Snapped Spring - 3 points & a fine?

GeForce said:
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.
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Must have been bad to be seen from the cop car behind her so that covers that.
He asked her whether she had noticed anything, She replied, I heard something but just thought it was something kicking about in the boot.
So she has admitted to not even bothering to check the noise when it's obviously in pretty bad shape.

She has nothing to moan about & should take more care when it comes to knocks & bangs from her car as she is responsible for it & anything she does in or with it.
 
Put in a formal comlpaint and demand a repsonse, state the facts and how you were treated/talked to.

There is no acountability in the Police really, they can do what they like and get away with it because the people in charge of making sure they do behave correctly are all fellow officers or ex officers all buddied up but having a comlpaint on record might help things in future if the IPCC is eventually sorted.

And attest it in court if you really want to and don't think the cars danegerous. Going by whats been said alone, I would, but then, as much as I dislike the Police and they are known for lying, you do have only your GF's account of things second hand.
 
hurfdurf said:
Put in a formal comlpaint and demand a repsonse, state the facts and how you were treated/talked to.

There is no acountability in the Police really, they can do what they like and get away with it because the people in charge of making sure they do behave correctly are all fellow officers or ex officers all buddied up but having a comlpaint on record might help things in future if the IPCC is eventually sorted.

And attest it in court if you really want to and don't think the cars danegerous. Going by whats been said alone, I would, but then, as much as I dislike the Police and they are known for lying, you do have only your GF's account of things second hand.
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So you're says that you would contest the Driving a Dangerous car charge in court because you didn't like the way you were talked to when the OP admits that the suspension was broken so badly that the Police could see from a visual check.

Not advise that I would follow and I've contested (and won) a driving charge in court.
 
If the account of the incident is true, and the car wasn't horribly leaning to one side, it would be unfair to expect someone unfamiliar with cars to notice it.
 
wesimmo said:
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.
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VoG said:
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.
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These are both very good points, I hadn't really considered this.

4T5 said:
She has nothing to moan about & should take more care when it comes to knocks & bangs from her car as she is responsible for it & anything she does in or with it.
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I guess this comes back to the "ignorance is not a defence" point, which is entirely fair. Are you of the opinion that the officer giving them a warning would not have been appropriate, especially given the number of people who have been saying they've driven on broken springs for a hundred or more miles?

hurfdurf said:
Put in a formal comlpaint and demand a repsonse, state the facts and how you were treated/talked to.
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I'm not planning to advise her either way on how to proceed, I don't feel I can given, as you say, I have only heard one side of the story and was not even present at the incident. The purpose of this thread is just to hear people's thoughts and opinions.

I did ask my girlfriend if anything else had happened, and I don't believe she's missed anything out of the story in relaying it to me. However, there is of course some inevitable bias here.
 
GeForce said:
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.
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No, it wasn't excessive. First car wanted a second opinion, second car arrived to provide it. It's not like they had three RPUs, an ARV, a dog van and a helicopter overhead, is it?

If the officers acted unprofessionally, and if she genuinely feels they didn't deal with the situation properly, she should complain. She needs to make sure she's not just bitter because she was told-off for clearly having no idea of the condition her car was in, however.
 
TheVoice said:
No, it wasn't excessive. First car wanted a second opinion, second car arrived to provide it. It's not like they had three RPUs, an ARV, a dog van and a helicopter overhead, is it?
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This is true. Why the second car didn't leave as soon as the verdict was complete is something I am still missing, however.

TheVoice said:
If the officers acted unprofessionally, and if she genuinely feels they didn't deal with the situation properly, she should complain. She needs to make sure she's not just bitter because she was told-off for clearly having no idea of the condition her car was in, however.
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Yes of course, and there is certainly an element of emotion, especially immediately after the incident. However, my girlfriend was also unsettled by the way they were treated and spoken to, and it isn't her car (although admittedly it is her friend).
 
GeForce said:
This is true. Why the second car didn't leave as soon as the verdict was complete is something I am still missing, however.
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Because if they've made a judgement that then leads to further action being taken against the driver, it makes sense for them to stick around. Why do they need to leave?
 
GeForce said:
I guess this comes back to the "ignorance is not a defence" point, which is entirely fair. Are you of the opinion that the officer giving them a warning would not have been appropriate, especially given the number of people who have been saying they've driven on broken springs for a hundred or more miles?
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I had a broken spring on my MX5 when I bought it a few weeks back, Front off side, Trust me when I say it would have had to be completely ****** for a driver in the car behind to notice. You'd never have noticed mine unless you stopped me got a torch out stuck your head under the arch & had a poke around. I have driven loads of motors with broken springs over the years & not one of them has been visible from a car driving behind.
Because of this I have to think that it was completely detached & the car was sagging a lot not a little like you had something in the boot but a lot making the car look odd from the rear. So because I think through my own experience that it must have been completely ****** the Cop actually did the driver a favour your girlfriend & you as the car must have been crabbing & would not have broke in a straight line under heavy braking through an emergency stop etc.
 
I suppose the moral of the story is, everyone, including women, needs to walk around their car and give it a rough inspection.

As others have said, it must have been bad to notice it without looking directly at it.
 
Westyfield2 said:
For it to have been noticed by the car behind it must have been pretty bad!
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Is the point here that because it must have been so bad, the driver should have noticed and this therefore excuses the points and fine?

4T5 said:
So because I think through my own experience that it must have been completely ****** the Cop actually did the driver a favour your girlfriend & you as the car must have been crabbing & would not have broke in a straight line under heavy braking through an emergency stop etc.
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You mean the points & fine instead of a warning was in order to properly make the point that the car could have been dangerous? Fair enough if so, just clarifying :)
 
GeForce said:
You mean the points & fine instead of a warning was in order to properly make the point that the car could have been dangerous? Fair enough if so, just clarifying :)
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Yes I think it was minor shock tactics to make her be more aware of her car & whether it's roadworthy. It is Winter after all so conditions are bad & she certainly wouldn't want to break down or have an accident whilst out on her own.


As for the other Cops turning up I wouldn't be surprised if they popped along to see how bad it looked. Of course if they got a call out then they'd leave immediately.
 
I can only imagine that if a spring had failed so badly it was visible from outside the car, it must have been easily noticeable to even the most car-phobic of drivers, especially if you had heard a noise which you attributed to being something in the boot. The car must have felt awful, pulling to one side, perhaps even sitting noticeably lop-sided.

I have my suspicions they may well have known that something happened and they/the friend decided to just carry on and get her boyfriend/husband/brother/dad to look at it later. Upon getting tugged they decided instead to feign total ignorance in a not especially convincing manner, leading to the police taking a less than favourable tone with them and ultimately dishing out the points and a fine.

Pure speculation on my behalf but I wouldn't be entirely surprised to find out that was near enough what happened.
 
4T5 said:
Yes I think it was minor shock tactics to make her be more aware of her car & whether it's roadworthy.
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Understood, and that does sound like a plausible explanation. Thank you :)

Kenai said:
Pure speculation on my behalf but I wouldn't be entirely surprised to find out that was near enough what happened.
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There is a good chance you're right actually, I hadn't really thought about it like this. It would certainly explain some things, particularly the officers' reactions in terms of tone and penalty.
 
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