Another raw deal from the RTA?

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By Anthony Crawford | July 05th, 2011

Up until recently my wife was one of those extra safe drivers who had never had a traffic offence fine in more than 23 years behind the wheel. It’s fair to say that she’s a stickler for the speed limit, which at times can be rather frustrating as a passenger. Overtaking slower vehicles (yes, there are plenty slower than her) is indeed a rare event, but as far as safe driving goes, she’s a gold medalist.

So, it was with shock horror when I opened an RTA letter addressed to her (yes we open each other’s mail at our place) and discovered that she had been fined for doing 60km/h in a school zone. She, as a mother of two, was even more shocked than I and was downright ashamed to have broken the law in what was clearly a brief lapse of concentration; her first such mistake in more than two decades. I told her that with such a clean record she should take it to court and plead guilty, but cite her ultra-clean driving record and she might be let off with a caution. Magistrates let such people off all the time, why not her?

She wouldn’t have a bar of it. As far as she was concerned, she broke the law and would pay the fine and cop it sweet. “But what about the $300+? That can pay the food bill for over a week,” I said. “Too bad, I’m paying it,” was her reply.

The point of this story is that she won’t just lose those points for three years, that’s what you thought right? No, you actually don’t get those points back until a period of three years and four months has passed. The RTA says that it’s a precautionary measure in case you get fined during the processing period of returning those points to your licence. Why on earth wouldn’t the process of returning points be instantaneous, they use computers at the RTA don’t they?

While this information was clarified on the phone this morning via the RTA call centre, we also emailed the office of the Minister for Roads and Ports only to receive an automated reply that our inquiry would be answered within 21 days.

Do you think you should receive your points back exactly three years from the date of the offence, or are you happy for the RTA to hold them back another four months just for safe keeping?

http://Frosty Hicks

The 4 months seem rather trivial.

In my opinion, if the RTA and Law Enforcement agencies have the ability to take away points for dangerous driving, why not have the ability to give them back for safe driving.

Oh that’s right, it’s easier to fine people and dock points through automated revenue making machines.

Andrew M

They do give them back for safe driving,
Prove yourself for 3 years and 4 months and they give them back
Damian

The RTA doesn’t “take” points from motorists. Motorists actually “accrue” demerit points for applicable offences.

Furthermore, the State Debt Recovery Office will not grant a caution for an offence committed in a school zone unless a motorist has a 25 year clear driving record.

Pay the fine.

Pez

No speeding, no fine…

drama queen

Dont get caught, Dont get fined…..

vid_ghost

Once you cop one fine, you no longer have a clean record and can neve have an easy run in court.. also some insurance discounts are lost do to fines.. you forgot to point that out! .. $300 + whatever more the insurance will cost.

ST

Exactly. However small and trivial the fine may be, there’s an extra cost to insurance if you decide to change insurers.

However, when your renewal comes up, they won’t ask if you’ve incurred any additional fines from the previous year. Playing by the book to the dot, she should declare this right now to your insurer and pay the additional premium.

I’d say she should have thrown that $300 into a defensive driving course.

Andrew M

Its actually your duty of disclosure to inform your insurance company to any changes that have occured to your vehicle or driving and criminal history

Andrew M

Insurance companies only care about the last 5 years.

If you have an infringement against you, you have a proven increase in risk

Gibbo

You are dealing with the RTA here, how can you expect any form of common sense or logical actions on their behalf?
Roadtard

Mrs Crawford, would you like to throw some money my way?
JEKYL & HYDE

anthony,

if she appeals,she would almost certainly get off.i think 10 years without a fine would do it.if i was her husband,i think the threat of death might well of been issued.why pay up if you don’t need to.better donating the $300 to favourite charity,than give to do ms gillard & co…

JEKYL & HYDE

oh,and who wears the pants anthony?…

laurie

lol and hoons who do street racing and get caught get a slap on the hand by the Magistrate
KD

RTA = Revenue Taking Authority

They have absolutely nothing to do with any form of road safety!

Andrew M

Um, policing people 50% over the speed limit in a school zone is a good measure in my book

Themenz

Oh snap!

I see what your saying Andrew M, but it is so easily done. I mean I don’t defend speeding in a school zone by any means, but at the same time we all have lapses in concentration and whilst a police officer might have used judgment to assess if the driver was slowing down at the time of the incident, cameras do not. I have also found that many speed cameras in place in school zones are often in areas where the speed limit is generally much higher then 40kph. So again it is easy to see how someone could easily stray into a 40 zone doing 60 if the overall area was say a 70 zone…

Andrew M

Maybe it is easily done, but 20K over is still 20K over.
I would argue that most accidents ocur from lack of concentration and driver error. 20K over is a fair lapse in concentration, and especially in a school zone.

Its not like we are debating a little bit over, this is 50% over.
Stop kicking cans and pay the fine is my opinion.

What are we arguing here??

Taylor

If all the money from fines went to Hospitals, schools and the roads, I wouldn’t have a problem paying when i get a fine, but it just goes to State Govt,the Govt says it’s all in the name of road safety and saving lives, err no it’s just greed ;-(

James

But what does the state government pay for?

Glen

The 40 kph school speed limit should only apply when students are present. It should be about safety not revenue.

Andrew M

the 40kph does only apply when students are present.

The 40kph zones dont apply on weekends or public or school holidays.

The 40kph is only in effect for the 1.5hrs (or so) surrounding the arrival and departures of school students

save it for the track

40km/h school zones in NSW apply on ‘gazetted’ school days, between the times shown on the signs, generally 8am-930am and 230pm-4pm, with a few exceptions in some areas with pretty signs in red writing. Students do not need to be present. As it is, many are caught while students ARE present.
.
I would pretty much bet that the person in question would likely get a section 10 if they took it to court. However, each local Court and Magistrate is different and there are no guarantees. The first step for anyone with a clean traffic record is to send a letter asking for a caution, before the court or payment route. generally as others have mentioned 10 years clear record usually sees a caution from RTA.
I’ve never heard of this 3 years 4 months caper.

Aussie bender

A section 10? Care to elaborate?

Thrillhouse

Why don’t you try using that new Google searchy site we’ve heard so much about?

Michael

Does anyone think we need school zones for high schools?
If someone 12 years old can’t cross a road what future do they have as an adult!

KD

They should also remove school zones from those schools that have fences running down either side of the road. If a child is dumb enough to climb a fence to cross a major road they deserve whats coming.

Noel

LOL KD, you are right though, why would we save a human that will inevitable breed and dilute the gene pool further? Stupidity is running rampant already.

Monster

Never mind, learn the lesson and fix your eyes only on the speedometer next time when you drive by, and check for any kids under your car when you get home.

As for that $300+ fine, that could have gone to sponsor a child in Ethiopia for a year and perhaps save a life, but that is not the point really is it.
Robbo

When are they going to invent cameras that catch people who don’t indicate, can’t stay in one lane, can’t use an roundabout, drive too slowly, apply makeup in cars, talk on phones, tailgate etc etc??
Oh wait, all those thing are no where near as dangerous as doing 5km over the imposed (sometimes inappropriate) limit.

Noel

Hear Hear Robbo. The RTA take the path of least resistance. There are ways of using cameras for other offences but they are too labour intensive and it means there would have to be some actually policing. As an example, mobile speed cameras could be set to take a photo of every passing car and a person (not a computer) could review each of these photos to look for people without seat belts on, using mobile phones, applying make-up etc etc, of course this means more fines and more revenue however in the end there would be so many motorists (or cash cows as I’m sure the RTA like to call them) off the road, revenue would be dramatically reduced. The RTA don’t want that, it is just not about road deaths and safety, it’s all about revenue.

http://electric-vehicles-cars-bikes.blogspot.com/ Paul

No use even discussing change, it’s the RTA, they CAN and DO what ever they f&*%ing want!
D Is For Drive

Yeah they use computers at the RTA they use Apple Mac’s