New Demerit + Fine System & Radar Dectectors Banned

[Defective]

The chick probably deserved it. No way you should be sending SMS while driving.

A law that talks about distraction (etc) is fine, but I wonder how long it'll be before we duplicate the UK's laws on the subject. Then its cut and dried and less up to the officers discretion.

definitly deserved it... shes the sorta chick that thinks its ok to smoke and eat a pie and txt and do her make up etc etc... worst driver ive ever been in a car with.

[sergei]

cellphone use is going to be outlawed

cops can already ticket you for it....

ex-g'fs sister got a ticket for basically being distracted cos she was txting while driving... cant remember the wording on the ticket, was something like "not paying due attention" or similar... $150 fine...

cops can pretty much ticket you for anything cos some of the laws are sooo vague...

Could of been careless driving you know (and she would deserve it).
I know a guy who text and drives while not seat-belted and tailgating. I told him that he has got a death wish and don't drive with him any more (we used to carpool, but now his stupidity costs me $25 more per week).

[Lloyd]

Back on the demerits and speeding thing, someone said anything over 100kms and your licence is gone or jail etc as a suggestion, is that not just incentive to run?

People are going to speed regardless of the law, I'm sure most people on here do on occasion. If you know you're in a quick car/bike and you know you're going to lose your licence or go to jail then why hang around?

Limiting vehicle to 100 or 120 is a stupid idea. Especially from someone wanting to supercharge a 2ZZ (I'm sure you can accelerate excessively enough to 100km/h without a supercharger).

Isn't the road tolls trend going down compared to population growth anyway?



I'm all for driver training as a mandatory system, plenty of people out there with bugger all skills on the road. Even just lack of indicating or looking when changing lanes pisses me off.

Issue with that is who is going to pay for it? Surely the government with its howmanyever billion of excess tax can afford it but we all know its going to be a user pays setup.

[FST4RD]

If you were threatened with a month in jail no parole for getting to many demerit points either your first time or your second time or something would you dare break the law? I would certainly do everything in my power to make sure I stick to the road rules.

Plus there should be a 3 strike and no more licence. Ie if you lose your licence 3 times there's no way you should be driving come hell or high water!

[rolla_fxgt]

If you were threatened with a month in jail no parole for getting to many demerit points either your first time or your second time or something would you dare break the law? I would certainly do everything in my power to make sure I stick to the road rules.

Plus there should be a 3 strike and no more licence. Ie if you lose your licence 3 times there's no way you should be driving come hell or high water!

So if you lived in the back of no where & your wife or whatever was having a baby or was injured & needed to go to hospital, but you knew you could get to the hospital quicker than they could get the part time ambo crew to you & then to the hospital, you'd be fine with going to jail for speeding or perhaps not stopping completely at a stop sign? Even though you are doing something commendable & perhaps even saving a life?
I for one wouldn't its those sort of laws that are enacted by corrupt & controlling dictators. I obey the road rules most of the time & would be horrified if I got sent to jail for not much less time than someone who raped or stabbed someone, simply because I was 11k over the speed limit.

I don't believe anyone on here has never broken a road rule.

[FST4RD]

If you were threatened with a month in jail no parole for getting to many demerit points either your first time or your second time or something would you dare break the law? I would certainly do everything in my power to make sure I stick to the road rules.

Plus there should be a 3 strike and no more licence. Ie if you lose your licence 3 times there's no way you should be driving come hell or high water!

So if you lived in the back of no where & your wife or whatever was having a baby or was injured & needed to go to hospital, but you knew you could get to the hospital quicker than they could get the part time ambo crew to you & then to the hospital, you'd be fine with going to jail for speeding or perhaps not stopping completely at a stop sign? Even though you are doing something commendable & perhaps even saving a life?
I for one wouldn't its those sort of laws that are enacted by corrupt & controlling dictators. I obey the road rules most of the time & would be horrified if I got sent to jail for not much less time than someone who raped or stabbed someone, simply because I was 11k over the speed limit.

I don't believe anyone on here has never broken a road rule.

You can always get off by writing in in exceptional cases like yours.
If you were a repeat offended for speeding, running red lights, not wearing a seat belt you don't desearve to have a licence and need to be taught some sort of lesson.
this would be mostly aimed at the dickheads who lose their licences, continue to drive, pay back their fines at $10 a week. A threat of jail time night actually make them think twice....

[Si]

Isn't the road tolls trend going down compared to population growth anyway?

Pretty much.

Unlike the trend of burglarys,violent crime and sexual assaults. thats an upward trend.....

I saw the stats on a webstie the other day, cant find it now however.

Basically it was "Since labour came into power violent/sexual crime has increased 25%"

[Ae92typeX]

have to be careful with stats like that though. Really it indicates the 25% increase in it being reported. Thats not to say in reality it has gone up or down,just the stats of what is 'considered' to be violence or sex crimes has grown. Graphs, polls and numbers can be made to say anything when worded right. giving a kid a smack 'may' now fall into them stats!

Declining road toll as in deaths is more accurate however. Injury again subjective to tools of measurement.

[Leon]

If we could change it so *only* stupid people died on the roads, then we could aim for a higher death toll to weed out the people Darwin missed out... now that'd be an interesting road safety campaign.

Harry Duynhoeven: The road toll is up 350 this year!!

[high five]

[tsoob]

i think i read somewhere ages ago that drivers with them were proven to be more alert and aware of whats going on around them, to other traffic etc when using one, but i guess thats another debate.

end of the day, we can't do jack to change it.

can we vote in a new government? will that have any effect?

[xsspeed]

^^^ only changes the colour of their letterheads from red to blue doesnt it?

[Mr.Phreak]

^^^ only changes the colour of their letterheads from red to blue doesnt it?

Funny because it's true

[Loudtoy]

Isn't the road tolls trend going down compared to population growth anyway?

Pretty much.

Unlike the trend of burglarys,violent crime and sexual assaults. thats an upward trend.....

I saw the stats on a webstie the other day, cant find it now however.

Basically it was "Since labour came into power violent/sexual crime has increased 25%"

Less basicly it was that over all crime rates have fallen but the % of burglarys, violent crime and sexual assaults within the over all crime rates have increased 25%. Came out after labour was making noises about how the overall cime rates have fallen since they came into power. Mostly means that having your car broken into and stereo and things ripped off (minor burglarys) isn't being reported now because the police are that understaffed they don't have the time to do anthing about it anyways - unless they come across something by pure luck which is how i got my bike back last year

Oh and i don't have a problem with new demerit laws, last time i had a ticket was because i wasn't paying enough attention to my speed on a lovely down hill straight piece of road and whilst it annoyed me to get a ticket at the time i paid it and haven't had one since - that was about 6 years ago now. If it makes even one person actually stop at every stop sign then it has worked imho

[Stealer Of Souls]

Back on the demerits and speeding thing, someone said anything over 100kms and your licence is gone or jail etc as a suggestion, is that not just incentive to run?
People are going to speed regardless of the law, I'm sure most people on here do on occasion. If you know you're in a quick car/bike and you know you're going to lose your licence or go to jail then why hang around?
Limiting vehicle to 100 or 120 is a stupid idea. Especially from someone wanting to supercharge a 2ZZ (I'm sure you can accelerate excessively enough to 100km/h without a supercharger).

Here's my opinion. And it's just that, MY opinion.

Some people will always break the law. They are just that retarded that they don't understand.
BUT, tougher, harsher penalties will sway a lot of those "casual" law breakers to reconsider their actions. And if the new penalties do sway them to follow the road rules (which haven't changed significantly in a reasonable while) that's a good thing.
It's hard for people to swallow these days. But as I see it we are now faced with two choices. When it comes to the roads we need either:
Unequivocal freedom of choice and action.
Or a total lack of choice and freedom.
Sadly, the way I see people driving these days, it has to be the latter. It seems to me, no one is making the right choices anymore.

As a random side note. I also personally think we need to change the attitude of our addressing of situations.
IMO, there is only one true cause of accidents on the road. And that is an ACT OF GOD. Everything else is an incident, normally caused by the meatsack behind the steering wheel.

[HZRDIZ]

Just found this interesting comment on trademe from a reseller:

Hi i have heard radar detecters are going to be band soon by nz police is this correct cheers posted by: sharuss1 (12 ) 11:24 am, Tue 8 Jan

Hi, that was part of a proposal put forward a few weeks ago. It has yet to pass approval, and is still potentially years away from being law, if it does pass approval. There's still much controversy over whether the use of Radar detectors speeds people up, or slows them down. In my experience, they slow people down in areas well policed (round schools for example), and are not the solution to stopping speeders. Australian studies prove this true. Cheers. 11:44 am, Tue 8 Jan

Soooooooo will it actually be a while before they ban them? The reseller seems confident that this proposal will not be approved.

Sorry i've only read bits and pieces of the proposal and this thread so this may have already been covered.

[BlakJak]

The reseller is protecting his business! Nothing more than that, IMHO.

[EVLGTZ]

Back on the demerits and speeding thing, someone said anything over 100kms and your licence is gone or jail etc as a suggestion, is that not just incentive to run?

Or possibly incentive not to speed??

[Stealer Of Souls]

The reseller is protecting his business! Nothing more than that, IMHO.

I second this. If I was without morals, I wouldn't confirm that something was about to be banned if I was selling it.
Of course... based upon sharuss1's ability to spell... I don't think much gets band anyway...

Here's what I don't get...
By my reasoning... Super strictly speaking... Radar detectors are illegal anyway. They are a device whose sole operating purpose is to circumvent or enable the circumvention of the law. As far as I can see the only reason to buy a radar detector is to allow you to exceed the posted speed limit without getting caught....
Bah... curly subject... Ban them... Or better yet... the police should just invest in a whole bunch of semi-permanent radar and laser emitters... Just like speed cameras... nothing better than the old "cry wolf" effect.

[slighty_sykotic]

Or better yet... the police should just invest in a whole bunch of semi-permanent radar and laser emitters... Just like speed cameras... nothing better than the old "cry wolf" effect.

Already being played with.

[barryogen]

Here's what I don't get...
By my reasoning... Super strictly speaking... Radar detectors are illegal anyway. They are a device whose sole operating purpose is to circumvent or enable the circumvention of the law. As far as I can see the only reason to buy a radar detector is to allow you to exceed the posted speed limit without getting caught....

They could have a legitimate usage if you are using it to simply be aware of "emergency vehicles", that was one of the arguements for allowing police radio scanners... they can have a legitimate usage... sure, most people use them for other things, but they can be used for it, so should be allowed.

Cars have no reason* to have the ability to go over 100km/h... but they can, and do regularly.

*except racing on track of course.