legal limit of .02 for a special driver.”

Yup, he sure is speshul.

so another night in the wilds of West Belconnen. This guy has probably been doing it for years and years. He just got unlucky this time.

BD84 – Umm if you get stopped and blow over the legal limit, you get arrested and detained then taken to the station to go on the proper machine, they don’t just write you a ticket and let you be on your way. You get released after they charge you…

Sorry champ, that is incorrect – not everyone gets charged. There are criteria that must be met before Police charge someone – legal matters such as will the person appear before Court if summonsed, will evidence be lost / damaged / destroyed if the person is released, will the person continue to offend if released, will a witness be at risk if the offender is released.

In fact if you test positive by the side of the road you are not actually arrested. You are in fact detained for the purpose of being returned to a Police station for breath analysis. A fine and semantic difference but a difference none the less. Many more people are released pending summons following breath analysis at a station then are taken to the watch house and charged. In fact if old mate from the incident that is the subject of this thread had been charged he would probably not have been in a position to get back in his car.

As far as seizing the car – no evidence of a burn out therefore no power to seize the car under the ‘hoon’ legislation.

Sorry BD84, might want to spend some time getting the facts right before you stick your chin out to be smacked.

Well, since Headblowingness saw fit to name me in this thread, I just thought I’d pop in and say HI! As for going back to teh bloke’s house all concerned about his “stolen” car as the media suggests, I’d say they twigged he had a spare key wired to the muffler, and stalked him home to catch him again. Just think of all the nice stats they’ll get from that!

I wasn’t going to comment on the police, but Headblowingness seems to like people knocking them, so I came up with something for him.

thecman said :

So Police are now also expected to be a taxi service for people who have committed serious offences? That’s how I want my tax dollars spent – ferrying drunk drivers home.

How about we look at some facts. Firstly, in these circumstances Police have no legal power to seize or wheel clamp the car – none. Indeed even ‘confiscating’ the keys may be legally problematic. Secondly, just cause the guy was drunk does not mean Police have the legal authority to detain him (after he was first stopped) once breath analysis is complete – that would be unlawful arrest / confinement, a very serious offence.

I seriously doubt the veracity of AG Canberra’s story – hearsay at best. That said, certain former Magistrates who looked much like Elmer Fudd were well known for discounting fines imposed on drink driving offenders if they had suffered financial loss as a result of having to turn up in Court. The ACT justice system at its finest!

Umm if you get stopped and blow over the legal limit, you get arrested and detained then taken to the station to go on the proper machine, they don’t just write you a ticket and let you be on your way. You get released after they charge you, if you’re not totally off your face which this guy doesn’t seem to be.

Not sure about the key confiscating, from memory they can if they genuinely believe that you will attempt to drive again, and they will normally drive you home to ensure you don’t do just that and they could have seized the car under the hoon legislation because of his speed, but otherwise they could have also taken the car to the station, but only if it was likely to be a danger where it is.

Probably spend a long while without a licence this guy, depending on which easy going judge he gets.

To all the armchair legal experts………If it makes you feel warm and fuzzy to postulate on the ins and outs of our glorious legal system good luck to you. But you know shit. Working as a part time, volunteer Emergency Services worker, public servant, uni student (worse still a law student) or just being an elderly member of the Canberra communtiy who has police as friends (Ant) does not make you an expert in the workings of the law or it’s application in a policing sense. If the critics of police actions in this matter actually took the time to look at the constraints placed upon police and actions open to them you would look in the morrior and see a giant penis looking back at you.

That’s ok when he kills someone he’ can blame his troubled childhood and drug habit.

So Police are now also expected to be a taxi service for people who have committed serious offences? That’s how I want my tax dollars spent – ferrying drunk drivers home.

How about we look at some facts. Firstly, in these circumstances Police have no legal power to seize or wheel clamp the car – none. Indeed even ‘confiscating’ the keys may be legally problematic. Secondly, just cause the guy was drunk does not mean Police have the legal authority to detain him (after he was first stopped) once breath analysis is complete – that would be unlawful arrest / confinement, a very serious offence.

I seriously doubt the veracity of AG Canberra’s story – hearsay at best. That said, certain former Magistrates who looked much like Elmer Fudd were well known for discounting fines imposed on drink driving offenders if they had suffered financial loss as a result of having to turn up in Court. The ACT justice system at its finest!

p1 said :

While I am not suggesting that people use it as an excuse to not be responsable for their actions, I have to wonder about the logic of actually letting go a person who is still drunk, and has already shown that they have a serious lack of judgment.

Surely the coppers dropped him home considering he had no car. If he grabbed a spare key from home and made his way to pick up the car, then its really got nothing to do with the coppers.

Bet he’s a Canberra milk kid.

While I am not suggesting that people use it as an excuse to not be responsable for their actions, I have to wonder about the logic of actually letting go a person who is still drunk, and has already shown that they have a serious lack of judgment.

A hopeless drunk I know did exactly the same thing a few years ago. Got caught at a RBT, arrested and then let go with a stern warning not to get in the car and drive home. Walked out the front of the City Watchhouse and jumped back in his car that had been delivered there by a Constable! Was caught again on the way home but as the police hadn’t done enough to stop him for driving the second time the magistrate took his licence for the minimum 3 months. And then she got stuck into the police for letting it happen!

Darwin Awards contestant in 2011, trust me on this…

DarkLadyWolfMother2:37 pm 11 Jun 08

Does anyone ‘official (Police, Parking inspectors, whatever) have access to ‘wheel clamps’? This kind of thing seems a perfect use for them.

righty-ho, been pulled over and DUI, now where’s that spare key??

why didn’t the police get the car towed prior to removing him from the scene?

Given our fantastic territory’s legal system, this upstanding member of society will most likely be back out on the road before you can say “Weekend detention for stabbing someone three times”…
Sigh!

Todd Carney?

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