Snapped Spring - 3 points & a fine?

[GeForce]

Hello Motors.

Wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to the following.

My girlfriend was in her friend's Ford Ka driving down the A3 last week, when a police car pulled her over, since one of the rear coil springs had snapped. They asked if either of them had noticed anything, to which the driver said she'd heard something earlier but thought it had been something rolling around in the boot. My girlfriend hadn't noticed any abnormal noises.

The two officers then called for someone who could better assess the car, bringing the total police attendance to two cars and five officers. One of the officers removed the vehicle from the hard shoulder. The friend was given three points and a £60 fine for 'driving a dangerous vehicle' (I believe that's the wording) along with "you can appeal if you like, but I'll see you in court". The police then left, leaving my girlfriend and her friend to wait for the RAC. All in all, the police were there for about an hour.

Now, two things:
1) 5 man-hours of police time, I thought this was excessive. Would you agree?
2) Giving points & fine rather than a warning. Again, excessive? The girls know very little about cars and genuinely had no idea anything was amiss.

As a side issue, both of them said the police officers acted in a less than professional manner, though of course this is rather subjective.

 

[Housey]

Based on your version it seems madness, I suspect there was probably more to it but if not then appeal and see him in court.

 

[geekyEd]

Sounds quite harsh to me, unless they suspected that the car had been driven around like that for a while and was not being fixed knowingly?

How were the officers unprofessional please elaborate.

Are you sure there isn't a little more to this story?

 

[Matt82]

I'd love to see a pic of the car. For them to pull it at random on the off chance it had a broken spring is slim. I bet it looked pretty terrible

 

[GeForce]

Cheers guys.

As you've both pointed out, this is second hand information so I can't guarantee I've given an accurate depiction of events, but this is how it appeared to me after having a long chat about it with my girlfriend, who was quite unsettled about it. Her friend was also upset, actually breaking down in tears after the police had left.

In terms of being unprofessional, the general picture I got was all five of them standing around having a laugh with each other for needless amounts of time. Particularly, one of them told the friend that they were "thinking of arresting her on suspicion of stealing hospital property" (they are both district nurses who use their cars for work and happened to have some medical supplies in the boot). When explaining about what had happened, it was apparently in a rather condescending manner. As I said, this part is pretty subjective.

Edit: Matt: I've seen the car recently, it's in decent condition (few rust patches - what a surprise!). Apparently one side of the car was sitting noticeably lower than the other, which I can believe.

 

[cyber69]

Sounds like the coppers assume that everyone knows everything about cars and post regulary in the motors forum.

 

[Matt82]

Ive replaced broken springs on cars before and it was hard to tell visually on the outside. I think it must have been pretty bad hence their reaction. Imagine if they'd let her on her way, the suspension had a failure on the way home, everyone would be moaning that the police didn't save her when they had a chance

 

[Del Lardo]

Hello Motors.


Now, two things:
1) 5 man-hours of police time, I thought this was excessive. Would you agree?
2) Giving points & fine rather than a warning. Again, excessive? The girls know very little about cars and genuinely had no idea anything was amiss.

As a side issue, both of them said the police officers acted in a less than professional manner, though of course this is rather subjective.

Without being there it's hard to say whether they were professional or not but I wouldn't expect to get a non-biased opinion.

To address your points directly:
1. IMO it comes back to one of the best answers I've ever heard from a Police officer when someone was ranting about Police not having anything better to do than pull him over for speeding. 'Yes sir we do but unfortunately you were speeding so I have to waste my time with you.'

2. Not excessive IMO, for the Police to pull them over based on the cars stance it must have been handling like a dog, even if you know nothing about cars you should be able to detect when the handling of your car suddenly and seriously deteriorates.

 

[PhillyDee]

Ive replaced broken springs on cars before and it was hard to tell visually on the outside. I think it must have been pretty bad hence their reaction. Imagine if they'd let her on her way, the suspension had a failure on the way home, everyone would be moaning that the police didn't save her when they had a chance

I don;t think the issue is that they stopped them and made them get towed, more the points and the fine. I would prefer it if more police did point out peoples car faults and made them get them fixed.

 

[mjt]

TBF I bought my Leon with a broken spring and drove it a couple hundred km back home, even doing 100+ on the autobahn.

Depends where it breaks really

 

[PMKeates]

1) Did they record any evidence of a broken spring?
2) It's really, really common on a lot of cars. I guess probably 50%+ of E46s are driving around on broken springs.

 

[Brookert]

Pics of said car

 

[GeForce]

Thanks for all your replies.

I don;t think the issue is that they stopped them and made them get towed, more the points and the fine.

Definitely. I've got no issue with them being stopped, that's entirely right and proper.

1) Did they record any evidence of a broken spring?

That I don't know, but I will try and find out.

Pics of said car

The spring (and the opposite side) have since been replaced, and I don't think there were any pictures from before the repair I'm afraid.

 

[GeForce]

1. IMO it comes back to one of the best answers I've ever heard from a Police officer when someone was ranting about Police not having anything better to do than pull him over for speeding. 'Yes sir we do but unfortunately you were speeding so I have to waste my time with you.'

I am certainly not saying they should not have been pulled over. My question was more whether five officers and two cars waiting for the entire hour was excessive.

 

[L0rdMike]

TBF I bought my Leon with a broken spring and drove it a couple hundred km back home, even doing 100+ on the autobahn.

Depends where it breaks really

I'm curious as to how one can call overtaking a group of learner bikers at 113 mph whilst pedestrians are on the opposite pavement a perfectly safe manoeuvre.

Im curious as to how one can drive at over 100+ knowing they have a broken spring.

 

[PobodY]

TBF I bought my Leon with a broken spring and drove it a couple hundred km back home, even doing 100+ on the autobahn.

Depends where it breaks really

I had a fiesta like that too; bought it from a dealership in Sussex, so that I could move to Flintshire... and when it was MOT'd it had a snapped spring.

It could have been like that for 11 months for all I know. - I didn't notice anything odd about the handling or ride, but the car was new to me.

It's no help now, but my experience is to simply ask if you could have a caution instead. - More often than not, they don't have to book you.

 

[Westyfield2]

Sounds odd...

I had a front spring break on my 182, right at the top of the spring. The car sat fine, and seemed fine in normal driving. Over certain bumps or certain turns you would hear a creak coming from the front. I had a look round and under and couldn't see anything wrong.
It was only when I got the car up in the air, without wheels on, that I was able to find it.


So for the Police to be able to see it, surely it was pretty bad!?

 

[Del Lardo]

I am certainly not saying they should not have been pulled over. My question was more whether five officers and two cars waiting for the entire hour was excessive.

Without knowing what the staffing rotas were that day, what else was going on in the area, the skill set and experience of the officers in the first car etc we're in no position to say whether it was excessive or not.

If the officers had wanted to stand around and waste time I'm fairly sure they could have found somewhere better than the side of a road to do it, maybe the local Krispy Kreme

 

[wesimmo]

Ignorance is no defence....

While it may seem harsh in this case a broken spring could be very dangerous, if it collapses further at high speed on the motorway the potential for carnage is reasonably high.

I'd also rather that the police called in back up who are better qualified to make a judgement on a specialised point than get it wrong.

 

[VoG]

I am certainly not saying they should not have been pulled over. My question was more whether five officers and two cars waiting for the entire hour was excessive.

TBF, The officers concerned could've expected to get it dealt with within 10 mins, but police work being what it is, that second car could've been delayed on route because they'd seen some scrote acting the arse & had to stop & deal with it.

As for the whole 3 points & fine, again TBF, for all we know, the police force concerned, could've been having a crack down on defective vehicles where by, the usual 7 days grace to get said duff vehicle fixed goes out the window, & in it's place you get "here's your fine & points, have a nice day", which happens from time to time.