I HATE the NSW road rules. First, I who got my license in August 2006 was on my open license in Qld. If you're over 25, you only hold your P plate for a year before you go onto your opens.
So imagine my frustration when in July 2008, I walk into the RTA down here in Sydney to be a good girl and change over my license, only to find myself being handed a P1 license! No, not even a P2 license, a friggin' P1!
Note - This means I am limited to 0.00 blood alcohol level (not that I'm bothered because I hesitate driving the next day after having ONE drink traditionally anyway), limited to one passenger after 11pm or something equally ridiculous (no DOCS, I'm not neglecting my 2 year old daughter by leaving her at home for 15 minutes whilst I pick up my husband from the train station after he worked late - you see I have a P1 license and can't carry my 2 year old in the car in ADDITION to my husband!), and worse yet, limited to 90kms/hr. Yes, REALLY safe when the speed limit is 110km/hr on the freeway and you're being tail gated by a truck going down a hill!
There is no 'oh you're on an open in Qld so that makes you an open down here'. Because I was 6 FRICKIN weeks short of holding my license for 2 years, the cow behind the RTA counter very smugly laughed at me and told me I had to take a P1 and then sit some computer exam to get my P2 which I'm then stuck on for ANOTHER 2 years? WTF!?!?!
Even better, my license expires in February so I'm going to have to pay AGAIN to renew it even though I got no refund for my Qld OPEN license that was valid until August 2010!
So, my mood over the state of licenses in NSW was not sweetened when I opened the mail on Thursday to discover a 'reminder to pay notice' for supposedly driving in a T-way in June when we hired a car in June to look for rental properties. It got sent to Hertz first who kindly passed on my name and then I got the lovely 'reminder' notice and demand to pay in 2 weeks. It's $250++ bucks AND 3 points!!!!
May I point out that there is no real excuse for breaking road rules, but honestly, we got so lost at times when looking for rental properties (the Hertz we hired from had no TomToms/Navmans available) so it's entirely possible we accidently drove in a T-way. Yes, ACCIDENTLY. In the area it supposedly happened in, it's marked by a simple rectangular sign and we got nailed by the fixed camera. I love that you can make an honest mistake whilst being lost and there is no policeman to explain it to, whom might show a little leniency to the out-of-stater. Nup, just a stupid camera.
Another note - I honestly thought a t-way was a TRANSIT lane. If you have 2 or more people in the car in Qld, you can drive in the transit lane. It actually took a half-an-hour scouring of the RTA website to even realise what a T-way was!
Oh and thanks to my P1 license (even though I was driving on a full Qld license at the time of the offence - thus 12 points), I now have ONE point to last me. There is no way in heck I'm driving in the near future. I'd rather walk.
I'm so glad the revenue raisers managed to catch and penalise the big bad lost tourists. Why on earth would they want to catch the scores of people I see near my house EVERY day, ignoring stop signs, doing 70 in a 40km/hr zone and ignoring red lights.
Vent over!
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2 comments:
That is so unfair!! I would be SO angry that I'd be writing nasty letters, but let's face it, who has time for that? I'm really mad that happened to you, and I hope you don't lose too much sleep over it.
Whoa, Bec! That totally sucks! There are probably appeals processes you could go through for some of that stuff, but like Givinya said, who has the time? No way could any policeman ever book you for driving your two year old around.
Although, they do make very dangerous passengers...
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