A curious incident in Tasmania
Discussion
So, I'm on holiday in Tassie for the best part of a week. The week is made so much better by the rental of a Porsche Boxter, which I picked up yesterday from Launceston, and I cannot think of a better travelling companion - 450kms yesterday on some of the most incredible roads. If you ever holiday down here, be sure to get a nice means of transport, it's just so rewarding.
Anyway, this morning I figured I'd head directly to Hobart, not through the twisties, just the main, direct straight route. I'm keeping up a good pace, the limit is 110kph, often dipping to 80/60/40, in that order by the way, and with plenty of warning, very nicely done, and only really for the small towns that border the road and the several roadworks. I stick to these firmly, though the 110s leave a fair bit of room for variance.
An hour or so into the journey I'm keeping a steady 130 or so and a Toyota Avensis (or similar) comes flying up behind me. I'm not messing around or entertaining any wannabe Porsche racer, he can wait until the next part where it opens into a dual carriageway and be on his way. The DC approaches and he comes past - then I hear a beep, look over and he's waving his badge at me. f
k. I slow it down and wait for a decent place to pull over, and do so. He approaches me and the following conversation ensues:
Him: What's the limit here?
Me: 110
Him: What were you doing?
Me: Maybe 125. (bearing in mind he's been behind me at 130 for several kms)
Him: You were doing 140.
Me: Well, I don't think so but might have been a bit over, so point taken
Him: You're very lucky, I'm Federal Police (as opposed to State Police). Take your foot off the pedal or I'll 'phone ahead, you'll get pulled, lose your licence and have your car taken off you under the anti-hoon laws.
Me: Point taken.
And off we go. Me driving, him following, for quite some time, me religiously following the limits and half expecting a pull.
About half an hour later, maybe less, a marked Falcon headed in the other direction passes me, does a 180 and sits behind the Toyota, then takes him, comes behind me, flashes, pulled.
Me: Hello Sir
Him: Hello. We've been looking for you, we've had a report of you've been doing 140.
Me: Yes, he gave me a warning, noted.
Him: Who gave you a warning?
Me: The fed. He pulled me and said to calm it down.
Him: How fast were you going?
Me: Oh I don't know, I might have gone over a little.
I give him my licence, by which time a cop van has pulled up, sort of on the inside of both of us on the hard shoulder. He takes my licence and chats with the driver of the van for some minutes and returns.
Him: See, we've got a problem here. We've got 2 witnesses, one an ambulance driver, the other a federal cop, the ambulance driver is on his way to give a statement at the police station, the other is the federal cop, who we are trying to track down, saying you were doing 140 whilst overtaking a stream of 5 cars (I by the way recall this overtake - a straight where you can see forever and a great excuse for a bit of a throttle squeeze).
Him: We can go to court, where we have 2 very credible witnesses, or I can issue you a $160 (I think he said) on the spot fine, 3 points and you can be on your way. I'm happy either way but I'd rather finish this here and now. How fast do you think you were going?
Me: Well, it's possible I may have been approaching 125, overtaking to get out of the danger area, but I'm not being silly etc
He goes back to the van for several more minutes, then returns.
Him: Okay, well we can either go to court or we can say 124kph, which is 2 points and $110 fine. I'm not being an ahole here you understand.
At this point I realise that hang on, this is a different state, so my points don't get put on my NSW licence. He agrees that he doesn't think they do, but don't hold him to it.
Fair play, $110 fine, no worries, let's get on with it. He writes up the ticket and returns to my car. I say to him that ok, now that's done and dealt with let me make the point that I'm not being a maniac, and as a professional driver he knows that you should speed up to overtake etc, which he agrees with. He then explains to me that he is in a bad situation in that there has been 9 fatalities on Tassie roads in the last few weeks and there's a lot of pressure on them in this regard.
He was reasonable and the situation over we continue on our way. He really did seem fair and reasonable, and whilst it wasn't 'a fair cop' so to speak, it wasn't unfair in that I was hardly sticking to the limit.
And then I thought... isn't it likely that this 'federal cop' and 'ambulance driver' are one and the same. I certainly didn't see any badge other than the one flashed at my cheek at 130kph. The car certainly didn't give any hints to
being any such vehicle. The cops appeared to be vainly trying to track this 'federal cop' down. I'm now beginning to suspect that the whole event was engineered by a self-appointed speeding vigilante, and that I gave them the '2nd federal cop witness' myself. And that in the absence of this second witness, I could have just denied any wrong-doing, they'd have let me off with a warning and that would be that. Both witnesses made mention of this precise 140kph speed.
Not really looking for advice, or sympathy, or anything other than narrating a tale, but would be interested to know if you think I'm either being paranoid or slow to realise the obvious. I think the latter. And would this be grounds to object? I'm not going to bother by the way, $110 is neither here nor there, and with no points it's largely an irrelevance. Also of course, this forum is probably not so au fait with Tas legislation, and nor am I.
Oh well...
Anyway, this morning I figured I'd head directly to Hobart, not through the twisties, just the main, direct straight route. I'm keeping up a good pace, the limit is 110kph, often dipping to 80/60/40, in that order by the way, and with plenty of warning, very nicely done, and only really for the small towns that border the road and the several roadworks. I stick to these firmly, though the 110s leave a fair bit of room for variance.
An hour or so into the journey I'm keeping a steady 130 or so and a Toyota Avensis (or similar) comes flying up behind me. I'm not messing around or entertaining any wannabe Porsche racer, he can wait until the next part where it opens into a dual carriageway and be on his way. The DC approaches and he comes past - then I hear a beep, look over and he's waving his badge at me. f
k. I slow it down and wait for a decent place to pull over, and do so. He approaches me and the following conversation ensues:Him: What's the limit here?
Me: 110
Him: What were you doing?
Me: Maybe 125. (bearing in mind he's been behind me at 130 for several kms)
Him: You were doing 140.
Me: Well, I don't think so but might have been a bit over, so point taken
Him: You're very lucky, I'm Federal Police (as opposed to State Police). Take your foot off the pedal or I'll 'phone ahead, you'll get pulled, lose your licence and have your car taken off you under the anti-hoon laws.
Me: Point taken.
And off we go. Me driving, him following, for quite some time, me religiously following the limits and half expecting a pull.
About half an hour later, maybe less, a marked Falcon headed in the other direction passes me, does a 180 and sits behind the Toyota, then takes him, comes behind me, flashes, pulled.
Me: Hello Sir
Him: Hello. We've been looking for you, we've had a report of you've been doing 140.
Me: Yes, he gave me a warning, noted.
Him: Who gave you a warning?
Me: The fed. He pulled me and said to calm it down.
Him: How fast were you going?
Me: Oh I don't know, I might have gone over a little.
I give him my licence, by which time a cop van has pulled up, sort of on the inside of both of us on the hard shoulder. He takes my licence and chats with the driver of the van for some minutes and returns.
Him: See, we've got a problem here. We've got 2 witnesses, one an ambulance driver, the other a federal cop, the ambulance driver is on his way to give a statement at the police station, the other is the federal cop, who we are trying to track down, saying you were doing 140 whilst overtaking a stream of 5 cars (I by the way recall this overtake - a straight where you can see forever and a great excuse for a bit of a throttle squeeze).
Him: We can go to court, where we have 2 very credible witnesses, or I can issue you a $160 (I think he said) on the spot fine, 3 points and you can be on your way. I'm happy either way but I'd rather finish this here and now. How fast do you think you were going?
Me: Well, it's possible I may have been approaching 125, overtaking to get out of the danger area, but I'm not being silly etc
He goes back to the van for several more minutes, then returns.
Him: Okay, well we can either go to court or we can say 124kph, which is 2 points and $110 fine. I'm not being an a
hole here you understand.At this point I realise that hang on, this is a different state, so my points don't get put on my NSW licence. He agrees that he doesn't think they do, but don't hold him to it.
Fair play, $110 fine, no worries, let's get on with it. He writes up the ticket and returns to my car. I say to him that ok, now that's done and dealt with let me make the point that I'm not being a maniac, and as a professional driver he knows that you should speed up to overtake etc, which he agrees with. He then explains to me that he is in a bad situation in that there has been 9 fatalities on Tassie roads in the last few weeks and there's a lot of pressure on them in this regard.
He was reasonable and the situation over we continue on our way. He really did seem fair and reasonable, and whilst it wasn't 'a fair cop' so to speak, it wasn't unfair in that I was hardly sticking to the limit.
And then I thought... isn't it likely that this 'federal cop' and 'ambulance driver' are one and the same. I certainly didn't see any badge other than the one flashed at my cheek at 130kph. The car certainly didn't give any hints to
being any such vehicle. The cops appeared to be vainly trying to track this 'federal cop' down. I'm now beginning to suspect that the whole event was engineered by a self-appointed speeding vigilante, and that I gave them the '2nd federal cop witness' myself. And that in the absence of this second witness, I could have just denied any wrong-doing, they'd have let me off with a warning and that would be that. Both witnesses made mention of this precise 140kph speed.
Not really looking for advice, or sympathy, or anything other than narrating a tale, but would be interested to know if you think I'm either being paranoid or slow to realise the obvious. I think the latter. And would this be grounds to object? I'm not going to bother by the way, $110 is neither here nor there, and with no points it's largely an irrelevance. Also of course, this forum is probably not so au fait with Tas legislation, and nor am I.
Oh well...
Honestly don't care.
I can't believe you are constructing such a ludicrous conspiracy theory over literally nothing.
I just read an entire novel which basically amounted to a standard speeding penalty with no interesting bits.
If I were in your shoes I would go and try and have sex or something
I can't believe you are constructing such a ludicrous conspiracy theory over literally nothing.
I just read an entire novel which basically amounted to a standard speeding penalty with no interesting bits.
If I were in your shoes I would go and try and have sex or something
Google [bot] said:
Fair enough, and it was a bit long-winded. My point is that I reckon there was no federal cop, just an ambulance driver impersonating a federal cop.
How are you ever going to know though?Its just pointless speculating. There might not have been a federal cop, or there might have been.Makes no difference to anything.
Out of interest was the bloke that pulled you over one of the 5 cars you had overtaken?
Jasandjules said:
Google [bot] said:
Fair enough, and it was a bit long-winded. My point is that I reckon there was no federal cop, just an ambulance driver impersonating a federal cop.
Well unless the state police take calls from ambulance drivers as to evidence of speeding?ETA: off-duty ambulance driver.
Edited by Google [bot] on Thursday 31st March 09:46
Jasandjules said:
Google [bot] said:
At the time of pulling me, that's exactly everything they had.
That does seem awfully odd - obviously don't know Aussie speeding law but I can't see how an MOP (in effect) could be a suitable determination for your actual speed.I reckon Mr. Off-duty ambo has seen more than his fair share of personal destruction and considers a bit of officer impersonation a fair bit of vigilante action which will slow people down and hence save lives.. He just never knew he'd have the bonus of the double-dip.
All speculation of course.
Mr GrimNasty said:
So you did a 5 car overtake on a single lane road at 90mph. And you wonder why people are phoning in to report you? That is the oddest part about this story!
You find such a thing unusual?If drivers were reported for that in this country the Police would never have time for anything else.
KB_S1 said:
You find such a thing unusual?
If drivers were reported for that in this country the Police would never have time for anything else.
(a) Don't be silly, very few motorists break the limit by 50%, and increasingly such drivers are reported (Scotland news recently) and hunted down. If you/your friends regularly do this and convince yourselves this is acceptable or normal, then I hope your enjoy the consequences.If drivers were reported for that in this country the Police would never have time for anything else.
(b) Consider which country this took place in and THEIR attitude to speed and enforcement. There is zero tolerance/near zero leeway given. You have to drive according to the prevailing attitudes as well as the letter of the law if you want to avoid a fine.
The OP brought it on himself and is seeking self-justification in ridiculous conspiracy theories to avoid the acceptance of his own stupidity.
Mr GrimNasty said:
(a) Don't be silly, very few motorists break the limit by 50%, and increasingly such drivers are reported (Scotland news recently) and hunted down. If you/your friends regularly do this and convince yourselves this is acceptable or normal, then I hope your enjoy the consequences.
(b) Consider which country this took place in and THEIR attitude to speed and enforcement. There is zero tolerance/near zero leeway given. You have to drive according to the prevailing attitudes as well as the letter of the law if you want to avoid a fine.
The OP brought it on himself and is seeking self-justification in ridiculous conspiracy theories to avoid the acceptance of his own stupidity.
I do regular drives across the highlands and borders roads.(b) Consider which country this took place in and THEIR attitude to speed and enforcement. There is zero tolerance/near zero leeway given. You have to drive according to the prevailing attitudes as well as the letter of the law if you want to avoid a fine.
The OP brought it on himself and is seeking self-justification in ridiculous conspiracy theories to avoid the acceptance of his own stupidity.
It is commonplace to see multiple overtakes on single carriageway NSL roads.
What have my friends got to do with it?
KB_S1 said:
I do regular drives across the highlands and borders roads.
It is commonplace to see multiple overtakes on single carriageway NSL roads.
What have my friends got to do with it?
The best way is to do such overtakes at 120+, that way the busybodies won't be able to take your reg plate in time.It is commonplace to see multiple overtakes on single carriageway NSL roads.
What have my friends got to do with it?
In seriousness, I regularly do overtakes of several vehicles on single carriageway NSL roads where the visibility permits, on these occasions I would rather overtake at speeds up to 90 (or whatever) than overtake at 65 and spend an eternity facing oncoming traffic and having to 'hop' past a car at a time. This is on rural roads with light traffic that I know well.
Duly noted for if and when I holiday in Australia though! (demand to see full identification from nerks in Toyota's)
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