Busted with no seatbelt – in a car park
Wife’s fine angers councillor
A Hutt City councillor whose wife was fined $150 for not wearing a seatbelt in a car park is questioning the use of police time that could have been ‘‘better spent’’ catching burglars.
Chris Milne is angry his wife was ticketed after being spotted driving in a council car park not buckled in.
A complaint to Hutt South MP Chris Bishop resulted in a parliamentary question that found seven drivers had been stopped in Daly St and fined for not wearing seatbelts on the same Friday evening, September 21.
‘‘To me, they have just made a quick thousand bucks. That is what it looks like to me. It is easy money but all they have done is piss people off.’’
Drivers are required to wear a seatbelt if their car is in motion and on a road, although there is an exemption if the driver cannot reverse safely wearing a belt.
The incident happened after Milne’s wife got into her vehicle in the Riverbank Carpark and drove a short distance before putting on her belt.
She observed a parked police car, as she exited the car park.
When she drove on to Daly St, she was pulled over by another policeman, who issued the ticket – despite her pointing out she was, by then, wearing her belt.
She appealed the ticket on the grounds that she was in a council car park and not a road and that the officer who issued the ticket had not seen her driving without her seatbelt on.
‘‘I would very much appreciate it if, given the above explanation, you could waive the ticket. I will be more careful in future.’’
Police rejected her appeal saying it was clear she had driven without a seatbelt and an offence had occurred.
Chris Milne raised the matter with the Hutt City Council’s
‘‘To me, they have just made a quick thousand bucks. It is easy money but all they have done is piss people off.’’ Chris Milne
lawyer, Brad Cato, suggesting a council car park was not a road.
Cato replied that the public had access to the car park and it could be considered a road, adding that the definition of road was ‘‘so ridiculously broad that it just about covers everything’’.
Automobile Association road safety spokesman Dylan Thomsen said the circumstances of the ticket were ‘‘intriguing’’ but the AA strongly supported wearing seatbelts.
‘‘About one in four people who die on our roads annually are not buckled up.’’
A significant number of accidents occurred on short journeys, when people were leaving home or work.
‘‘If you are going 30kmh and something happens and you have to slam on your brakes, people would be amazed at the force involved.’’
He also rejected the argument it was a waste of police resources.
‘‘It makes perfect sense for the police to focus on seatbelts. The AA are right behind the police making their presence felt.’’
A police spokesperson said they were not carrying out a specific operation targeting people not belted up. ‘‘We are trying to save lives and keep people safe. You can’t hit pause in a crash, so buckle up before you go.’’
Milne, however, remains unconvinced and believes the police went too far in ticketing his wife. ‘‘The law has definitely been broken but what happened to police discretion in terms of how they operate.’’
Road policing manager Inspector Derek Orchard said ticketing people not wearing seatbelts was part of their overall approach to reduce fatalities.