Hey, I'd better be careful!

Kiwi Bloke · 09-08-04, 06:42 PM

After reading a few postings about how easy it can be to smoke the tires and lay down rubber stripes on the road <grin> it occurs to me that a couple of laws here in New Zealand may make me a bit cautious.

There are lots of young "hoons" here who drive highly modded rice-burners, and terrorise neighborhoods by having races and making long swirly patterns of rubber on the road with their front-drive rockets.

Sound familiar?

They've brought in two new laws here to try to stop this behavior:

1. "Unnecessary acceleration"
2. "Sustained loss of traction"

Both EXTREMELY subjective, and the penalty? Your car is impounded for 28 days.

The laws deliberately don't state how long "sustained" is, and what is or isn't considered "necessary".

I'll have to watch the old lead boot.

Adrian

Vettefan87 · 09-08-04, 06:46 PM

Yea I have the same thing here in Indiana, although I dont think I have any acceleration laws, unless the tires are broken loose. They are real sticklers about it though too.

Justin

Kiwi Bloke · 09-08-04, 06:59 PM

Sad that reasonable people have to suffer in order to sort out the unreasonable.

Adrian

Ken · 09-08-04, 07:03 PM

"Exhibition of Speed" is another one here that's used occasionally.

Here are the laws from a few states: Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, and you might even want to look at this one: National Traffic Law Center

Oops! Here's a link that'll cover all 50 states: State Driving Laws.

Kiwi Bloke · 09-08-04, 07:06 PM

Wow! Anything over a dead stop could be considered as exhibiting speed!

rrubel · 09-08-04, 07:20 PM

Heck, yeah. I once got a warning for driving NEXT to somebody, at precisely the speed limit. Gotta love New Jersey...
[RICHR]

Kiwi Bloke · 09-08-04, 07:22 PM

...but you were in reverse at the time, with a naked passenger, I bet! <grin>

rrubel · 09-08-04, 09:10 PM

Sadly, no... that certainly would have been MUCH more fun than driving a friend and his girlfriend to La Guardia Airport in New York so they could catch a flight to Puerto Rico.

Odd thing, this warning. It was about 1 am, had been on the road for only an hour and wasn't tired. Had out-of-state license tags. Passed a cop on the side of the road writing a ticket for someone, and went to pass a slower car *very* cautiously because I knew he was still back there. So as I'm doing the speed limit, along comes the cop and pulls me over. Says that in New Jersey it's illegal to drive next to anyone for more than a certain short distance. WTF? I explained I was passing at the speed limit, and he told me that I needed to speed up, pass, and slow back down - it was *OK* to speed, if I was passing someone. Go figure. Oh, and this was my mom's station wagon I was driving (college student at the time) so it's not like I was in some hotrod or Corvette or something

.
[RICHR]

Kiwi Bloke · 09-08-04, 09:26 PM

WTF indeed! Sounds to me like he was hoping you were drunk.

I was tailed by a cop once, when I was driving my Jaguar at 3-30AM in a bad part of the English town of Plymouth. He flashed the lights and pulled me over.

He said "A Jaguar being driven in this part of town, at this time of night, 200 miles away from its home address is either stolen or being drunk-driven, and I want to find out which."

As it happened, I was sober, and driving home early after being away from home for a week. Cops in Britain are not allowed to randomly breath-test drivers, but must have probable cause. So, they all invent a probable cause!

On reflection, though, if my Jaguar *had* been stolen, I would have been happy if the cops had pulled the thief over. So I forgave him!

Adrian

Edmond · 09-08-04, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwi Bloke

Cops in Britain are not allowed to randomly breath-test drivers, but must have probable cause. So, they all invent a probable cause!

Our LEO's need probably cause or plain sight. Can't comment if they've ever invented probable cause.

ZumZum · 09-09-04, 08:18 AM

I once received a ticket for "Driving Other Than Reasonable". All I did was pull the front wheel of my Kawasaki 1000LTD off the ground leaving a stop light. Of course I was much younger then and thought my immortality was a given.

Actually I was very surprised when the front tire came up as it normally smoked off the rear tire. Must have been extremely good traction conditions.

rrubel · 09-09-04, 06:02 PM

Illinois must be different than MD. We have occasional random sobriety checkpoints, esp. on holiday weekends.
[RICHR]

Edmond · 09-09-04, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rrubel

Illinois must be different than MD. We have occasional random sobriety checkpoints, esp. on holiday weekends.
[RICHR]

Rich,

We have those too but they just can't give you the breathalyzer. They have to either see alcohol or smell it on your breath. I believe they do the balance and coordination tests first. Then it's the breathalyzer.