Chicaboo and LordWorm have their day in court...
 

Well, as some of you already know, Chicaboo and myself were both charged with holding an illegal street race in the Gap about a month ago.

Charges specifically refer to a "suspicion" of the activity, and we had our vehicles impounded for a period of 48 hours and were required to attend the magistrates court today.

Both of us decided to plead guilty to the charges, and the police report was read out.

Police report noted that both vehicles accelerated hard whilst generating an enormous amount of tyre smoke. Police vehicle was travelling in the opposite direction and spotted us 100m from the set of traffic lights where the alleged race took place, did a U-Turn and persued.

Neither of us at any point exceeded the speed limit, and it was just a case of flat to the floor dash to 60kph that was the posted limit.

We both saw the flashing lights and pulled into the left hand lane believing at the time that the police were on a call out (at this stage, we've done nothing but chirp the wheels slightly on a launch, and accellerated in an agressive fashion, and had no reason to believe we would be pulled over).

We both testified that we did not exceed the limit (police report stated they "believed" we were exceeding the limit by an excessive amount, the magistrate threw this out as they had no evidence of it).

as for the smoke part - We both apparently reached some inordinate speed whilst liquefying our tires in a hellish display of top fuel drag racer style burnout, so much so that drivers behind us would not have been able to see... as much as we'd both LOVE to believe our cars are capable of such a feat (creating that much smoke whilst accelerating hard enough to be considered dangerous) - we all know that sub 100kW front wheel drive 4 bangers are absolutely incapable of this action.

Anyway... long story short, despite the fact that the magistrate wanted to throw us out with a slap on the wrist fine, he is bound by QLD law to give us a 6 month suspension of drivers licence, despite Chicaboo's pleas from his doctor that he cannot walk the distances required of him to catch public transport. Work licenses on both cases were refused.

The allegation made out that we DELIBERATELY organized a race, and thats the reason we were out there....which wasn't the case at all.

Funny thing is, some pissed idiot in the court room today was let off with a 1 month suspension for having a BAC of 0.118, failing to follow a direction to an RBT station and running a redlight - and it was his 3 offence!

Another kid admitted to doing a full blown Tokyo drift style hectic maneuver near a crowd of nearly 500 people in the valley, no suspension $100 fine!.

Moral of the story - the media beat up of "hoons" and street racers seems to have done its job - driving quickly to, but never exceeding the speed limit is considered more dangerous and carries a larger fine and penalty than driving in a dangerous pissed repeat offender speeding through a red light.

Its not worth while doing ANYTHING on the road that could even VAGUELY construed as hooning. Any loss (and i mean any, pop the clutch accidentally, or miss-estimate the traction of the surface in the rain) of traction WILL result in a MANDATORY 6 month license suspension.

Fun and games.

And for the record - it would seem both of us lost this race....

wow that sux man i feel for yas hopefully the time goes quick ...

Add to that IF we were drunk with an excessive BAC we would have gotten off... I am absolutely amazed and gutted as to what I experienced in the courtroom today. Violent offenders, drunks and dangerous drivers fear not, the law supports you...

Out of work, with no transpot now,
Gav.

I know it might have been expensive, but why on earth did you not consult a lawyer?
I am sure they would have been cheaper than not being able to work for 6 months..

I've more or less been out of work for 6 months with my leg injury. However I have been in rehabilitation and doing 1/2 work days for the last 5 weeks.

Oh that's just rubbish. RUBBISH.

Can you appeal Gav?

Not really, however I will seek a grant for a work licence.

EDIT: I want ppl to understand that I know I did the wrong thing by accelerating hard in 1st and 2nd gear causing counter rotation of the Earth beneith my tyres (potentially causing a rift in the space-time continuim), and that I accept responsibility for my actions in doing so, but the punishment just doesn't fit the crime. Particulary after what I saw what the wife beaters and drunks were getting away with...

Gav.

not worth it buddy.

The ONLY evidence they need is the police officers word.

The expense of having a lawyer, would have only added to EXACTLY the same result....

Basically, these "anti-hoon" laws are written such that there is absolutely NO WAY to mount a defense. add to that the fact that they take your car off of you for 48 hours PRIOR to the court hearing - even if you DID happen to be able to fight it - you would still have to pay restitution for the cost of illegally towing your vehicle.

Let it also be noted, that both vehicles were damaged during the towing (gav's altenator blown from an obvious attempt to incorrectly jumpstart another car using his - and mine, having the front suspension pulled grossly out of alignment) and neither the police nor the tow company can be made liable from this.

Yes we did the wrong thing.
Yes we deserve a fine.

BUT - the punishment should fit the crime, and the today tonight watching morons who make us all out to be complete tools with nothing better to do than to cut big skids and kill innocent babies seem to have had a major win here.

What we did could not be considered more dangerous in anyones reasonable assessment, than running a red light whilst twice the legal limit.

Also, everyone who got DD charges today were repeat offenders, slap on the wrist...us with near clear driving records get raped anally by the system.

Appeal? no chance - read some court transcripts of what happens when you appeal... i read one the other day, a guy appealed, his lawyer proved the police were negligent, didn't follow proceedure, had no way of even knowing if the vehicle in question was involved in the alleged activity, defendant still got fined and lost licence....

totally screwed up.

that is total bullsh!t!! .. i dont know what to say but "counter rotation of the Earth beneith my tyres (potentially causing a rift in the space-time continuim)" was well said! LOL

dan

hehe..yeh

anyway .... most sucky point hasn't been made

we're LIKELY to now be persons of interest
and every last cop car we encounter on the street will probably wanna stop us and find SOMETHING wrong with how we approached an intersection or some such.

bottom line is - drive like a grandma, always - even then, don't go out in the wet for fear of losing traction or something.

Oh, while Greg and I were detained on the side of the road, there were 2 youths getting their arses kicked by some other guys just across the road. The 2 police expressed disgust about the 2 youths just being drunk and stupid and just told them to go home. The didn't actually address the issue of under-age drinking or violence one iota. However they called 3 to 5 additional squad cars to come and deal with me and Greg, even though we immediately pulled over upon their direction...

that was funny... APB for dog squads and swat to take out illegal street racers dropping sick skids the likes of which have never been seen.........tearing up the road to open a rift so hell and sundry can come wreak havoc apon the poor today tonight viewers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh we had to be speeding to, because, their falcon had to really go for it to catch up.....which i find amusing, seeing as they had to STOP, do a U turn and go for it - at the speed limit we obviously covered a bit of ground before they could get around - but, its obviously because we were doing 88mph with one point twenty one gigawatts or something....

Maybe there are vacancies for wife beating drunks? Damn, my leg injury and type 2 diabetes ruins that one for me. Meh, I'd just get my arse kicked, and the cops are too busy to come to my aid as hoons are destroying the fine equelibrium of the universe...

...... i cant believe you guys got your licenses suspended, im dumbfounded at how this has turned out.

This might interest you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l53lbanVn3c.. its a today tonight report on some hoons in Adelaide drifting .... only all the footage is from an option dvd taken in japan. I posted it on the Chasers War on Everything forum... fingers crossed.

I can't even watch all of that propoganda that 2day 2night taut about. "we don't know where in the country [Australia] this footage was taken..." NO, cause it's from a Japanese drift video...! "drifting is inspired by such movies as Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift" NO, the movie was inspired by the drifting culture!

I have no sympathy for drifters that get caught and fined accordingly, but c'mon, we need to see factual media representation of what realy goes on, not this blown up $#!T that rubs off on all car enthusiasts...

PS: I'd like to thank Rally_Ninja and MINT_Polo for getting me home the night this happened too.

Gav.

Holy toledo batman, that is kinda crappy. I've now decided that all cops are wankers, and I think you all need to move to Darwin, where the cops don't really care and you don't have demerit points on your license!!
Tough luck guys. :(

Oh your most welcome ... i tell you it was quite strange getting a phone call at 2 a.m. "the cars are impounded ... can you pick us up". To be honest though I was sought of relieved that it was 'street racing' and not scraping the remains of your cars off of the side of Mt Nebo, coz Mitches first call was ... "I cant go into detail but I am freezing my ass off out the front of the gap police station" .. leaving me with a huge WTF.

I believe the million dollar question is ... who won???

The Police did!!!

Just to piss you off more, I had had my license suspended 3 times and have appealled against all 3 and been awarded my license back on all occasions. Seems weird that you couldn't get a restricted work license to me???

Ryan

u can only apply for work licence if u are over the age of 25..have an open licence and have been charged on drink driving offence only..
..so they are saying anyone under 25,how who has done somthing stupid,made a mistake or has been wrongly accused..(probably sumthing not half as bad as dui) doesnt have an important enough career or job to even apply for a work licence..
ah some of the law out there are oretty shocking.
...that sucks to here about hte outcome of ur court appearance guys

Yes, they were only issueing restricted work licences to the DUI cases, however they were ONLY GETTING ONE MONTH suspensions (repeat offenders getting 10 weeks)... The guy that almost wiped out a group of ppl at a pedestrian crossing was charged with DD and kept his licence! Don't believe the ads, they go soft on drink drivers...

Oh, one guy admitted to being a casual/regular user of crystal meth, and was found posessing the drug while driving eratically, only to be let off after his 3rd similar offence if he attended a drugs rehabilitation workshop!

A poor pregnant mum (1 time offender/bit of a ho) got no sympathy from the judge and will lose her job, custody of her child because she blew 0.052 on her first offence, and got no work licence....

Gav.