Right well pissed off I am [Archive]

jrandom

29th October 2003, 08:02

This takes the cake.

Coming down off the bridge this morning heading north, HP car off the right-hand side of the motorway. Minor 'oh shit' moment while checking speedo. Go past, check mirror, cop car blissfully stationary. Look up just in time to see large bundle of plastic sheeting or something in front of bike in the middle of fast lane.

Major 'oh shit' moment.

Swerve, but clip right footpeg and brake lever. Break off corner of footpeg mount, leaving peg and lever dangling by a cable. Ride into work cursing.

My point? The HP guy was quite happily sitting not 50 metres from that bundle of crap in the middle of the fast lane, scanning traffic as it went past. How hard would it have been to wait for a clear spot and retrieve the bundle? It's not like it was way out in the middle of the motorway.

Where the f$#* are the traffic safety pundits now, eh? Speed kills. Oh, sure.

Lou Girardin

29th October 2003, 08:10

F***ing lazy bastard. Write to Police headquarters about it and make sure you say you want to make a complaint. That'll send it to Police Complaints Authority and tie the prick up in paperwork for a while.
Lou

danb

29th October 2003, 08:30

Originally posted by Lou Girardin
F***ing lazy bastard. Write to Police headquarters about it and make sure you say you want to make a complaint. That'll send it to Police Complaints Authority and tie the prick up in paperwork for a while.
Lou

Personally I couldent be botherd - anything you send to the cops goes straight in the bin. I know this as a fact as i know people who are cops and from previous experence with family.

What?

29th October 2003, 08:58

Originally posted by danb
Personally I couldent be botherd - anything you send to the cops goes straight in the bin. I know this as a fact as i know people who are cops and from previous experence with family.

Which is why you put complaints in writing and cc them to the minister of pleece and your local MP. Believe me, it works.:niceone:

danb

29th October 2003, 09:32

Originally posted by What?
Which is why you put complaints in writing and cc them to the minister of pleece and your local MP. Believe me, it works.:niceone:

If you say so :confused:

What?

29th October 2003, 09:51

I understand your apparent scepticism, Danb. I have recently been through the process of making a complaint to the district court. It seemed a waste of time until my MP and the minister of Justice's office got involved, then things hapened.

I guess the point is that MP's need to be seen to be doing something, and this entails us (the voters) giving them something to do. Leave them to their own devices and they go making new, pointless legislation just to kill the boredom.:eek:

130wide

29th October 2003, 14:28

Had a similar thing happen when riding up the coast, about 8 of us going pretty quick up to TeKaha rounded a corner to find 4 horses in the middle of the road. The cop that was following us, that we didn't know must have went pass them also just to try and catch us, he only got tail end charlie (zx6r) for 170ks the rest of us were long gone.
Now that's look after joe public, get the speedster but don't worry about mister and misses and the kids in the van hitting the horses.

Motoracer

29th October 2003, 14:36

So how did you guys avoid hitting the horses then? Did all 9 of yous (including the cop) have near misses with them? :shit:

Lou Girardin

29th October 2003, 14:37

I understand your cynicism danb. But trust me, I've just done it. Any 'complaint' about the Police goes automatically to PCA.
Lou

GPz

29th October 2003, 15:04

the more people you write to the harder it is for them to put your complaint in the rubbish bin, plus as said before, the more paperwork they do the less time they can spend revenue collecting

750Y

29th October 2003, 15:21

there are 2 separate things going on here.
1: You weren't observant/concentrating enough to anticipate a stationary object in Your path.
2: the cop appeared to be doing nothing about the hazard.

I understand your frustration toward the cop not sorting out the hazardous situation & I'm not trying to be an ass, but seriously, PAY ATTENTION You could've been hurt. I Think You're lucky.

Car Dodger

29th October 2003, 15:33

Originally posted by jrandom
This takes the cake.

Coming down off the bridge this morning heading north, HP car off the right-hand side of the motorway. Minor 'oh shit' moment while checking speedo. Go past, check mirror, cop car blissfully stationary. Look up just in time to see large bundle of plastic sheeting or something in front of bike in the middle of fast lane.

Major 'oh shit' moment.

Swerve, but clip right footpeg and brake lever. Break off corner of footpeg mount, leaving peg and lever dangling by a cable. Ride into work cursing.

My point? The HP guy was quite happily sitting not 50 metres from that bundle of crap in the middle of the fast lane, scanning traffic as it went past. How hard would it have been to wait for a clear spot and retrieve the bundle? It's not like it was way out in the middle of the motorway.

Where the f$#* are the traffic safety pundits now, eh? Speed kills. Oh, sure.

Stink one dude.
I had to take the Van to work today because after spending 3 hours last night working on the bike, I had forgotten to reset the float levels and in my haste this morning snaped the cabel cradle.

Car Dodger

29th October 2003, 15:41

I rang the police awhile ago about this fugwit who's main buzz was to try and kill himself & everybody else on the road on a daily basis. She took the details of the car but none from me which I thought was odd, because I thought they would need that as referrence to prosicute.:o

jrandom

29th October 2003, 17:30

Originally posted by 750Y
there are 2 separate things going on here.
1: You weren't observant/concentrating enough to anticipate a stationary object in Your path.
2: the cop appeared to be doing nothing about the hazard.

I understand your frustration toward the cop not sorting out the hazardous situation & I'm not trying to be an ass, but seriously, PAY ATTENTION You could've been hurt. I Think You're lucky.

Don't get me wrong, I think I'm lucky too, and I should have been more careful. I had only just moved across both of the other lanes from the left, and hadn't had the lane in front of me under observation for any length of time. It's unfortunate that moving into the lane coincided with sighting the traffic cop.

In future I'll be paying more attention to the road itself, as opposed to just taking scanning vehicle positions (sigh). I guess I just got het up because if the cop hadn't been there to freak me out I *would* have been concentrating and noticed the heap of junk in the middle of the lane, ie, the thing that caused me to not detect the hazard in time was the thing that was supposed to 'contribute to my safety'.

Still, life's a learning experience and all that. I think I'll store up a bit of happy good karma by not trying to make trouble for the cop in question... <_<

130wide

29th October 2003, 19:49

Motoracer - it's called, luck.
Sometimes you have it, some times you don't.

wkid_one

29th October 2003, 20:40

COmplaint is the way to go - their role is to not only monitor traffic but ensure safe driving conditions.......clearly this wasn't the case.  Maybe he thought his coffee would go cold if he did that

Slim

29th October 2003, 22:25

Was there actually an officer in the car?!?!??

This might seem like a silly question, but they park empty police cars on both approaches to the bridge all the time. I've seen it.

Lou Girardin

30th October 2003, 07:18

Empty car, empty head = same result.
Lou

jrandom

30th October 2003, 08:43

Originally posted by Slim
This might seem like a silly question, but they park empty police cars on both approaches to the bridge all the time. I've seen it.

I'm pretty sure I saw someone in the driver's seat. In any case the car was parked up on the right-hand side of the northbound lanes, ie, in the space against the median barrier. So if the cop had wanted to park it there unattended he would have had an interesting run back to the donut shop :D

Funnily enough I was going through the Land Transport Act on legislation.govt.nz yesterday (for an unrelated reason) and noticed s21 (pasted here):

21.Enforcement officers to ameliorate hazards

If an enforcement officer, acting in the course of his or her official duties, becomes aware of the existence on a road of a hazard to the safety of traffic (whether arising from the nature or condition of a road or otherwise), the officer must—

(a)Take such steps as may be reasonably practicable to eliminate or reduce the hazard; and

(b)If it is not reasonably practicable for the officer to eliminate the hazard, as soon as practicable report the existence of the hazard to the road controlling authority with a view to eliminating the hazard.

Hmmm.

Lou Girardin

30th October 2003, 15:06

Quote that on your complaint.
Lou

Marmoot

30th October 2003, 18:40

Clearly a breach of clause (a).

Quote this:
"It would be prudent for the police officer in question to turn on his lights and make such a warning for approaching traffic of impending hazzard ahead in order to slow them down and reduce the potential of the danger."

You might even get a compensation from the police once they can squeeze some juice from the one that caused the hazzard.

marty

30th October 2003, 19:14

do i detect some ex-ministry venom happenin in here???

Moffy

30th October 2003, 19:24

Originally posted by 130wide
Motoracer - it's called, luck.
Sometimes you have it, some times you don't. :argh:

First time in this forum and I come across a subject dear to my heart. A while ago, after having not long returned to riding, I got passed up the inside ( thats on the left) of the road I live in by a prick in a Merc doing about 80k. Missed me by inches and gave me a hell of a scare. Got the plate number and was straght on the blower and then lodged a formal complaint the next morning. .... 6 months later the Police write to me saying they have had time to follow up the complaint and therefore nothing will be done. Since then I seen the guy around a couple of times, always going like a lunatic. 

Is there any justice??

 

lanesplitter

30th October 2003, 19:52

Originally posted by Moffy
:argh:

Is there any justice??

 

maybe the justice is in your hands now moff....

:angry2: :bash: :ar15: :mad: then :calm:

Moffy

30th October 2003, 20:02

Your right. After 6 or so months I've cooled off.

Got pinged the other day heading to work on the Southern Motorway for lane splitting when the traffic was almost stationary. You just can't win. Over the last couple of months I've had a couple of cases where the cops have actually waved me through. Jolly decent of them I thought. Then you get one......

Does anyone know if there is any official position on lane splitting. Personal, done with care, I think it's a good idea, certainly gets you places faster.

 

 

wkid_one

30th October 2003, 20:07

Refer lane splitting thread - basically - okay if they ARE stationary - not if they aren't

MikeL

30th October 2003, 20:17

anyone know if there is any official position on lane splitting.

I seem to recall one or two comments made on the subject by members of this forum. Unfortunately there seems to be a distinct lack of agreement on the legality of it, probably due to the fact that the road code doesn't specifically mention it, so you have to try to draw some conclusions from the regulations on passing and driving/riding within a lane. One thing seems clear: you're more likely to get away with it if the traffic is stopped. Bottom line is: most of us do it, and keep a wary eye out for the boys in blue, and hope that if we do get seen it's by a cop with a liberal interpretation of the rules.

Moffy

30th October 2003, 20:27

Seems, like with everything we do on a bike, we need to be careful when we lane split. Gotta feel sorry for the guys in tin tops stuck in the queues. Oh well at least they can listen to the radio and be told how bad the traffic is.

Marmoot

30th October 2003, 21:16

If you complain about "petty incident" (e.g. crashes where nobody got hurt), it's different than if you complain about police to the police complaint authority.

The police complaint is basically like the military police (well, in concept anyway)..... although I also suspect they will try to back
each other up as much as possible.

Anyway, for the "petty incident", the police won't even follow up my mate's crash where it is VERY evident that he was hit from behind, saying "there is no evidence" simply because his version and the other people's version are different. Duh, like it is strange? surely the other persons will try to defend himself (even if it includes lying), don't you agree?

I had similar treatment from Auckland City Council for abuse I got from one of their Stationary Vehicles Tax Revenue Gathering Department.

Something wrong with this government!!! :angry2: :angry2: :angry2:

Lou Girardin

31st October 2003, 07:14

Not so much ex - MOT venom, as a loathing of present policies and thorough disgust at the standard of many of todays cops.
Lou

What?

31st October 2003, 08:38

Lou is not alone. Not by a long stroke...

jrandom

31st October 2003, 09:00

Well folks, I wasn't going to bother with a complaint, but after reading the comments in this thread I think it might be a good idea. Certainly couldn't do any harm to give them a tickle-up about an *actual* road safety issue.

One problem is that I didn't pick up any identifiers on the cop in question, his car # etc. If I quote time and place, will that be enough?

TBH I expect a reply (eventually) saying something along the lines of 'the officer couldn't see the hazard due to curve in the road, issue closed' or some such bullshit. (Given that I could see him in my mirrors when I hit it, I doubt that <_<)

But if nobody fights, they've already won...

Firefight

31st October 2003, 09:07

Originally posted by jrandom
Well folks, I wasn't going to bother with a complaint, but after reading the comments in this thread I think it might be a good idea. Certainly couldn't do any harm to give them a tickle-up about an *actual* road safety issue.

One problem is that I didn't pick up any identifiers on the cop in question, his car # etc. If I quote time and place, will that be enough?

TBH I expect a reply (eventually) saying something along the lines of 'the officer couldn't see the hazard due to curve in the road, issue closed' or some such bullshit.

If you get that reply, try Police complaints Authority !

firefight:cool:

Lou Girardin

31st October 2003, 15:04

As I said before, any letter that mentions the word 'complaint' automatically goes to the PCA. The cops on duty at that time will all run for cover and they probably won't be able to 'identify' him.
But don't let that stop you, the investigating Officer will be so pissed off at having to handle the complaint he'll roast all their arses for it.
Lou

Marmoot

31st October 2003, 18:56

The whole police system is monitored and recorded, so it is utter bollocks if they can't identify the officer in question. Exact time and exact place should do.

Btw, Lou, I notice your letter in NZH today. On ya, mate! :niceone:

Big Dog

31st October 2003, 19:55

Originally posted by Marmoot
Btw, Lou, I notice your letter in NZH today. On ya, mate! :niceone:

What letter? Was there anything other than payrises in parliment in the NZH?

Redstar

31st October 2003, 20:47

Try this dial *555 highway patrol and be put on hold and pay 99cent a minute for the privalidge. I was on the northern the other morn an a truck dropped a drive shaft all over the road so I pulled over and called 555 and they played me some lovely music Richard Cladermann I think, while I waited and waited, and gave up and now I have a bill on my mobile!I complained to the local MP smiler Lockwood smith a year ago about this crap and he ignored me as does Paul Swain and Rick Barker. I'm voting Magiacuddie Serious party next election!