Zero respect for police

[stevef]

Its no wonder kids these days have zero respect for police.
First of all for people that dont know in nsw we have a law that says that between 11pm and 5 am a red p plater can only have 1 passenger in their car if the passenger is under 21.

My son took his girl and his mate to the movies they left with enough time to get home. on the way home there was a crash on the bridge the road was blocked with no other way to go.

In the end they were delayed about half an hour.

About 500 meters from home he gets pulled over by an unmarked cop for a random breath test.Thats OK he doesnt drink but the cop says its 11.15 pm you can only have 1 passenger under 21. He explains to the #### sorry cop about the crash on the bridge and the unavoidable delay. The cop says bad luck not my problem. $ 430 fine and seven demerit points thats licence gone for 3 months. He had 1 week to go on his red P's and has never been booked before, red P platers only get 4 demerit points.

He is shattered.
I would take it to court but justice is only available to those that can afford it.

[mattgreen]

if he got a fine, he wont loose his license for 4 weeks. he will have time to get his greens in time.

[VL_5SPEED]

Yeh some cops are assholes and some are good. I hate the pricks what defect for no good reason.

[Cúl-Báire]

Take it to court anyways, any reasonable judge would understand there were extenuating circumstances and potentially let him off with a lesser penalty...

[wraith]

That's life mate. No use whining about it on a forum. The problem you have is Legal Aid won't help you if it's your first traffic offence. All I can say is contest it and see what happens.

I ran into a similar situation. Had just enough time to get every one home (2 guys 2 girls). Cop's pulled us up at 10:30. Made us wait 20 minutes then said sorry girls will have to walk your mate is fine though. I offered to get out with one of the girls but the cops said nope can't do now leave before we find something to book you for. Luckily there was a pub not far from where we got done and we picked the girls up from there and took them home.

[stevef]

The thing is there should be no penalty at all the cop new about the crash on the bridge it would have been all over his radio 15 mins before.
Surely this would of been a case for leinency but as you can see nowdays the police and governments are so hellbent on revenue raising that common sense has gone out the window.
I would take it to court but that means more expense another day of work and no garantee of a favourable result. And i have heard of people trying to take the police to court very rarely comes out in their favour.

[Torquative]

I'm not sure but can it be appealed by writing a letter opposed to going to court, or is that the only option?

[stevef]

He has already sent the letter but i dont hold much hope for him,

[Torquative]

never know, it is a legitimate reason and you might get someone with some decency read the letter.

[tivoom]

he should be right a mate just got off her fist fine because she sent a letter away with some made up reason why she was doing 52 in a 40 school zone at 3:50pm i didnt know the points were so hi for this type of "crime"

[emir3008]

shit thats atleast better then here in vic, red p platers cant have more then 1 passenger 16-21 years old at all times.

but im sure whoever reads the letter will understand the situation.

[Ace_VP]

Im a NSW police officer and that does suck. But cops do hear every excuse in the book. Not defending the cop, seems like a raw deal 15mins past the curfew.

Take it to court, explain to the courts about the accident, couple that with the time he was over by and how far he was from home i cant see it sticking but thats my opinion so dont take it as gospel.

Who said it was 7 points? It is only 3 points. 7 Points is when they are driving a prohibited vehicle. Matt

[CSP]

While I completely disagree with such nanny state laws, he BROKE THE LAW and he KNEW he was breaking the law. Why do people constantly think that breaking the law when there is an excuse is acceptable? Take it to court.... Let the judge laugh at the excuse and then have all the expenses that go along with that too.

Laws are there FOR A REASON and they aren't selective. You follow them, or you don't. The smart person gets to 11pm and pulls over, makes a phone call and the problem is solved. Inconvenient? Perhaps a little but LEGAL! A smarter person factors in some time for "the un-expected" like a flat tyre or other delay as has happened in this case.

Bottom line, don't break the law and if you do, don't friggin whinge when you get caught!

And this should have nothing to do with a Police Officer who is simply doing his job. If you want to have no respect for someone, direct it to the socialist Labor government that introduced such ridiculous legislation.

[Julie]

I always thought it was a bloody stupid new law they brought in, can't see how it will help things all it will do is put more teens in cars during those hours

Pretty rough, but he was cutting it close I suppose even without the crash delaying them. I think its pretty easy to sit back and judge these kids nowadays but we didn't have to go through any of the ridiculous bullshit and jump though hoops to get your licences. I reckon they have it pretty rough and all these stupid new measures don't help at all spend the money on policing ffs and get the bad drivers off the road instead of assuming everyone under x age is a bad driver and placing blanket bans on them.

[GenReaper]

While it does suck, maybe he should have gone to the earlier movie session as to avoid risk.
Play with fire you will get burnt.

[Ace_VP]

I always thought it was a bloody stupid new law they brought in, can't see how it will help things all it will do is put more teens in cars during those hours

Pretty rough, but he was cutting it close I suppose even without the crash delaying them. I think its pretty easy to sit back and judge these kids nowadays but we didn't have to go through any of the ridiculous bullshit and jump though hoops to get your licences. I reckon they have it pretty rough and all these stupid new measures don't help at all spend the money on policing ffs and get the bad drivers off the road instead of assuming everyone under x age is a bad driver and placing blanket bans on them.

The main theory behind the law Julie is that a young driver with a car full of young passengers as peer pressure can have disasterous consequences, not always but it can. Another side of the idea behind it is that if they are going to have an accident restricting how many people they can have in the car minimises how many can be injured or killed in the event of an accident. I will say and give credit to most P-platers they do ahere to the law and do the right thing. matt

[TVR-190]

The main theory behind the law Julie is that a young driver with a car full of young passengers as peer pressure can have disasterous consequences, not always but it can. Another side of the idea behind it is that if they are going to have an accident restricting how many people they can have in the car minimises how many can be injured or killed in the event of an accident. I will say and give credit to most P-platers they do ahere to the law and do the right thing. matt

Also look at it from the view that there may now be 2 cars instead of all in one, and they might do stupid peer pressure crap like race. I don't think that law has really done anything of use. Considering its only between certain hours and for people under 25. 1 person cant be a designated driver for 4 others.

[vk.jonno]

Go to the station and b like dude WTF?

[Big_Simmo]

If he was fined 7 points and only has 1 week left till the red P's are gone, just dont pay the fine till the last day as they cant loose the points untill the fine is paid. If by the time he pays it he is no longer on red P's and has more points then he wont loose his license

[Ace_VP]

Also look at it from the view that there may now be 2 cars instead of all in one, and they might do stupid peer pressure crap like race. I don't think that law has really done anything of use. Considering its only between certain hours and for people under 25. 1 person cant be a designated driver for 4 others.

There are down sides to every situation. im not saying the law is a good one, i simply said what the basic reasoning was behind the law. What you are saying are valid points.

[Ace_VP]

If he was fined 7 points and only has 1 week left till the red P's are gone, just dont pay the fine till the last day as they cant loose the points untill the fine is paid. If by the time he pays it he is no longer on red P's and has more points then he wont loose his license

He will only have 6 points on his green p's so he will still loose his licence, but since its not 7 points, unless there were other offences he isnt going to loose it anyway.

[CANYONERO]

although i feel for your son, it is the law and he broke it. so technically he dosent have a leg to stand on.