Online Forum Speeding Boast Leads To Conviction 457
Meshach writes "In Canada, a nineteen-year-old man has lost his driving license for six months and is facing one year of probation after the police arrested him for dangerous driving as a result of a post on an online message board. The tip apparently came from an uninvolved American who called the Canadian authorities after he saw the post bragging about how fast the man went."
Re:Without any evidence? (Score:2, Interesting)
Do you believe me? If so, you're extremely gullible. If not - the standards of proof in a court are meant to be higher than personal opinion.
Re:Cue 'speeding' jokes - here's #1 (Score:4, Interesting)
In this season's last episode of Top Gear there was a review of iirc a Ferrari where the same screen was used for the satnav and the digital speedometer, so one can have either one or the other, but not at the same time. The perfect car for Heisenberg. :)
Re:Without any evidence? (Score:2, Interesting)
1. Little Incentive, huh? How many times have you seen "I've gone xxx mph on my ___"? I see regular posts on other forums where people post the top speed they've gone. I'd suspect every single post is an outright lie. That's what ricers and bogans do, make up stories about how fast they've gone.
2. Onboard tool. I'm not aware of any VCM that logs. I regularly modify my VCM with Hptuners editor and it takes a laptop with software to log the engine data. About the only data the VCM keeps is fuel trim cell values to feed to the long-term fuel trim variable (and spark knock retarding values).
3. In the US, you have the right to face your accuser. Who is his accuser, someone that viewed an internet post? That's hearsay in this country and is inadmissible in court.
Re:Without any evidence? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, I guess every country - and in the USA, possibly each state, has its own laws, but I've never seen a traffic law with acceleration limits. Your car may be very silent, so you might accelerate a lot and still don't break any regulations.
And about (1), I don't think you are right. Speed is the rate that space varies with time. A speed rate, therefore, is not speed, but something else, by definition, either acceleration or something else like the rate speed varies with position of the sun, the beats in the car stereo, or whatever. Just because everyone says it wrong, it doesn't make it right.
Re:Without any evidence? (Score:3, Interesting)
Or you can do what a guy down the road did.
We had a kid that did that speeding up and down the road. the old guy 4 house down got sick of it and sat in his car waiting for the little asshole to go speeding by and then he pulled out to block the road so the kid had to stop.. The little idiot smashed into the back of his car. Completely totaled that BMW 325 and the old rusted chevy caprice the old man drove was buckled to the rear window but he was unharmed. Kid went to the hospital and the cops later arrested the kid for reckless endangerment after talking to neighbors who all complained about how that car has been doing that for a month now.
Never saw the kid on our road again, although this was over 4 years ago.
Re:Snitch (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, it's wrong. What makes you so special that you can ignore posted limits, regardless of what you think their reason is?
I'd also like to know more about this power of clairvoyance you have that makes you so certain there wasn't remedial school in session, or a youth program, or any other activity that might have been a reason to leave the signs up.
On the other hand, perhaps the local officials just realized that when they take the signs down, people get used to going 50 km/h through there, and they continue speeding for a few weeks after the signs go back up.
Re:Of course, why bother to link to the forum? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've actually been a part of a few car forums and that's usually the attitude I run into. It's generally just the occasional young asshole who openly admits to speeding like that. The rest either speak out against it or at least don't admit to it.
Re:Snitch (Score:3, Interesting)
The brag was sufficient cause to place the charges, and the kid pleaded guilty. End of story. Though if further evidence was warranted, I'm sure they could have (and maybe did, the TFA doesn't say) seized the "black box", if there is one, out of the car and gotten some corroborating evidence that way. They also could have canvassed the neighbourhood for witnesses: a beemer doing 150 km/h through a residential area is going to be noticed and remembered. The police may even have gotten complaints from neighbours before they got the tip. The article doesn't say, and we don't know.
Re:Snitch (Score:1, Interesting)
However, speeding and not following basic road safety [...] is dangerous.
A speeder's lack of following basic road safety is implied, or in this case pretty fucking obvious from reading the article. You can not drive 140km/h safely in a residential area.
People are not wired for understanding the speeds and risks when driving a car. Modern cars feel much safer and in consequence people believe much higher speeds to be safe. However, their surroundings are still filled with the same squishy people who do not benefit from the safety improvements.
Here's a little math for you: Say you're going just 10% faster than the speed limit (55km/h instead of 50km/h for example). At what speed do you hit an obstacle that you could just so have stopped in front of without speeding? For the sake of this quiz, ignore the distance traveled until you hit the brakes. The answer is: 45% of the speed limit. In the example, that's a 23km/h collision that could have been avoided by not speeding. 45%=sqrt((1.1^2)-1) Now repeat that with 70km/h in a 50km/h zone. Is your result 50km/h collision instead of just so not hitting the obstacle? The guy we're talking about did 140km/h in a 40km/h zone.
Re:Snitch (Score:4, Interesting)
In what universe does it make a difference if a person has done something "wrong" in the past in determining whether some action is "wrong" now?
I stole a transformer toy from k-mart when I was little, does that mean I can no longer say that stealing is wrong in any situtation?
I got into a fight in high school and punched someone in the face, does that mean that I'm forced to accept that it is OK for someone to punch their wife in the face because she burnt the toast?
I'm not allowed to hold ideals that I fail to live up to in all of history?
And of course it's impossible that the officials in charge of the speed limits might have decided to leave them up without informing you of the reason, because you are omniscient.
Re:Might not be as bad as it sounds (Score:2, Interesting)
I seem to be in the minority here but oh well. I agree, at least to a certain point, that there should have to be a realistic chance that one could have caused harm to others to be charged with a motor vehicle infraction. I think society these days has too much say in the personal responsibility & safety of individuals, even going so far as to place arbitrary, inconsistent, and sometimes even contradictory restrictions on people for the illusion of safety. I've heard of people literally being arrested for being "Under the influence" while mowing their own lawns, we all know of that some police purposefully set up speed traps right at speed limit signs JUST so they can rack up tickets from the people that don't slow to that speed the phemtosecond the cross it, And don't even get me started on seatbelt and helmet laws..... That being said, If you ACTUALLY cause harm to someone other than yourself I think they should chuck the law book at you.
Re:Snitch (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, I've even been ticketed for speeding! I have violated the law in the past by ignoring posted speed limits, rolling through stop signs, and one time I was distracted and got bagged for cutting through an intersection when the light was turning red. I've paid my fines, and I readily admit that I have broken rules.
That does NOT make it "okay" or "not breaking the rules." Just as your assessment that the rules are unreasonable, and therefore may be broken, does not mean that you are not breaking the rules. Unless you are omniscient, or are the guy responsible for putting up and taking down those signs, you have NO clue why they might be up.
I've actually learned from my youthful indiscretions in the car, as well - now I obey speed limits, and am a much more cautious driver. A close call where I was speeding and barely had room & time to brake before hitting a guy on a motorcycle taught me that. Scared the shit out of him, scared the shit out of me - I'm not proud of it, but I have learned the wisdom of obeying the posted rules on the road.
Re:Snitch (Score:2, Interesting)
Evidence beyond hearsay might be nice. Just because I said I was doing 150 down the interstate doesn't mean I actually did.