unfair Speeding fine : court didnt help...

[dirt 01]

I had a speeding fine the other week.
Was merging into traffic (3 lane highway, geelong) and had to "speed" by 12kmh to safely get into position(thats perhaps 1 second of acceleration). Sadly there was a cop 300 metres up the road with his laser watching people like me merging. I couldnt believe it and told him so.
I rightly was watching the road and the cars around me to safely merge and not my speedo.
Theres just no excuse for this sort of zero tolerence enforcement and i told him so. He told me there is zero tolerence for speeding!... I told him why dont you go catch people speeding where there are pedestrians right in the centre of town instead of on the 3 lane highway?
Anyway, I went to court to try and get leniency. I had photos showing the area, and the merging lane... explained how the traffic flows and you merge be watching other cars...(would you stop on a freeway on ramp waiting for a gap or match the speed of the cars and go for a gap?)
Ended up still paying, but had a good winge and had a lot of people in the court crowd encourage me and tell me good try. Even 60+ year old ladies! Judge had no clue, I doubt he even drives telling me that "when merging I should stop and wait for a gap, didnt you know that? you've learnt something today then havnt you..." The cop prosecuter understood where I came from and even shook her head at the judge. What can you say to someone who wont even go into gaps. Anyway I give up. Thats a judge for you...

I'm still glad I went to court, even though it cost me $30 extra court costs. Its good to at least try. You feel better and realise how stupid our policing system is. Plus you tie up court time. At the same magistrate, just before me, there was a comitle hearing for a rapist in geelong that was the worst anyone has heard about in the area.(you might have heard about it, some animal type bloke from corio) I'm with that guy, apparently doing 12 km over lets me hang with real crims. What a joke.

[colossus]

Totally agree with you in this situation - traffic is traffic and it is safest to merge at speed. These idiots that do 40km/h on the on ramps whislt merging are "legal" yet cause the accos. Of course the usuall bleeding heart, never do wrongers will reply telling you that they never speed and you deserve it if you do. Ignore them.

[Riksta]

Well done for trying, sorry to hear you didn't manage to get off.

They keep going on how "Speed Cameras Save Lives" and crap, then just place them in areas that are purely going to catch the most and therefore make the most money, instead of in dangerous spots.

[XR06T]

glad you gave it a shot mate.

and riksta is right on the money there!

[Rodp]

Yeah, hard done by in that situation. If you stop or slow for a gap then traffic flow is disrupted and the chances of something going wrong is a lot higher than if you accelerate and merge safely into the gap as you did. Poor form by the cop for not using common sense and poor form by the judge for not having any clue whatsoever.

[dddp]

so you were going 12ks faster than the rest of the traffic else he could've booked eveyone else - if it was a small slot you were trying to get into you must've had to slow down pretty quick if it was heavy traffic

[Unco]

tough luck there mate. i guess this judge would be one of those tools that treat every merging lane as a 'stop' sign. u know the ones.

i guess you'll just need to have a bit more of a 'feel' of what speed you're doing and try not to go over as you merge. i know it depends on the merging lane, the road and the conditions. i dare say that if you were just doing 5 over or so, the cop may not have bothered. still, i agree... it's a joke.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by dddp

so you were going 12ks faster than the rest of the traffic else he could've booked eveyone else - if it was a small slot you were trying to get into you must've had to slow down pretty quick if it was heavy traffic

I think you'll find he sped up to beat the traffic and get into a gap infront of him rather than going at the same speed of the traffic and merging into a gap next to him or maybe slowing down slightly to get into a gap behind then accellerating to the speed of the tradffic.

Not sure how you can blame anyone but yourself or even expected to get off... :

[Simmo]

get off it mate, unless you've never sped to merge or get a gap in traffic, STFU! zero tolerance for speeding is foolish.

[Bitmap]

How stupid. What is more dangerous- speeding up a little to merge at traffic speed or slowing right down to wait for a gap in traffic.
I do not condone speeding but there is a difference in speeding up a little to merge safely.
Sounds like the judge was just following his law book instead of applying common sense. :
I guess the cop was just doing his job but you think the courts would have left you off.

[Casper]

Well done. You might not have won but you have a moral victory, you know you are right and you have just shown, once again, the current speeding laws are a pathetic joke that is purely revenue based.
At least the government get nothing out of you, it cost them more in everyones salaries for the court than it cost you. If everyone did that the whole speeding revenue hunt would cost more than its worth.

[XCSEDAN]

judge sounds like an idiot,
good on you for giving it a go mate
still a bloody harsh punishment for preventing an accident,
if you dont mind me asking what were the penalties?

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by Simmo

get off it mate, unless you've never sped to merge or get a gap in traffic, STFU! zero tolerance for speeding is foolish.

Rightly or wrongly I speed up to merge all the time! I just don't whinge if I get done speeding doing it.

I disagree with alot of the laws too but such is life. There is a stop sign near my house where there is hardly any traffic I rolled through it and treated it like giveway sign and got done by a cop sitting there. I told the cop there is never any traffic here but at the end of the day copped it sweet and paid the penalty I did the wrong thing!

[ED Classic]

Yeah very hard done by in that situation.

Its the correct way to merge if that situation Orrises. You only have to be one of the others cars in the lane your trying to merge in and you realise how dangerous it is when someone infront of you who is trying to merge and you are giving a go spends more time looking in their mirror and slamming their brakes on rather than simply merging into the clear lane.

[Sorted]

The there is this:- (Victoria)

The Ferntree Gully "ON" Ramp to get onto the Monash Freeway headed towards the city has a 60klm speed limit, the sign for 100klm is that close to the freeway that you have to plant your foot to even get up to 100klm legally before you merge.

[colossus]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Rightly or wrongly I speed up to merge all the time! I just don't whinge if I get done speeding doing it.

I disagree with alot of the laws too but such is life.

This is the defeatist attitude I don't understand - if you don't agree with a law then we (the citizens) should make it known not "cop it on the chin" as the catch phrase goes. Nothing will ever change if we don't.

Its not whinging its sticking up for what you believe in.

[dirt 01]

I think it cost me $200 or was it $215, plus about $30 court costs. And 3 points cos it was 10 or more over the speed limit!
And i didnt even mean to speed! It was just the right thing to do.

[irlewy86]

You should have referred the police officer and Magistrate to Queensland. Most people try to merge at 50km/h and if they cant they come to a complete stop which causes accidents and traffic chaos. The idea of a merge lane is to get up to speed well before your ready to merge and then slot in, sometimes you need to speed up and 12km/h is nothing on a highway

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Rightly or wrongly I speed up to merge all the time! I just don't whinge if I get done speeding doing it.

I disagree with alot of the laws too but such is life. There is a stop sign near my house where there is hardly any traffic I rolled through it and treated it like giveway sign and got done by a cop sitting there. I told the cop there is never any traffic here but at the end of the day copped it sweet and paid the penalty I did the wrong thing!

I would certainly whinge.

Considering the current driving climate, I find that it's much safer to speed up to merge than it is to slow down and hope someone will let you in or try and match the speed of the traffic already on the road. I've seen countless times a car that was either trying to merge at the same speed as the traffic on the road, or slower than the traffic on the road having to stop due to inconsiderate drivers on the road.

You should never cop it sweet if it's the safest way to merge and doesn't disrupt the flow of traffic. Common sense should have prevailed there and if a cop is going to sit there, they should be looking for infringements well beyond a 12kph over the limit safe merge.

[MeLLy]

i had an unfair speeding fine a while back & i went to court and ended up with no court costs no conviction no demerit points and a 290 fine reduced down to 75 with a victims of crime levy of $35...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt but yeah i totally agree with you! On all counts!! good try sport!

[Peuty]

Gosh, would hat eto have a cop monitoring my speed as I merge on the M1 northbound somedays, its just merging madness at 5.30 in the arvo! Good excuse to belt the XR though.....

[Keepleft]

Meh, might help some.

http://tinyurl.com/3e4ofu

[Dezza]

The judge has no idea. I heard the best term for merging yesterday. "Merge like a zipper". That means let one in front and one behind. You DO NOT stop, unless the traffic in the lane you are merging into has also stopped. When you're trying to get into a lane with cars going 100kph, it's easiest to merge in when you're also going around 100kph. If you take off from a standstill, how many cars can get to 100kph in a few metres? It's a lot more dangerous to have a car merge in doing about 50, while the cars behind are doing 100 than it is to drive about 10kph over.

Good job for fighting it, but it's a shame that commonsense didn't end up prevailing in the courtroom.

[Redrum]

I think sometimes to merge safely you must speed up especially when drivers make no effort to let you in. Unfair fine and hardly an excessive speed.

[opto]

Originally Posted by ea_silver_ghia

The judge has no idea. I heard the best term for merging yesterday. "Merge like a zipper". That means let one in front and one behind. You DO NOT stop, unless the traffic in the lane you are merging into has also stopped. When you're trying to get into a lane with cars going 100kph, it's easiest to merge in when you're also going around 100kph. If you take off from a standstill, how many cars can get to 100kph in a few metres? It's a lot more dangerous to have a car merge in doing about 50, while the cars behind are doing 100 than it is to drive about 10kph over.

Good job for fighting it, but it's a shame that commonsense didn't end up prevailing in the courtroom.

Totally agree with this along with the fact that it was a revenue raising effort by the constabulary, technically radars should be used a known " Blackspots" in an attempt to lower the rate of accidents.

You should have utilised the expert abilities of a solicitor who specialise in speeding fines, you would have won the case.

Also the "Zero tolerance" policy is ludicrous, IF there was "Zero Tolerance" even police, ambulance and fire trucks would be fined for speeding, so this is not "Zero tolerance" this is discrimination.
Remember, Governments were elected by the people, do not fear the government, let the government fear the people, why do you think that Howard has backflipped on so many issues.
Fight bad legislation.

[Full Noise]

You gave it a shot, that’s the main thing, however, you didn’t lose in the eyes of the police prosecutor or with the other people in the court room.

What you did when merging was quite obviously the safest course of action for the situation you were in.

This magistrate will eventually retire, and hopefully will be replaced with another that has a far greater “common sense” approach to road safety.

Cheers

[Road Games]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Rightly or wrongly I speed up to merge all the time! I just don't whinge if I get done speeding doing it.

I disagree with alot of the laws too but such is life. There is a stop sign near my house where there is hardly any traffic I rolled through it and treated it like giveway sign and got done by a cop sitting there. I told the cop there is never any traffic here but at the end of the day copped it sweet and paid the penalty I did the wrong thing!

He wasn,t openly BREAKING the law as YOU state YOU did !! He was merging onto .... Blahblah blah bl ah blahhhhh. Cops S@$K And thats the bottom line cause DAZZLER351 SAID SO ..................

[owl]

Originally Posted by dirt 01

I had a speeding fine the other week.
Was merging into traffic (3 lane highway, geelong) and had to "speed" by 12kmh to safely get into position(thats perhaps 1 second of acceleration). Sadly there was a cop 300 metres up the road with his laser watching people like me merging. I couldnt believe it and told him so.
I rightly was watching the road and the cars around me to safely merge and not my speedo.
Theres just no excuse for this sort of zero tolerence enforcement and i told him so. He told me there is zero tolerence for speeding!... I told him why dont you go catch people speeding where there are pedestrians right in the centre of town instead of on the 3 lane highway?
Anyway, I went to court to try and get leniency. I had photos showing the area, and the merging lane... explained how the traffic flows and you merge be watching other cars...(would you stop on a freeway on ramp waiting for a gap or match the speed of the cars and go for a gap?)
Ended up still paying, but had a good winge and had a lot of people in the court crowd encourage me and tell me good try. Even 60+ year old ladies! Judge had no clue, I doubt he even drives telling me that "when merging I should stop and wait for a gap, didnt you know that? you've learnt something today then havnt you..." The cop prosecuter understood where I came from and even shook her head at the judge. What can you say to someone who wont even go into gaps. Anyway I give up. Thats a judge for you...

I'm still glad I went to court, even though it cost me $30 extra court costs. Its good to at least try. You feel better and realise how stupid our policing system is. Plus you tie up court time. At the same magistrate, just before me, there was a comitle hearing for a rapist in geelong that was the worst anyone has heard about in the area.(you might have heard about it, some animal type bloke from corio) I'm with that guy, apparently doing 12 km over lets me hang with real crims. What a joke.

good on you for having a go buddy it shows your a decent thinking humanbeing ;unfortunatley common sense prevailing is becoming increasingly uncommon .IT would seem that defensive driving is a great thing as long as it never involves speeding even by 1 KL over;it seems these fools would rather see a head on; than someone speeding to avoid trouble ,and as you say to be put in with this oxygen thief is behond belief.don"t worry, most of australians are with you.

[fangq]

[QUOTE=dirt 01]I had a speeding fine the other week.
Was merging into traffic (3 lane highway, geelong) and had to "speed" by 12kmh to safely get into position(thats perhaps 1 second of acceleration). Sadly there was a cop 300 metres up the road with his laser watching people like me merging. I couldnt believe it and told him so.
I rightly was watching the road and the cars around me to safely merge and not my speedo.
Theres just no excuse for this sort of zero tolerence enforcement and i told him so. He told me there is zero tolerence for speeding!... I told him why dont you go catch people speeding where there are pedestrians right in the centre of town instead of on the 3 lane highway?

You lost the minute you admitted to the offence whilst at the road side ( you were probably being recorded btw ).

eg " Do you have an excuse for exceeding the posted speed limit? "

Yes..I have an excuse.. ( done )
No..I don't have an excuse ( still done )

Correct response..

" Why do you ask officer ?? "

These days with onerous fines, demerit points , don't give an inch !!!

Be polite , but admit to nothing.

Steve

[shane3]

Should have been watching a currant affair, they had the speeding fine website and the guy who runs it on, telling you how to beat the system.