Being Told To Open The Bonnet After Being Pulled Over

[180Roman]

ha ha, i live in Greensy too.

[GTR-N1]

Technically, you must open your bonnet though as they arent allowed to touch your car; tested this on one occasion

Policeman: could you please open your bonnet

Me: its ok, you can do it

Policeman: sorry, you must open it because i cannot touch your car.

and be polite when pulled over and take it as it comes.

So this means that if you can't remember where your bonnet release is located, Mr Plod can't touch it?

Polite? True! I feel it's always important to be polite!

...however, politeness might drive policeness to madness...

[DRD-00F]

Has anyone ever used the "I have lockable bonnet pins and I lost the keys to them today" excuse?

My mate was going to try this, and back it up with the idea that the work done on his engine is Intellectual Property and not to be viewed by anyone but the creator (mechanic) as it is a rather unique turbo/supercharger setup. That, and the mechanic won't give him the keys to the bonnet latches so he can't fark anything

Hasn't had a chance to test it yet cause his car isn't finished...

[Phatboy]

i would be going to jail before i let them touch my car.

You say that now....

My mate was going to try this, and back it up with the idea that the work done on his engine is Intellectual Property and not to be viewed by anyone but the creator (mechanic) as it is a rather unique turbo/supercharger setup. That, and the mechanic won't give him the keys to the bonnet latches so he can't fark anything

Hasn't had a chance to test it yet cause his car isn't finished...

Sounds like scraping the bottom of the barrel but if you bump into one of those cops who hasn't had much experience and doesn't fully know the extent of his legal boundaries with other people's property it might work. Best case scenario would be it allows you to avoid the on-spot defect fine, but I guess they can just send you an EPA letter later.

[tss]

Power to inspect vehicles comes under section 13(1) of the Road Safety Act 1986.

13 Power to inspect motor vehicles and trailers

(1) An authorised officer for the purposes of this section or a member of the police force may at any reasonable time inspect a motor vehicle or trailer which is being used on a highway if the officer or member believes on reasonable grounds that—

(a) the driver of the motor vehicle is not complying with this Act or the regulations in driving a motor vehicle of that kind; or

(b) the motor vehicle or trailer does not comply with this Act or the regulations.

What inspection means is covered in Section 13(4)

13(4) An inspection may include any tests which the inspecting officer or member of the police force decides to be appropriate.

Which means they can have you open the bonnet, if they want.

So basically if the officer believes on reasonable grounds that your vehicle has been modified in anyway, or doesn't comply with the act or regulations they can inspect your vehicle.

There is also no law stopping them from taking photos as evidence, and refusing to allow them to inspect the vehicle is an offence.

Edited July 31, 2009 by tss

[R31Nismoid]

If you wanted to get technical you could throw back this act to them.

Simply asking what "reasonable grounds" they have, and if they cannot provide reasonable grounds then you could quite legally refuse to let them

Thanks for posting that - i might actually print out that section.

Being i have an engineers cert for my car and i have not altered it since... this scenario could go down...

Officer: I want you to pop the bonnet

Me: What reasonable grounds do you have to suggest i am not complying with the Road Safety Act?

Officer: I suspect you have illegal modifications

Me: Officer, here is a copy of the engineering certificate, plus note the following modifications (etc etc). The cert means my car is approved under Victorian Law. I do not believe you reasonable grounds.

Obviously from there it could escalate to them accusing me of modifiying after the fact (being our stupid victorian engineers are only 'valid' for 28 days).

However... and i feel this is the key point, if the pop the bonnet and do NOT find anything, then i would imagine it could easily be taken to court as you provided sufficient evidence to disprove 'reasonable' grounds they suspected and then did not find a thing.

Would make for an interesting point. IMO most officers would probably be thrown by making such a statement, pulling out engineering certs, EPA noise tests and so on is quite a volley of defence to disprove any reasonable grounds they might have then and there.

[tss]

Police need "reasonable grounds" to stop you and do an inspection. Once this has been established, they can do any tests which the inspecting officer or member of the police force decides to be appropriate,

So if an officer sees you have modified wheels on your vehicle even although they might be legal, this is the "reasonable grounds" to do an inspection to see if the vehicle is complying with the act or regulations. Once they have established this "reasonable grounds" then they can do a complete inspection of the vehicle, which includes opening the bonnet if they want.

There is no requirement for an officer to tell you what "reasonable grounds" they had to do an inspection, although most will if you ask.

"reasonable grounds" to do an inspect is a very easy thing to get, basically if your vehicle has been modified in any way from stock form (illegally or legally) then that gives the officer "reasonable grounds" to inspect the vehicle to see if it complies with the Act or Regulation. As an example of some of the less obvious things are: Air fresher hanging from your rear vision mirror, GPS unit attached to your windscreen, legal tinted windows, stickers on your windows, mobile phone ariels, after market head lights, bull/nudge bars. Any type of non stock wheels/tyres, after market seats.

R31Nismoid, your scenario might work on some general duties officers, but certainly wouldn't work on a TMU officer, if fact, it would most likely make the situation worst for you. The side of the road is never the place to be smart or argue with an officer, it will most likely only make the situation worst for you. If you disagree with what has happened, it's best to take the matter up at a later date. (eg. court/formal complaint)

[R31Nismoid]

Yes but it is not longer reasonable grounds if the modifications they are quoting are legal.

I'm dubious as to suspicion alone.

My car is basically legal anyhow, so i can and will take it up on the roadside i can assure you. I'll hold the officers up for an hour while they get a more senior officer down as i always carry my engineers certs in the car. Gone are the days of me being civil, long gone.

[Astro Bear]

Power to inspect vehicles comes under section 13(1) of the Road Safety Act 1986.

13 Power to inspect motor vehicles and trailers

(1) An authorised officer for the purposes of this section or a member of the police force may at any reasonable time inspect a motor vehicle or trailer which is being used on a highway if the officer or member believes on reasonable grounds that—

(a) the driver of the motor vehicle is not complying with this Act or the regulations in driving a motor vehicle of that kind; or

(b) the motor vehicle or trailer does not comply with this Act or the regulations.

What inspection means is covered in Section 13(4)

13(4) An inspection may include any tests which the inspecting officer or member of the police force decides to be appropriate.

Which means they can have you open the bonnet, if they want.

So basically if the officer believes on reasonable grounds that your vehicle has been modified in anyway, or doesn't comply with the act or regulations they can inspect your vehicle.

There is also no law stopping them from taking photos as evidence, and refusing to allow them to inspect the vehicle is an offence.

What if you weren't driving on a highway? Would this section of the act be null and void?

[adis]

Man whats going on withh these coppss???

I never ever had any problems with cops....

Last three day, complete turnabout.

2 days ago, random check....didnt think much of it

1 day ago, driving normally as always, through my suburb, police does a you bolt and pulls me over...Convo:

Me "woow that was a quick you turn, you were after me..."

Cop "hehe what do you expect driving a car like this?"

Me'Ah come on not that bad " -checked my license and breatho.

today-Driving normally on monash, pulled up for what i dont know...canary, too low.

4 years never had an issue..and than this.

Edited August 1, 2009 by adis

[llama_au]

What if you weren't driving on a highway? Would this section of the act be null and void?

A highway covers every publicly accessible road including carparks.

[Astro Bear]

A highway covers every publicly accessible road including carparks.

Got ya, thanks mate.

[baron25]

Man whats going on withh these coppss???

I never ever had any problems with cops....

Last three day, complete turnabout.

2 days ago, random check....didnt think much of it

1 day ago, driving normally as always, through my suburb, police does a you bolt and pulls me over...Convo:

Me "woow that was a quick you turn, you were after me..."

Cop "hehe what do you expect driving a car like this?"

Me'Ah come on not that bad " -checked my license and breatho.

today-Driving normally on monash, pulled up for what i dont know...canary, too low.

4 years never had an issue..and than this.

Sounds like you got blacklisted for some reason. Or just had a really poor run of luck.

Back in my parents town, there was a guy with a quite similar skyline to mine (colour, age, bodywork, etc). I went back for the first time in months, and was pulled over within a day - Officer warned me about something 'I did the other day, and if i did it again i'd lose my licence", wasn't until he checked the address on my licence he realised his mistake.

[dkbcleaner]

Yeah thats right, the courts don't like it when when cases come before them with actual evidence collected by officers of the law.

No matter how hard you try

You can't stop me now

No matter how hard you try

You can't stop me now

Yes, my skin is black

But that's no reason to hold me back

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I have wants and desires just like you

So move on aside cause i'm a-comin' through

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Stop me now

No matter how hard you try you can't stop me now.

Yes, your skin is white

Does that make you right

Walk on and think about it, think about it

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This is a message, a message to y'all

Together we stand divided we fall

Black is a color just like white

Tell me how can a color determine whether

You're wrong or right

We all have our faults yes we do

So look in your mirror (Look in the mirror)

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Two eyes, a nose and a mouth just like me.

Oh your eyes are open but you refuse to see

The laws of society were made for both

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Because of my color I struggle to be free

Sticks and stones may break my bones

But in the end you're gonna see my friend

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^^Hard lost C**t^^

[R33-GTST]

In the end of the day, The police need to boost the funding, didn't you guys hear that they're taking 100 police officers from the CBD because it is costing too much to have the police officers there, with all the overtime and other extra awards.

Face it guys, they cannot make money from junkies in Footscray and other hot spot junkie area's, were over regulated, and the regulations are for silly things when there is thousands of other problems in today's society where the law is weak on.

[GTR-N1]

Which means they can have you open the bonnet, if they want.

A point I'm trying to make is...

"What if you can't remember where the bonnet release is?" OR...

"What if you don't know where it is?" OR...

"What if your bonnet release is fixed in position with a coach screw"...

Does Mr/s Plod have the authority to touch your car and release it himself/herself???????????????

I DOUBT THIS VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because, once you release the bonnet, you are in effect giving him/her the 'authority' to inspect.

[gdogzgtr]

If someone refused to open bonnet for me and had attitude I would simply send them in for full epa test. I don't have time now days to even bother with doing much traffic stuff. I only pull someone over if they have committed offence that I probably should fine them for or generally I check cars with crooks in that I am more interested in finding drugs/weapons or stolen goods. If that's no good it's always good to NOU their vehicle.

Members from city leaving as the extra 100-150 police on weekends on overtime shifts on their days off. Previous to that the city was controlled by about 15 police for the same periods. It will happen again as violence will dramatically increase once the police presence dies off again.

[R33-GTST]

If someone refused to open bonnet for me and had attitude I would simply send them in for full epa test. I don't have time now days to even bother with doing much traffic stuff. I only pull someone over if they have committed offence that I probably should fine them for or generally I check cars with crooks in that I am more interested in finding drugs/weapons or stolen goods. If that's no good it's always good to NOU their vehicle.

Members from city leaving as the extra 100-150 police on weekends on overtime shifts on their days off. Previous to that the city was controlled by about 15 police for the same periods. It will happen again as violence will dramatically increase once the police presence dies off again.

True, then the media will be on it again to stop the violence in the city again, allowing enthusiasts to cruise in peace for a brief moment.

[R31Nismoid]

lol they already are on the drop in force numbers.

The past 6 months has seen the problems go up, even WITH the extra police, and now they take them away... smart move Gov't

[tss]

A point I'm trying to make is...

"What if you can't remember where the bonnet release is?" OR...

"What if you don't know where it is?" OR...

"What if your bonnet release is fixed in position with a coach screw"...

Does Mr/s Plod have the authority to touch your car and release it himself/herself???????????????

I DOUBT THIS VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr Plod does have the authority to touch your car and do it themselves, but as gdogzgtr has said, why bother wasting your time. You would just send them for a full EPA, defect their vehicle, and fine them.

I have been also asked in a PM (answering it here as I don't have enough post to PM yet) if they can unbolt parts and disconnect things from the engine. The answer to this is, they can, but wouldn't normally bother, if there is something that doesn't look right or doesn't belong, why waste your time and risk damaging something when you can just get the driver to get a full roadworthy or EPA test.

Because, once you release the bonnet, you are in effect giving him/her the 'authority' to inspect.

As I said earlier, they already have the 'authority' to inspect; you don't need further 'authority' to inspect under the bonnet, once reasonable grounds have been established to inspect the vehicle in the first place.

Edited August 2, 2009 by tss