Gozit

+1
Just as we are not above the law, the police are not above the law and making up punishments should definitely be in receipt of repercussions on the officer, just as the offending driver has had repercussions against her.

Well, we live in a democratic country where everyone has rights, including those accused of a crime or civil offense. We can't deny them those rights.

sorry, i've spent too much time in Law class

caretaker

You're right, I'ts been so long since I got a ticket and I've had so few that I forgot. I rolled the stop sign at the Lumsden junction during the Craven Country Music Festival and there were 5 police cars just out of sight, 4 cops doing nothing but watching that stop sign (on other days they brought a video camera)... they used one car just to write tickets in and had tow trucks coming and going. It was around $230.

Gozit

$230 for rolling a stop? FFS...

caretaker

That was some years ago, and it had just gone up, I believe it's gone up since then. Distracted driving fines vary widely across the country as well, the lady texter in the original story got off easy at $167.

Alan2005

Stop signs are retarded for the most part. The majority of 4 way stops and all 2 way stops could just be replaced with a give way sign.

Oink

You think Americans are going to give way? And as Canadians just copy all the road rules the yanks have, it won't happen here either.

caretaker

You tend to come to a full stop to check for cops after getting caught. I'm over it now but when I went to pay at the courthouse they had all new security like the airport and when I left the kid didn't want to give me back my Swiss army knife.

Alan2005

They should put some magic roundabouts in. That'll learn em.

Gozit

+1
I like driving in Europe much more as there's no real idiot fines like rolling stop etc to deal with (at least not in Malta - we don't have patrol cars patrolling that kind of stuff). The big enforcement are speed cams and parking (wardens), and on Gozo the former don't exist - and there are no stops to roll, for the most part, as we have roundabouts, which are actual sensible apparatus of traffic control.

Former Lancastrian

Well it looks like the RCMP will be in trouble again for releasing details of a driver who has a dozen infractions for driving while on a cell phone and who nearly collided with a Police cruiser while talking on the cell phone
Distracted Richmond Driver 'Might Be A Good Candidate To Have Her Licence Reviewed': RCMP

caretaker

Well at least they didn't identify her this time, and in the Canadian news article I just read they went to great pains to not reveal gender. Presumably retracted after Huffington picked it up.

caretaker

She got another distracted driving ticket making it 14 and the cops say they'd like her to stop driving.

Alan2005

Driving bans don't stop people like this. She'll end up in jail I expect.

caretaker

She isn't doing too well at giving up texting..... When my late friend lost his license to drinking and driving, he left his truck in the driveway behind the house for a decent interval then when he took it out they nailed him for driving while disqualified as soon as he turned into the street. If the police think you'll drive anyway after losing your license they'll take their report breaks and spend some extra time 2 blocks from your house where they can see the car on the off chance they'll catch you. My friend, admitting that he wasn't about to stop drinking (old ironworker), and that the temptation to drive was too great for him, sold the truck within days and never drove again in his life.
The lady in question might take losing the right to drive easier than she would losing her phone.

dave_j

People from the UK often feel aggrieved when they visit other countries. Visit China and you come a poor second in the queue stakes. We queue, others don't.
The point I'm making is that there is a similar difference in perception that I discovered when I moved here that some rules can be ignored unless someone objects. One example of this occurred when my daughter looked into buying a house in the ALR. The barn had been converted into a second house against the rules. I contacted the regional authorities and they weren't interested but stated that if someone complained the barn would need to be reverted to its original use.
This perception that some rules don't necessarily apply pervades road traffic laws. My wife and I play a game whereby we count the number of cars with defective lights, nobody seems to care, and this in an area with no street lighting.
So when we have rules about not texting while driving, I think we have a significant proportion of the population that thinks it's ok to ignore this rule until caught, and not many get caught so just carry on, after all it's not hurting anyone is it? And when you do get caught, you'll only get a slapped wrist.
This behaviour is completely anti-social. Society develops rules that seek to ensure the greatest safety to society as a whole and for good reason.
My son-in-law is testament to this. He still suffers three years later after being rear-ended at speed by a woman texting instead of driving.
I don't drink and drive because the penalties can be high. I don't text because you cannot drive and text at the same time and do it safely. Until penalties for texting match the damage that can result then people like the woman quoted in this post will continue to injure and simply ignore the law, after all it doesn't apply to me does it?