Dangerous driving: Genuine query

[_Gina_]

Does anyone know the answer to the following questions?

I have been charged with -
Dangerous driving & unnecessary display of speed/racing on a public highway.

No speed has been noted or estimated on my traffic offence notice.

Q's)
Is this normal and if not; does this help in trying to put together special circumstances?
What are the guidelines for special circumstances surrounding these types of charges and how can I find them.


G

[Mikkel]

First of all - what did the cop claim he saw you do?

What do you think he could possibly have seen that would cause him to file that charge?

If he didn't measure your speed I think you have a pretty good chance of disputing it - provided that there's not a lot of aggravated witnesses to take the stand against you.

What does "unnecessary display of speed/racing on a public highway" entail anyway? You ride a modern sportsbike, surely using it is necessary!

[Mully]

What does "unnecessary display of speed/racing on a public highway" entail anyway?

I asked someone about this. Apparently, if the cop is being a prick (unlike the fine occifers on here, naturally), and having a bad day he can choose to do you for unnecessary speed for doing the "traffic light GP" up to the speed limit if he feels you didn't need to accelarate that quickly.

[Quasievil]

Does anyone know the answer to the following questions?

I have been charged with -
Dangerous driving & unnecessary display of speed/racing on a public highway.

No speed has been noted or estimated on my traffic offence notice.

Q's)
Is this normal and if not; does this help in trying to put together special circumstances?
What are the guidelines for special circumstances surrounding these types of charges and how can I find them.


G

But you ride a Honda? so by default you are unable to display speed or racing. maybe that could be the basis for your case ?

[Mikkel]

I asked someone about this. Apparently, if the cop is being a prick (unlike the fine occifers on here, naturally), and having a bad day he can choose to do you for unnecessary speed for doing the "traffic light GP" up to the speed limit if he feels you didn't need to accelarate that quickly.

Yes, but if you take it to court he still has to prove a good reason for considering it dangerous...

And since speed is the only factor in lethal accidents it's hard to argue that anything was very dangerous if the speed limits were observed. (this is of course a remark that is dripping with sarcasm - if anyone should be in doubt!)

[Badjelly]

And since speed is the only factor in lethal accidents it's hard to argue that anything was very dangerous if the speed limits were observed. (this is of course a remark that is dripping with sarcasm - if anyone should be in doubt!)

There goes the thread!

[FROSTY:Me]

i'd be talking to a REAL legal beagal type GG.
I think you may be able to request the information this/these charge is based on.
Your defence can then be structured around disproveing that

[90s]

You might want to move this to biker politics & law as there are some pretty switched on people in that forum where this type of thing is usually posted who may not catch it here.
Otherwise I don't think anything geniunely constructive can be posted until we have some outline of the circumstances. Please post.

[crazybigal]

its called discovery. they have to show you the notes he made if you ask for them. it will come down to your word against his and how the judge feels about bikes!

[Fatjim]

What ever you do, don;t let them know your defending it till the last possible moment. That way the cop will remember less.

Also remember that it is in fact difficult to accelerate on a sportsbike any where near as slowly as in most cars. I would suggest you ask the officer to quantify things such as you acceleration, at what revs you changed gear and how much throttle you applied.

Remember the average judge is a plonker, and doesn't know shit about bikes. Get your lawyer to educate them by doing comparisons of performance metrics.

Eg, a CBR1000 will do 0-100k in ~2.9sec, whereas a police car will do this in around 8 seconds.

A CBR wieghs with you on it around 260Ks and has about 160BHP. A police car before donuts and burgers weighs around 1800Kg's and has around 240BHP. Explain how hard it is actually get a bike to accelerate as slowly as a car.

If you give the judge enough evidence that bikes accelerate faster than cars without even trying, and the copper does not catorgoracally say you couldn't be acceelerating any faster then you don't have a case to answer.


But I'm sure Scumdog will come up with some generalisation that proves me wrong.

[90s]

So it would be legal for me to accelerate Bluebird down the road (to the speed limit) simply because it can't accelerate slowly, or that I am unable to control it?
Not sure how a defence based on my incompetence would fly.

Acceleration faster than cars to an open rd is one thing. In front of a school away from a controlled kiddie crossing would be another. I still think we still need to know the circumstances.

And it is called 'discovery' in some US states - seems that Boston Legal is filling in our NZ legal knowledge. Denny Krane!

[Sofa]

You know that it may not have actually been a police officer that saw you?
I got an offence like this in my car, and when I queried it at the police station they just told me that a random/annonymous member of the public had reported me.
Check if this hasn't happened to you because if it has then the fact that the police didn't take it up with you before charging you is illegal. And if this is the case then you have a right to not even go to court and just take it up with the police, because apparently its a breach of human rights or something...
Sucks hard out though!! Hope you sort it out.

[_Gina_]

More detail chicky??

Will Pm ya later M, I have pretty much had the answer confirmed by the below posts and I am trying not to get into too much detail in the thread as it would only enable debates and such like which normally don't go that well on KB.

G

[_Gina_]

Question one has been answered, leaving only question two...

What are the guidelines for special circumstances surrounding these types of charges and how can I find them.

[scracha]

What the fuck is unnecessary display of speed? For cripes sakes...it's unnecessary for me to redline my $hite old car through the gears to 100 but it still pretty slow and is fun. Hell, it's probably unnecessary for us to drive at 100kmph instead of 80.....they gonna charge us all.

Who the fuck is actually running this country? The more I hear of $hit like this the more tempting Canada looks. I say we march on these arseholes in the beehive and remind them who actually won the WW2.

Grr etc etc