A Townsville man has copped a $146 fine for driving 1km/h over the speed limit. Jake Cassidy, 21, was pulled over on December 23 and accused of clocking 61km/h in a 60km/h zone. Mr Cassidy was driving a company car on a delivery and is not convinced he was 1km/h over. The police officer did not use a speed gun to catch Mr Cassidy but measured the speed by driving behind him.

"He told me I was speeding and I said I wasn't and it kind of went back and forth," he said. Mr Cassidy claimed that, during the argument, the officer told him the fine was a case of revenue raising.

Yesterday after being contacted by The Courier-Mail for comment, police said Mr Cassidy's fine was "being reviewed". Mr Cassidy then received a call from police telling him the fine had been cancelled and offering him an apology. Last night, police were unable to say what triggered the change but added officers would continue "scrutiny of all road users" to ensure safety of the public. "Kirwan police will continue to maintain vigilance towards road safety through the Christmas break and into the New Year," they said. "The circumstances around the issuing of this particular infringement notice have been reviewed and the decision to cancel the infringement has been approved by senior police."

Mr Cassidy said he was going to attend the police station to question the fine before he received the call. "They just said the officer was in the wrong and they were cancelling the ticket," he said. He said the apology made "a little bit" of difference, but he questioned whether the fine would have been waived had they not been contacted by The Courier-Mail. Mr Cassidy said he had lost his licence for speeding in 2012 and said the incident forced him to rethink his attitude.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/townsville-man-fined-146-for-doing-1km...


If you're stopped for doing 5km/h or more over the speed limit then sure, you should cop it on the chin. If you have an unblemished driving record, you might write to the SDRO (if in NSW) and you may get off with a caution. Do 10-15km/h over or more and you've got precious little in the way of excuses and no chance of a caution. But a mere 1km/h over? I don't know a single person who can perfectly maintain a speed without going over/under it a little bit, especially on downhill stretches of road. Doing 80km/h or more, yeah you can use your cruise control (if you have it) in many situations. But at 60km/h it's probably not safe and not practical as it's more than likely this speed zone is in a built-up area with more traffic stopping and starting than you'd see on a highway at 100km/h. I don't think this driver even deserved to be pulled over and let off with a caution. He should've been ignored by the Police Officer in my opinion as he doesn't seem to have been driving dangerously. Besides that, Police vehicles do not have calibrated speedometers, whereas your car and mine does. So how can a Police Officer accurately judge your speed by following you, even assuming that he/she is able to PRECISELY match your EXACT speed? I'd wager that an accurate (and legally enforceable) speed reading using this method would be nigh on impossible, hence the use of radar.

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 8:21pm:


I'm pretty sure they have been when speed cameras were not working properly.

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 8:21pm:


1km per hour over the speed limit Greg??

Thats the point.

This is revenue raising. Nothing more.

Speed cameras are supposed to be about road safety, not collecting cash on unsuspecting motorists.

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 8:29pm:


http://www.policespeedcameras.info/index.php/en/speed-camera-news-world-news-australia/australian-top-speed-camera-news-stories/victoria-speed-camera-news-stories-top-stories/364-victoria-speeding-fines-revoked-after-camera-fault.html
Now in that were all wrongly pinged fines revoked?

There's plenty for you to find with google if you feel the need.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1121730.htm

Google: australia speed camera found faulty

Quote:


That in itself tells me that the police officer was having a bad day. At least the police cancelled the ticket. End of story.

If you have an analog speedo, just try leaning forward slightly and see how much difference the changing parallax makes. I always use my GPS to give me a true speed because its more accurate than my speedo. 

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 8:37pm:


Nothing against revenue, it's how fairly it's gained. 1k over is pretty unfair, that's coming from someone who has had only 3 speeding tickets in their driving life and not even a parking ticket in 25 years. If you wanted the revenue to be fairly raised you would also base fines on income, not statutory amounts.

Edit: I've never had a parking ticket, BTW and it's probably more like 30 years since my last speeding ticket.

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 8:48pm:


I didn't take you for one that takes such a black and white view of the world Mr Peccary. That's tea party style. There's a word that comes in handy here, reasonable. If the person could reasonably presume they were doing 60, they should be treated as such. It's not as if 1k makes any difference IRL. We are supposed to be rational beings and should attempt to be reasonable beings also.

Just be thankfull they don't hand out fines for being a f#ckin wanker peccary, you'd be broke within a week.