I came home today to find the following notice in the letterbox:
Yep. I've been caught on camera driving 74 km per hour in a 60 km zone. (The equivalent of going 45 in a 37 mph zone). I didn't even see it coming.
Some of you are probably laughing out loud right now because I am actually such a slow driver. In twenty years of driving in the U.S. I never got a ticket. Not one.
I've been in Oz for less than 2 months. And I've already been nabbed. I rarely see actual police cars here. I guess they let these speed sensors in the roads do the work for them.
On the bright side, since I don't have an Aussie driver's license I couldn't care less about the 3 demerit points I'm racking up for my moment of crazy speedy driving. Lesson learned!
10 comments:
I got pulled over my 1st month here for an expired registration- apparently I had a temporary one and had no idea.
NICE!
They have cameras up ALL over that city. At least in Brisbane they had signs up to tell you to slow down before they took the picture :)
Those cameras freak me out! I actually think they make me more dangerous because I'm CONSTANTLY looking down at the speedometer rather than at the road!
Same thing happened to me about a month into us moving here. There is a camera on a hill, the same hill that I pretended was like a roller coaster with my boys, so every time we went over it, we'd lift our arms up and scream "weeeee!" Thankfully, I only got one ticket....lesson learned!
Oh my goodness..Calif should put speed sensors in their roads and the State might be able to balance the budget with those profits.
Revenue raising at it's best. Be careful as those are about $300 a pop and after 4, you lose your license...at least here in SA.
Be careful. Aussie law says you have to get your drivers license within 3 months of being in the country perm. It can get hairy if you cause an accident - on accident eg the time I parked 'front in' when it was 'rear end parking only' and thus caused an accident whilst pulling out. eeeeshh. And yes the system is set up as a revenue raiser - both diving and parking tickets so be warned!! You can drink and drive - cause an accident - and get a slap on the wrist - but god forbid you park 3 mins over and they will nail you. If you don't pay both parking tickets and driving tickets - they add on $ and add on more $ - and then take away your license. The police here are not usually for checking speed - except on the rare occasion you will see one on the side of the road with a camera. The police - well they usually do RBT's checking for drunk drivers. Other than that, I am not really sure what they do. Jury still out.
Hey Jenny,
You probably already are aware, but we definitely do not need an Australian drivers license on a 457 visa, as it is a temporary visa. I carry the RTA pamphlet which states that, in my glove compartment just in case... a copy of your visa with it is probably a good idea too.
No license required for 457. I need to get one now and because my last drivers license is less than three years old, and I don't have my old CA license here, they want to give me a "P" plate and take the test. How humiliating.
Oh funny. I have yet to be nabbed here, thankfully. I drive all over this city and although I am very careful, I'm pretty surprised I haven't yet.
Hey Ana, I had the same thing happen to me with my license not showing that I'd been driving for more than 4 years. You can have Washington state or California (wherever) DMV send you a letter stating that you have in fact been driving since ____ and then show that to the RTA here and then you will skip the P plates and test. I know, I refused to drive if I was going to have big green P plates on my car!
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