Contesting fines

[Bipolar]

So I was on my way to work this morning and got done for failing to stop at a Stop sign. I broke the law - there's no question about that. What is shit about it is the law when applied to my situation.

I was approaching a T-intersection behind a Peugeot wagon. He'd indicated to go right so I veered left and indicated to turn left.


You can see from my MS Paint skillz bro that there's cars parked up the street, making it hard to see if anyone's coming from the right. The Peugeot dude stopped before I did, checked there was no one coming and took off to the right. As I was pulling up I saw this and didn't bother stopping.


To me, the safer option was this because even when you stop there it's pretty hard to see up the street because of the angle the parked cars are at. Stopping and launching is dangerous even obeying the road rules IMO. The the dude in front of me had his whole family in the car and wasn't gonna pull out in front of a moving vehicle, and even if he did it would've hit him before me.

If I was blatantly being a dick I would deserve the fine and cop it on the chin, but I think I chose the safer option for my circumstances, and getting fined for what I thought was the right thing to do is poo.

So who else has gotten a fine and contested it in court, and was it worth it?

[M.666]

that sucks to hear todd. ive heard a few stories man and taking it to court is definately a loss, it usually ends up costing way more than the couple-o-hungee that you pay for the fine in the first place. in your case theres no doubt that you would lose because of the simple fact that you broke the law by running the sign regardless of the situation. bloody po po

[holmsy]

problem with the law.

its black and white.
you either broke the law or you didnt.
there is no common sence that comes into it.

[OZBMX]

don't waste your breath mate, the law isn't about safety, it's about the bottom dollar. Your argument won't be considered valid.

[TheMonty]

Where the stop line is, there is a marked line that you can creep forward to after you have stopped at the stop line. So in other words, you can stop at the line, and creep forward to the dotted line to see around the cars (somewhat).

[FordFairmont]

whats the problem here? ........ "i didnt bother stopping"

all you had to do was let the peugeot go, then roll up to the stop sign, then stop for a split second, then drive off...... easy !!

i stop at every stop sign that way, no matter if its in the middle of nowhere and theres no cars coming, because thats what you gotta do, and half the time when you do roll throught the sign, the **** are waiting right there to book you

[iCER]

its like a few months back i said if anyone here can help me out with a parking fine. i parked in a swinburn hawthotn permit zone for 3 minutes. just to pick up a part from computer store. I asked if anyone here had a swinburn permit. I was told to GGF and suck it up and pay for it. Expect no sympothy on this forum.

unfortunatlly, a give way is a roll, where a STOP sign is a STOP sign. Sucks balls i know.

[Rollin]

holmsy has hit the nail on the head. While you didn't do anything unsafe, you did do something illegal

I probably would have done the exact same thing - my reasoning would be the same as yours, I'd expect old mate wouldn't pull out in front of a car that might hit him, and even if he did, the car is going to hit him and not me

3 points? Gaids.

[krisisdog]

Out of interest sake, where was the copper that booked you sitting?

[ELXR_96]

Out of interest sake, where was the copper that booked you sitting?

jerking it in a corner like the usually are

[donno]

What's your driving history like? Been ages since you last had an infringement\still had all your points? You could try doing what other have done to get off speeding tickets and write to the commissioner(?). Just say you have up until then had an exemplary driving record, admit that you have technically broken the law, but let them know of your reasoning for doing so and that you believed it to be a safer option.

[OED666]

You HOON!!!

Dude, I think your done for in this case. It's a hard case to fight the fact you didn't stop, when you had to. I can see your point in not stopping though.

[rhys]

As donno said you dont have to go to court. There should be an address called civic compliance on the back. Write a real sucky letter to them saying you know you did it wrong and that you understand potential risks therefore wont do it again.

The letter is not allowed to assessed by traffic police as they issued you the fine so an independent police officer will review the case.

I got out of speeding fine by doing this. I just said I was in an unfamiliar area (which I was) and i thought the speed limit was 10 higher than it was.

Different government body, but my girlfriend got out of a parking fine by writing a letter to council.

Its black and white that I was speeding (7 over) and that my girlfriend parked in a 2 hour zone but if you appear remorseful i think youve got a good chance of getting your fine taken back and getting the points back too.

[Bipolar]

Expect no sympothy on this forum.

I don't want any, I just want logical answers as to whether or not to contest it because I was sitting on the fence about it. And now I have the answer: no.

3 points? Gaids.

Nah just a fine. If it was 2 months ago there's no way I would've been able to afford it.

Out of interest sake, where was the copper that booked you sitting?

jerking it in a corner like the usually are

Bingo.

What's your driving history like? Been ages since you last had an infringement\still had all your points? You could try doing what other have done to get off speeding tickets and write to the commissioner(?). Just say you have up until then had an exemplary driving record, admit that you have technically broken the law, but let them know of your reasoning for doing so and that you believed it to be a safer option.

I haven't had a fine for 6 years. I might do that and see how I go. Cheers Donno and Rhys.

[holmsy]

hey man i have a letter i got off a mate thats a cop
it got me out of my first speeding fine. ill send it to ya if i can find it.

[Jake]

If you're not going to loose your license over this I wouldn't bother. If you were then you could say you might loose your job and stuff and they usually (depending on severity of offense, in this case not very) let you off with something like a driver offenders program instead.

Just pay the fine, its not even a demerit offense. If you can't afford the fine you can ring up about it and say you're on a low income and can only afford $10 a week or something, pay it off over a year... I'm doing it now with $1000 worth of fines