Samuel's Blog

Can Government Cars Get Away With Anything?

September 30th, 2005 at 01:03pm

This is just something I’ve noticed lately, it would appear that government cars are immune from road rules, and the people driving them are free to drive in whatever manner they like.

This morning, for example, while I was taking Nattie for a walk, a government car went by, the driver was using a hand-held mobile phone and drove straight past a police car, the police weren’t in the least bit interested.

I have some friends who work for the government and have made use of government cars from time-to-time, and some of the stories I have heard are quite amazing. I feel compelled to share one of these stories with you.

This apparently took place on the Tuggeranong Parkway (for those of you who are not familiar with Canberra’s roads, the Tuggeranong Parkway is a long road with a speed limit of 100 km/h). A number of people I know were travelling in a government car which was travelling at 110km/h or more, there was a police car beside them, they waved to the police who simply waved back and then sped off with no use of lights or siren. Not only does this show just how much government cars are able to get away with, it also shows the general lack of observence of road rules that the police also seem to participate in. (This may also be the only known case of Government cars having more than one person in them at a time in the history of mankind…excluding politicians chauffeur services).

I find it mildly amusing that the police can produce press release after press release informing us that we all need to slow down and adhere to the road rules when they don’t do it themselves, and nor do they attempt to enforce the rules equally.

Despite what they may think, the road rules are there for all road users, not just private vehicles.

I suppose this raises an interesting question, if a government car gets booked, who pays the fine? The person driving it or the government?

In my view it should be the person driving it, although I think you will find it is often the government who end up paying the fine, and it is therefore fairly obvious why the police don’t bother to enforce the road rules when it comes to government cars…it isn’t going to have any effect on the driver, and the money from the fine would just go in a little circle…from the government to the government.

For some reason I am reminded of a time when I was on a bus on Antill Street in Dickson, I can be pretty sure that the bus wasn’t speeding, but it was going faster than the car in the left-hand lane…so the driver of the car starts hurling abuse at the bus driver, informing him that he should slow down and that he was an f***ing idiot, to which the bus driver replied “have a nice day”. It is interesting to note here that the car driver had to travel at a higher speed than the bus to catch up with it, and yet it was the bus driver who should slow down….anybody else see the problem here?

Anyway, back to government cars. In my view they should be treated just like any other vehicle on the road (with the obvious exception of emergency vehicles in emergency situations) and it should be the driver’s responsibility to pay for any infringement notices they may recieve.

Samuel

Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories,Samuel's Editorials

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