My Courtcase Today

[Ruffels]

just out of interest.. which magistrate court did you have to attend?

[_bobo_]

dandenong magistrate

[krzysiu]

dandenong magistrate

Ill be visiting there soon

[femno]

Ive been to court as well for sliding me ute in the wet one night lol, got off easy and I had to attend the "trauma" thing as well, its really quite pointless, thinking back now they made us write down 5 things we would do to imrpove our driving and/or attitude on the road, they were meant to mail it back to us 3 months later so see if we had been doing it...I never got it sent to me!!

Very efficient program me thinks!

[Pat O]

At least you didn't lose your license man, I couldn't imagine not being able to drive for 6-12 months. I lost my r32 in the wet the other day, it's now at the shop getting the rear cradle replaced, lucky no one else was around to see it at the time... so, lucky that didn't happen to you.

I feel like I've learnt my lesson now, I'll be more sensible on the roads from now on. I should really get some advanced driving courses under my belt, and start getting into some track days!

[_bobo_]

yeah i rekon close calls and people who have experienced bad things in cars really wakens them up to how they drive, atleast it has for me lol. Definately go for some driving courses as they are great learning environments and quite fun, Level 1 on murcotts isnt the greatest but its fun and you do learn stuff, level 2 is great fun =]

[adznight]

Yeah dont' get me wrong man it's happend to a lot of us, similar thing happend to me in an R33 which piss poor tyres but I ended up into a tree. Not much chop. I wasn't speeding either but I was going to fast around the corner in the wet so that's why I was saying you would have been going to quick for the conditions - ah well you learn from these mistakes huh

[ras1983]

Bahahaha! You got off so lightly and you don't even realise it!

[Sarumatix]

Best thing I ever did was put my car into a brick wall. Learnt so much from the experience that I'm now a very different driver. It's just frustrating that there isn't an easier way to learn some of these lessons .

[tets]

i have bald tires and a 2way and i drive very carefully when i need to grip drive in the wet.

car shouldnt slide out on u at the wrong places if you take care.

[rh1n0]

Worst thing I've ever done is in my '76 Galant which has no power at all.. In the wet, first time it had rained in months, started off from a red light when it turned green, turning right onto the main road and wasn't pushing it at all from memory and did a 180 and a bit. Luckily the car in the other turning lane made it past me and a car behind me had the brains to stop. Also lucky that it was two lanes.

[Birds]

Best thing I ever did was put my car into a brick wall. Learnt so much from the experience that I'm now a very different driver. It's just frustrating that there isn't an easier way to learn some of these lessons .

There is no better lesson than experience, it's just a shame that sometimes the experience can kill someone. I think it somewhat inevitable that most car enthusiasts have some sort of scare or traumatic accident in their younger driving life...almost all of us have stories of things gone wrong, whether behind the wheel or in the passenger seat. If you've had yours then consider yourself lucky that it didn't kill you and keep in mind that it could always have been worse. At age 18 I sent my car head first into a Pajero at a combined 100km/h - lesson learned about concentration and fatigue. I am a much better driver because of it. No regrets hey

On topic, if you lose control of your car in the wet because of the car and not your driving behaviour or an unnatural hazard...you are still very much at fault. Roads and speed limits are designed with the worst weather in mind. If you lose control of your vehicle and everyone else manages to drive through the area unscathed then you need to fix your car. If you have bald tyres replace them. The weigh up is circa $1000 for a good set of tyres vs your life. There are way too many cars out there with not enough rubber.

Blk_sz atleast you have the honesty and integrity to admit to your mistake and if you learn from it without killing yourself then you've come out better than some people who haven't yet made your mistake. Respect

[saff_cossie]

There is no better lesson than experience, it's just a shame that sometimes the experience can kill someone. I think it somewhat inevitable that most car enthusiasts have some sort of scare or traumatic accident in their younger driving life...almost all of us have stories of things gone wrong, whether behind the wheel or in the passenger seat. If you've had yours then consider yourself lucky that it didn't kill you and keep in mind that it could always have been worse. At age 18 I sent my car head first into a Pajero at a combined 100km/h - lesson learned about concentration and fatigue. I am a much better driver because of it. No regrets hey

On topic, if you lose control of your car in the wet because of the car and not your driving behaviour or an unnatural hazard...you are still very much at fault. Roads and speed limits are designed with the worst weather in mind. If you lose control of your vehicle and everyone else manages to drive through the area unscathed then you need to fix your car. If you have bald tyres replace them. The weigh up is circa $1000 for a good set of tyres vs your life. There are way too many cars out there with not enough rubber.

Blk_sz atleast you have the honesty and integrity to admit to your mistake and if you learn from it without killing yourself then you've come out better than some people who haven't yet made your mistake. Respect

Interesting, my understanding has always been speed limits have been designed with the worst drivers (doesn't mean worst but to take into account, cars, trucks, inexperienced drivers, surroundings of the road such as housing and schools) in mind but optimum weather conditions hence why you adjust your speed limit if the weather isn't good. I was always taught when learning to drive that you can drive at the speed limit in perfect conditions (visibility, road surface, other traffic, weather, surroundings and condition of the vehicle in which you are travelling).

[some_cs_student]

Interesting, my understanding has always been speed limits have been designed with the worst drivers (doesn't mean worst but to take into account, cars, trucks, inexperienced drivers, surroundings of the road such as housing and schools) in mind but optimum weather conditions hence why you adjust your speed limit if the weather isn't good. I was always taught when learning to drive that you can drive at the speed limit in perfect conditions (visibility, road surface, other traffic, weather, surroundings and condition of the vehicle in which you are travelling).

I agree, bad weather equals less speed in some cases, or at least a lot more distance between you and the car in front (some people still don't get that )

I mean, you don't want to be doing 100km/h while is fog and heavy rain, trying to take any kind of corner irrelevant of the speed limit...

[iseekool]

Interesting, my understanding has always been speed limits have been designed with the worst drivers (doesn't mean worst but to take into account, cars, trucks, inexperienced drivers, surroundings of the road such as housing and schools) in mind but optimum weather conditions hence why you adjust your speed limit if the weather isn't good. I was always taught when learning to drive that you can drive at the speed limit in perfect conditions (visibility, road surface, other traffic, weather, surroundings and condition of the vehicle in which you are travelling).

I've been told (when I was learning to drive) you should take of around 5 to 10 km/h and double your distances between you and the vehicle in front - if its wet.

[llama_au]

That's just common sense. In very heavy rain I'd easily be hanging back 10-20kmp/h under the speed limit in a 80kmp/h zone, and you'll find the majority of others will too. Drive to the conditions

[Birds]

Yes, speed limits have also been designed with the worst drivers in mind, but I was always taught they covered adverse conditions too. I mean, if they didn't, then the law is effectively giving a driver permission to drive faster than is safe to do so...when we aren't allowed to do this in perfect conditions. I think you'll find that driving a car in roadworthy condition (somewhat subjective), you will be able to safely (also subjective) do the speed limit on any road in any condition unless the road has been poorly marked. The law has to account for the fact that not everyone uses common sense when driving, so not everyone is going to slow down in the wet.

Be interesting to find out exactly what criteria is used to obtain a speed limit.

Edited May 9, 2009 by Birds

[Sarumatix]

Fairly certain it was mentioned on NS not long ago by a well know officer there, that he will happily book someone for doing the speed limit if he felt the conditions were not safe to do so, or words to that effect.

[VB-]

Ill be visiting there soon

X2

Bas: what did you get cahrged with to lose it for 12 months? dangerous/reckless?

i got my summons a couple of days ago, wasnt even gonna bother reading it, but something told me i should. theres like 5 seperate charges on there not looking good for me lol

[Birds]

Fairly certain it was mentioned on NS not long ago by a well know officer there, that he will happily book someone for doing the speed limit if he felt the conditions were not safe to do so, or words to that effect.

That's shithouse. It would be different if there was ice or oil or snow on the road, but if it were raining heavily and I got done for doing the speed limit in Victoria I would be contesting that one something bad.