Elias Visontay reports in The Guardian
The flash at the traffic lights felt sickening – a lifetime of law-abiding driving down the toilet.
Last year, I got my first traffic fine. After 10 years of being able to brag that I had never partaken in (or at least been caught) speeding or touching my phone at the wheel, or so much as receiving a parking ticket or a faulty blinker, I finally got stung.
I was in a rush to make it to futsal in inner-Sydney, when I accidentally accelerated through a red light at a complicated five-way intersection, not realising the light that just turned green didn’t apply to me.
A second later, I realised my error and braked hard. I’d stopped just past the line, and then reversed back behind the line to wait for my green light.
But that didn’t matter. A few weeks later I received a ticket in the post – $469 and three demerit points.
My life as a driver flashed before my eyes. All those years of close calls – hovering at the speed limit due to my consistent lateness, resisting Whatsapp notifications behind the wheel, staring down police officers behind their mobile speed guns.
I had more than just a reputation for safety – this was my persona. Zipping around Sydney in my metallic blue Mazda 2 roughly as long as I am tall, I am someone who makes road laws work for me. Friends come to me for my encyclopedic knowledge of free parking and school zone-free routes as if they’d gone to Bunnings for DIY advice.
What would happen if I lost my green apron?
I quickly logged on to the Revenue NSW website and requested the images of my offence. The two pictures captured by the traffic camera backed up my version of events, showing my brake lights half illuminated in the first picture and fully illuminated in the follow up.
Before electing to go to court, drivers should seek legal advice. I spoke to Samantha Lee, acting principal solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, who was keen to point out that most traffic offences are “strict liability offences”.
“It’s not about intent, it’s about whether you crossed that line or not. So it’s not a defence to say that you didn’t intend to do something.”
Read the full article here (12 January 2023).
