mayhem going to court!!!!

[mayhem]

well it would seem that the dip  of a copper that pulled me up just after getting engineers and road worthy and booked my car for "not complying with standards of reg"

has refused my plea letter and has informed me that he will be taking the mater to court ...because as he stated in the letter that my steering wheel which many of you have seen .... did not have a crash pad!!!! (making jerking action with hand in font of crotch)

as many sane people know ....IT NEVER DID FROM FACTORY!!!!

i have a officer from vic roads coming to view the car for me to hopefully then write me up a letter stating that it is fine..as i have drove around today to 3 different roadworthy license holders and all said without hesitation that its fine.... why do they try and push a point so hard when they get nothing from it?

It has put me off using my car if this is how its going to be...... i built the car knowing full well that it had to be 100% road worthy cause i wanted no trouble ... but no mister i know every thing about cars and vic roads know nothing! (as he said to me!) has to be a big man .... i now have 0 tolerance for pigs!!     

[stevo_gj]

What a wanker.

 

I don't know any cops and its SO easy to just stereotype them all from a few bad experiences that people have had. But I believe that generally they try to do the right thing, and some of them get carried away.

 

I hope it works out for you, and I wish bad things upon the evil cop. 

[fufu]

i reckon you have grounds for a counter-lawsuit for discrimination, as you said 3 other roady places gave you the all clear about it. In a way his abusing his power over you even under rightful terms of a roadworthy certificate.

 

Call him up, grab his badge number and tell him your going to the department of public prosecutions about this.

 

*by all means you can bluff or do it* but what have you got to lose, i suggest do it. I mean his making your life miserable, do this and he will be miserable.

 

 

[nizm0zed]

well, sounds like you should be a prick about it too then.

i suggest writing a letter to the state comssioner about his officer, and the amount of time, trouble, and money it has/will put you out, to defend the fact that you are right, and he's an arrogant ass.

 

It wont necesarrily make it any easier for you, but it'll definately stir up problems for the officer involved, particularly if he's looking to be promoted any time soon.

 

unfortunately, thats the power they have given them, they dont actually have to be right, just have an opinion.

what is it they say about people with opinions? they're assholes?? In this case, it definately sounds right.

[mrp69]

 

you should of run him over ben

 

what a joke

 

you should be ok just a big F**k around now

 

peter

[Scando]

That sucks, most cops are good to deal with.  Pitty about the few pricks that give the rest a bad name.

 

I had a couple of officers come into the workshop and look over the car one night when I was working on it with the door open.  They loved it!

[reverendzed]

Hey ben,

Sorry to hear about this.....but keep your head, if he feels he is following the letter of the law, you should do the same, grab some stat dec's and get these RWC people to make their statement , these things DO hold water in a court process.  He's actually probably got 'ZED' envy! and because he drives around in his wife's Barina and......yeah I'll leave it there!  If there's anything I can do?....in the meantime I'll pray!

Rev.

[Zedman240®]

This "officer" has some issue with you personally by the sounds of it and wants to make it as inconvenient as possible. Probably had a bad donut and coffee that morning! Best thing you can do is prove him wrong! Make it your mission! He has one planned already...

[Zeddophile]

One of my mates has been pulled over in a 40,000km old Peugot 206 GTI (2004 model) with no mods other than an exhaust, and been told that:

 

- The back end of his car was too low, because there is less clearance between the tyre and the wheelarch than at the front (obviously because as most cars do, the rear wheelarchs aren't cut as high as the front.)

 

- He needed new brake pads (the officer ascertained this by putting his foot on the brake pedal )

 

- The gear lever had to be moved too far to select gears (this car has a shorter shift than most other front wheel drives, and compared to any older car its far far shorter!)

 

- The STANDARD FITMENT front spoiler lights were illegal, and he had to take them out.

 

And a couple of other stupid things like this that I can't remember at the moment.  This mate is, like me, a mechanic by trade.  He thought this cop was joking when he made his first comment (which I think he said was the wheelarch one), then realised as this farce went on that it wasn't a joke.  He said by the time he got the sh!ts up, asked the cop to explain how he could inspect the brake pads for wear by pushing the brake pedal inside the car, and how he could say the brakes were worn when the pedal felt exactly the same in the cop car, then drove away (while the cop was trying to work out how to answer that), he'd been held up for over an hour.  And drove away with no defect of any sort.

 

He and I finally know why some people think the strangest things are required for a roadworthy though - they've been pulled over by these clueless cops on a power trip, who achieve nothing but getting a bad name for all the good cops out there.  Although, the question has to be asked - do all the stupid and arrogant ones get the highway patrol duties, while the smart ones work on criminal investigation?  It would explain why there are so many stories about pain in the ass cops giving out defect notices....

[lightmaster240z]

Mayhem I say go to court . take photo stat deks engineering report and ever dam cost that you have in cured in relation to this OS when you win you can clam your cost.

that what i did when I was stop for not wearing a seat belt. my case was thrown out in ten minute flat.

you can also get advise from legal advice for free in need be.

regards

Bruce 

[RBZ 260]

like people stated above so i dont repeat everything again.clueless

 

mate ive been pulled over few times for no reason at all and than others they had a good reason LOL  

 

its the no reason at all ones that give you the SH*%S. the two cases i couldnt stop laughing after i ones bellow.

 

i deal with cars and with roadworthy a fair bit. but nothing boils my blood more than a stupid police officer thinking he knows something. i keep ADR printouts in my car. and if they hassle you for some stupid things u take it out and start reading it to them. you can dowload the ADR and modification rules from your local RTA.(in SA we can)

 

ive been pulled over in my s14 at 1am out of group of commodores which were scraping the ground mine was the only jap car. started spining me stuff how this is random check. i told him that his randomnes sucks and that he specificaly picked on me because of the car.

 

started asking lot of personal questions.like: where was i the whole nite,why im driving here and where em i going etc..... i gave them short basic answers but they asked more. i said i was droping my gf home and than they ask where does she live etc... i told him none of his business but he replied back that if i make it difficult for them that they will make it difficult for me. so i had to say it to get them of my case.

 

after 1h and 30min checking my liscence asking my GF same questions they decided to pick on the car. the female coper got under the car and replied that my exhaust is too big and too close to the ground. i replied with that there is no rule against how big exhaust is as long as it 10cm from the ground and not exceeding the allowable noise level which mine is 10cm above ground and is not loud.

 

she kept pushing saying its too low. and i argued that is not and why doesnt she measure it. and if it was that there would be evidence of damage on the exhaust which in my case didnt exsist. the male one said that it was ok and appologised for taking too long. but the bitch wouldnt give up. started giving me lectures etc... anyway they did let me go.

 

as people said just push the bastard back and make his life crap too. make him think twice next time he wants to play RTA.

 

another tip that worked for me is to ask them and probe questions y is that illegal? i got out of 4 probable defects. they couldnt explain it to me so i did to them. on how things work.

 

the other case

got pulled over for speeding.the police guy writing me a ticket but kept looking at the car. I asked him is there a problem and y is he looking at the car.

 

coper replied "it looks modifed"

me:"and so what"

coper:have u got a blow off valve?

me: "yep"

Coper: "u  know its illegal"

Me: "i heard somethign about it but y would factory put one if its illegal"

coper: "oh is it stock"

me: "nope"

Coper: "ok so it is illegal one than"

Me:" I asked him do you know what a blow off valve is and what it does and which ones are legal and which ones arent?"

coper: "NO"

Me "so y u saying its illegal if u dont know what it is and what it does or what it even looks like"

so i explained to him what it is and what it does. and how he can book me.

 

On the end he said "we just got a list of things from the superiors to target these things but no reason y"

after explaining to him he let me go without looking at other things. he did finsih by saying your blow of may be legaly installed but im sure there are other things that he can find that are not.

i replied by saying be my guest but make sure he know why hes defecting me for.

 

also helps if u are getting a fine is : "mate you gave me a ticket why do you have to defect my car as well"

 

drove off with a expenisive speeding ticket.

 

In your case

 

MAKE HIS LIFE CRAP

 

ive lost all respect for the above style police officers.

 

not all are bad had lot of dealings with some realy nice ones even when i did a very stupid thing.but the buttholes seem the ones that hand out defects.

 

my explanation clueless,power hungry,jelous Wan%^rs

 

just retaliate with fire. if you dont he will do it again. and if u unlucky enough he may target you again. bite him back. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[XRQTR]

If what you he wrote is exactly what you have told us here then you don't even need to worry about it really, how many cars do you know have a "crash pad" built into the steering wheel?? A soft or padded horn button is not technically a crash pad, if this is what he means then it should be obvious to a judge but have a letter from a Vicroads office stating his stupidity in case the judge is just as stupid.

 

A couple of good ones I have heard were one being done for no lap/sash seat belt in the centre of the rear seat, mind you it was on a model that only had a lap belt for the centre.

 

But the best was one I heard today about when a Vicroads inspector pulled a truck off the road immediately because there was a thick sludge oozing from his brake air tanks, he deemed that an engine seal had deteriorated and allowed oil into the tanks which would in turn cause the brakes to malfunction but also that the engine could blow up at any time. Anyone that knows about air tanks on trucks they collect this shit in the tanks by way of condensation, so even some of the Vicroads inspectors are clueless.

[pauly_adams]

well heres a good one for you all. my brother was driving home one day in his un modded 300zx ( it has a body kit the rest is bone stock) , he was pulled over by a very agrent individual of a police officer, sure enough it was for a suposed random breath test, the officer then went to him " is you car midified in any way " he said no, then the officer asked him to pop his bonnet he said " no problems", sure enought to the cops discust it was a bone stock na then after about 5min he came back and gave him my brother a ticket, my brother asked why he was getting a ticket the officer then said" its due to your faided "P" plate on the back". in the end the officer drove off and guess what he never conducted a breath test, the moral of the story some cops can be a$$ holes and even when they have nothing on you they still pin you for stupid stuff like this.

 

cheers pauly

 

ps take it to court my brother is

[dave_hl]

I didn't have my P plates up and i got pulled over (which is why i didn't used to put them up), but I made something up about changing from red to green ones and he let me off. spose there are some power trippin coppers out there jealous of the old zed!

[Aaron Neubauer]

Here in SE QLD they have been trailing a system in which an officer of the traffic branch as the power override all engineers certificates and QLD transport.  You can have your car engineered and mod plated to the Nth degree and they still fine you.  Another downside of the rule is that all "illegal" (I use that term loosely) modification based fines have a court summons and notch added to your criminal record.  Thats right, a mate had a court appearence and a criminal record started because his exhaust was too loud!!!  It is most suckful as every officer and his dog takes you to town if your car is an import or rare or candy coloured.  I ONLY drive my R33 GTST in mainstream work traffic and never at night.  I bought a Getz for the principle of a car that couldn't be booked for illegal mods.  All of my mates have bought second cars for this very reason.

 

If the grand plan was to get all the perfect, engineered vehicles that people have spent a year's wage on off the road altogether and collecting dust, they certainly did a good job!  You won't find many of them in Toowoomba anymore.

 

Just my little rant.....

[Cdr Zero]

Neuby, that sucks man.  I used to think QLD was a bit of a nirvana for imports considering how cheap cars are up there, but I guess it's not so anymore.  There would be no point to doing things the right, legit way now, if you can still get a criminal record.  Disgusting.

 

mayhem, I wish you best of luck mate, fight the man. 

[XRQTR]

Neuby you can easily fight that in court as long as the officer making these decisions has no formal engineering qualifications then you should be able to argue that he has no place making these decisions as he has not got the qualification/knowledge to understand engineering principles.

 

Secondly if these modifications were illegal then the engineers that mod plate them could be sued by individuals on the basis that they have been misled by the engineer but also in turn you could then turn around and sue the RTA (which is the government themselves essentially) for misleading the public with false information in relation to vehicle modification. If you have enough people then a simple class action against the QLD government and RTA would soon see this practice stopped or modification laws changed to cover themselves, however they would most likely not be able to make such laws retroactive which could then save a few of you.

 

The government, any government, can not make a law and then simply say we will operate in a fashion that does not comply with our own laws because we are the government or the law officers in this region.

 

Unfirtunately any court case where you take on local government is expensive, that's why I say to turn it into a class action as that way the cost is shared by many, but one thing I must impress on you is that you had better make sure that all those involved have legitimate claims. If just one of them has fudged the truth about what happened to them even a little the court can and most likely will assume you are all lieing in some way and most likely find against you. And by the way I'm not talking about the Magistrates but either County or if you have the means take it all the way to Federal.

 

This is Australia, as far as I'm aware we have not been taken over by some dictatorship, we have the right to argue our case in court.