RTA Patrol Officers ?

[Giant Cranium]

Originally Posted by b2tf

Since when? It actually states on the RTA website in the rules relating to warning lights and what colours can be used that they use maroon lights only.

in sydney we have vans that do traffic control for accidents on major roads.
they sport red and blue lights and can make there way through traffic.

the rta inspectors have the purple lights.

and the oldest car the weatheral park rta have is a 06 crewman

[atec77]

Originally Posted by sanchoXB

Has anyone heard of this happening? I did a search but couldnt find a thread about it.

A mate of mine was travelling on the New England Hwy (nsw) and overtook a semi trailer, while passing he was travelling a bit quicker than the limit. Next thing there was an AU ute behind him with red & blue lights flashing. He pulled over and a guy gets out of the ute just in thongs, shorts & tshirt and walked up to the car.

My mate asked for some ID and the guy shows him an RTA ID card. The bloke tells him that he is employed by the RTA and has the some authority as a police highway patrol officer. Apparently the only reason he couldnt write my friend a ticket was because he was out of uniform, so he tells him to take it easy and let him go.

Does anyone know about these guys? I have never heard of it in NSW.

In Qld there are main road officers who can make you jump through hoops in relation to your vehical , they operate in uniform and are very professional with the ability to send you for a machinary or worse , I have never been approached by one off duty
I call suspicious at best

[GS608]

Sounds suspect..the only RTA/DOT cars with red and blue lights would be accident response to get through traffic..inspectors don't need to get through traffic at all and all would use magneta lights, i know a DOT inspector, they pretty much only use utes, some unmarked too but all have magneta lights and none older than BF MK 2

[FgNewbie]

A bit more about the vans with red and blue.

The RTA traffic control vans are TEP (Traffic Emergency Control). Image from wikipedia.



Page 11 of this RTA pdf dated 2003 refers to how TEP may drive through red lights but not exceed the speed limit.

TEP Crews
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/usingroads...tresponse.html
There are fully equipped, road based crews in key locations across Sydney and a dedicated team in the Hunter region. They provide support to emergency services and motorists, help maintain traffic flow by setting up traffic controls and assist in clearing incidents and repairing roads

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Yeah your right, even if you on wrong side of road passing, it doesn't matter.

If you have a head on at 100km/h oh well... as long as you obey the speed limit you will be right. But doing 10 over the limit OMG YOU EVIL PERSON

Grow up mate, if your following a vehicle doing 100 in a 100 zone where is the need to pass?
To sit 50 meters infront of the vehicle you couldnt sit behind?

If the vehicle infront is below the speed limit, say 90-95 you have a margin which allows you to overtake, 10-15k's.
If you cant safely do it without breaking the limit you are taking a risk in that you'll either die or get a fine...pretty easy hey!

So tell me, if a posted limit is 100, a vehicle infront is doing 100 and due to your impatience or need to get to the front of the line you must overtake, where do you suggest we draw the line at a safe overtaking speed?

[spebgtsprint]

My mate's a truckie and the nickname for the RTA inspectors are "Mermaids"

If you wanna know why theyre called that.........cos theyre C...S with scales!!

[MO]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Grow up mate, if your following a vehicle doing 100 in a 100 zone where is the need to pass?
To sit 50 meters infront of the vehicle you couldnt sit behind?

If the vehicle infront is below the speed limit, say 90-95 you have a margin which allows you to overtake, 10-15k's.
If you cant safely do it without breaking the limit you are taking a risk in that you'll either die or get a fine...pretty easy hey!

So tell me, if a posted limit is 100, a vehicle infront is doing 100 and due to your impatience or need to get to the front of the line you must overtake, where do you suggest we draw the line at a safe overtaking speed?

Everything is black and white with no grey in your book. I do feel sorry for you.
Anyway the colour of lockwood is brass and I see it coming.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by MO

Everything is black and white with no grey in your book. I do feel sorry for you.
Anyway the colour of lockwood is brass and I see it coming.

I dont write the laws mate, i just follow them.

[FgNewbie]

MO, I stopped reading their posts in another thread earlier today, I read them more like a fight looking for somewhere to happen.

[MO]

Originally Posted by FgNewbie

MO, I stopped reading their posts in another thread earlier today, I read them more like a fight looking for somewhere to happen.

Yep I reckon your spot on there.

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Grow up mate, if your following a vehicle doing 100 in a 100 zone where is the need to pass?
To sit 50 meters infront of the vehicle you couldnt sit behind?

If the vehicle infront is below the speed limit, say 90-95 you have a margin which allows you to overtake, 10-15k's.
If you cant safely do it without breaking the limit you are taking a risk in that you'll either die or get a fine...pretty easy hey!

So tell me, if a posted limit is 100, a vehicle infront is doing 100 and due to your impatience or need to get to the front of the line you must overtake, where do you suggest we draw the line at a safe overtaking speed?

Who said anything about passing a car doing 100 in a 100 zone? SO don't make up stuff then call me impatient.

Ok if a car is doing 90 in a 100 zone. You have 10 on them, So you indicate and then move to teh wrong side of teh road, First you have to close the gap of 50 meters, then you pass the car which is about 5 metres and then you have to travel another 20 metres or so before you can change back on front of them. So doing only 10km/h more it will take a while to complete.

Then half the time you get morons who start to speed up when you are half way past them.

Its my understanding you have to be decently educated to be a cop.
And an educated cop should be able to use their own brain, and own judgment and asses each situation individually and take into account the location, weather, road condition, cars speeds etc.
So the cop should be able to assess with his own judgment if a car doing 108(example speed) in a 100 zone overtaking a car doing 90 is really as dangerous as that same car overtaking at the speed limit of 100.

I drive hundreds of Kms a day on random country roads. Sometimes on roads that have no overtaking lanes at all and only few opportunities to pass on wrong side of road.
I get sick of driving on these roads all the time(especially at 3am) so I sit on or a few ks over the speed limit at all times if conditions allow me to safely do that.
I don't want to follow someone at 90 in a 100 zone for 30 km's, so I overtake them as quickly and safely as possible. Yes sometimes I go 10-15 over while passing but it feels safer then passing at only 100.

When I am passing in a designated overtaking lane I have no need to go over the limit so I just slowly cruise past them at normal speed.
But on wrong side of road its a different ball game.

Do you often drive on country roads? Or does all your driving take place on big multilane roads in the city?

When you just completed a 11 hour shift and its 3am and you want to get home, following someone at 90 in a 100 zone is frustrating.
Worse is when people slow down unnecessarily slow for corners then go right up to the limit on the straight overtaking bits. Have no choice to pass them at over the speed limit because I'm defiantly not going to follow them for the next 20 minutes on winding roads at well below the speed limit.

[Rodgy351]

Here's the facts, Magenta lights for ALL RTA inspectors. Red / Blue lights only on traffic control or response to incident type vehicles.

RTA inspectors deal with all commercial vehicles including light vehicles. They also work with Police on occasion with targeting of light vehicle, normally the Police stop the light vehicles and the RTA inspectors check them for mechanical conditions/ compliance with ADR's etc.

Mostly you will find they are involved with heavy vehicles in NSW because it fairly obvious that they are commercial use.

Cheers

[Rodgy351]

Oh yeah they do have some "unmarked" vehicles but they still have magenta lights (In grill etc) all vehicles will be late model I doubt anything older than 5 years and no AU's....

[MO]

Originally Posted by Rodgy351

Here's the facts, Magenta lights for ALL RTA inspectors. Red / Blue lights only on traffic control or response to incident type vehicles.

RTA inspectors deal with all commercial vehicles including light vehicles. They also work with Police on occasion with targeting of light vehicle, normally the Police stop the light vehicles and the RTA inspectors check them for mechanical conditions/ compliance with ADR's etc.

Mostly you will find they are involved with heavy vehicles in NSW because it fairly obvious that they are commercial use.

Cheers

Spot on and that is Oz wide.

[The G6ET Spot]

Originally Posted by spebgtsprint

My mate's a truckie and the nickname for the RTA inspectors are "Mermaids"

If you wanna know why theyre called that.........cos theyre C...S with scales!!

That actually dates back to the days of the Dept of Motor Transport (DMT) and the Dept main Roads (DMR).

They were originally nicknamed that by the DMT as the DMR scalies were disliked by the DMT more than the truck drivers. Until the two were combined to form the ratbags they now call the RTA.

The RTA at Wetherill Park now have 2 Rangers in their fleet.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Who said anything about passing a car doing 100 in a 100 zone? SO don't make up stuff then call me impatient.

I was using it as an example. The thread is about a guy getting done for excessive speed passing another vehicle.
If the guy who was pulled over was speeding, chances are the vehicle he overtook was doing the speedlimit or close to it.

Originally Posted by Ben73

Ok if a car is doing 90 in a 100 zone. You have 10 on them, So you indicate and then move to teh wrong side of teh road, First you have to close the gap of 50 meters, then you pass the car which is about 5 metres and then you have to travel another 20 metres or so before you can change back on front of them. So doing only 10km/h more it will take a while to complete.

Then half the time you get morons who start to speed up when you are half way past them.

Its my understanding you have to be decently educated to be a cop.
And an educated cop should be able to use their own brain, and own judgment and asses each situation individually and take into account the location, weather, road condition, cars speeds etc.
So the cop should be able to assess with his own judgment if a car doing 108(example speed) in a 100 zone overtaking a car doing 90 is really as dangerous as that same car overtaking at the speed limit of 100.

I drive hundreds of Kms a day on random country roads. Sometimes on roads that have no overtaking lanes at all and only few opportunities to pass on wrong side of road.
I get sick of driving on these roads all the time(especially at 3am) so I sit on or a few ks over the speed limit at all times if conditions allow me to safely do that.
I don't want to follow someone at 90 in a 100 zone for 30 km's, so I overtake them as quickly and safely as possible. Yes sometimes I go 10-15 over while passing but it feels safer then passing at only 100.

When I am passing in a designated overtaking lane I have no need to go over the limit so I just slowly cruise past them at normal speed.
But on wrong side of road its a different ball game.

Do you often drive on country roads? Or does all your driving take place on big multilane roads in the city?

When you just completed a 11 hour shift and its 3am and you want to get home, following someone at 90 in a 100 zone is frustrating.
Worse is when people slow down unnecessarily slow for corners then go right up to the limit on the straight overtaking bits. Have no choice to pass them at over the speed limit because I'm defiantly not going to follow them for the next 20 minutes on winding roads at well below the speed limit.

If you travel as many km's as you say, you would know that travelling 10k below the speed limit in a 100 zone will cost you an extra 6 minutes IF you had to travel an hour/100 kilometers to get to your destination.
30 kilometers at 90 in a 100 zone...2 minutes more.
If i had finished an 11 hour shift and was travelling at 3am i would be erring on the side of caution myself, each to their own.

Anyhow, this thread is about RTA inspectors who wannabe cops, so we'll let it get back OT hey.

[Ben73]

The 30 km is just an example of 1 section with no passing lanes. It's probably more then 30kms actually.
When it's a possible 4 hour trip every km/h helps. Getting off the road as quick as possible but still safely is best bet.
But yes this is gone off topic now sorry. Back to it!

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by LTDHO

I highly doubr it was an RTA offica.

Firstly they don't use 'red and blue ' lights or AU's, or thongs, or BS excuses 'can't give ya a ticket as I'm out of uniform'.

You mate was pulled over by a poor example of an imposter.

or option C and your mate is full of crap? just putting it out there

[Brazen]

If I was pulled over by an RTA man for speeding in a ute with an un-calibrated speedo and no speed checking equipment, I would tell him to go F... himself. They can only pull over limos, taxis and heavy vehicles.

Pulling over a private motorist and walking out in to freeway traffic in shorts and thongs would be instant dismissal from his job. This kind of rubbish should be reported immediately. There is no way for that RTA guy to check to see if your mate had firearm offences or a warrant for his arrest, it is bloody stupid to pull over someone like that.

And what next...? we let this ego-trip ****** who has had no police or stringent background checks to pull over a young female on some deserted road at 2 in the morning.


Ironically, what this idiot has done reinforces the strong argument many states and countries have in not allowing department of transport vehicles to have red and blue lights... as there is always the fear that people who have this authority the lights bring will abuse them.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

I was using it as an example. The thread is about a guy getting done for excessive speed passing another vehicle.
If the guy who was pulled over was speeding, chances are the vehicle he overtook was doing the speedlimit or close to it.



If you travel as many km's as you say, you would know that travelling 10k below the speed limit in a 100 zone will cost you an extra 6 minutes IF you had to travel an hour/100 kilometers to get to your destination.
30 kilometers at 90 in a 100 zone...2 minutes more.
If i had finished an 11 hour shift and was travelling at 3am i would be erring on the side of caution myself, each to their own.

Anyhow, this thread is about RTA inspectors who wannabe cops, so we'll let it get back OT hey.

And if the motor vehicle were being operated by a mindless drone then the difference between 90 and 100 and, well, 70 for that matter would not make any difference at all.

But not everyone is a mindless drone are they........

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by sanchoXB

A mate of mine was travelling on the New England Hwy (nsw) and overtook a semi trailer, while passing he was travelling a bit quicker than the limit. Next thing there was an AU ute behind him with red & blue lights flashing. He pulled over and a guy gets out of the ute just in thongs, shorts & tshirt and walked up to the car.

My mate asked for some ID and the guy shows him an RTA ID card. The bloke tells him that he is employed by the RTA and has the some authority as a police highway patrol officer. Apparently the only reason he couldnt write my friend a ticket was because he was out of uniform, so he tells him to take it easy and let him go.

Does anyone know about these guys? I have never heard of it in NSW.

It's possible that said mate was pulled over by a council employee, these people are authorised to stop Trucks for weight checks ONLY.

But, as has been said the real RTA do not have red and blue lights. Just the poofey purple ones and they don't have the authority to book car drivers for any road offence, only mechanical defects (on very rare occasions) .

Sounds like a local Dog Catcher (see 1st paragraph ) who also is an SES volunteer just so he can have disco lights on his ute!

[Dave3911]

Originally Posted by MO

Spot on and that is Oz wide.

No its not. You wont find ANY vicroads car fitted with red/blue in Victoria, regardless of their role. Its going to be either amber, or Magenta.

[XCwillo]

Yeah they have one in hervey bay, its a 4x4 i only just glanced at it. They have the authoroty to pull you over and do a roadworthy check on your car
BUT
in QLD, you are not required by law to pull over. So really, they will put their sirens on, and you can just keep on truckin'

Btw Bent 8 please be quiet before you infect the rest of us with Norrow Mindedness disorder

[MO]

Originally Posted by Dave3911

No its not. You wont find ANY vicroads car fitted with red/blue in Victoria, regardless of their role. Its going to be either amber, or Magenta.

Hang on....uhoh there it is a dreaded nit
I was agreeing to the way they operate more than the lights they use. sheesh!

[boss351c]

hhhhmmmmmm

[conordec]

http://images.whereilive.com.au/imag...2f_resized.jpg

[ED Classic]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Yes, but the 'Police' cant be around to watch over every road can they or we'd see another levy to help fund the extra officers/vehicles too.

!

Neither will the RTA or anything of any sorts and nor does everyroad need to be watched, Hasnt been this way for 222 years and wont be now. Speed cameras are the closest to doing it and they are about to be painted in fluro because they are revenue raisers atm

[ED Classic]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Fact is Police spend a good % of their time chasing criminals etc. so why not have a dedicated 'road rules' department keeping track of non compliant drivers.

Yep a huge %

[ED Classic]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Yes, but the 'Police' cant be around to watch over every road can they or we'd see another levy to help fund the extra officers/vehicles too.

If an RTA inspector see's you disobey a road rule whilst he is conducting his regular patrols, why shouldn't they be able to act on it.
They are trained to rule over 40t vehicles, im sure they can handle the odd passenger car.
And anyway, if you arent breaking any laws, whats the problem.

You hear these stories all the time...'but i was only speeding up to pass another vehicle'
Speeding is speeding, no excuses!

You could always go into politics and put your perfect world proposals out there?? Might get you a few votes and lose you a few thousand..

[Franco Cozzo]

Fisheries also uses purple lights as do VicRoads, I've never ever seen a VicRoads car with its purple lights though.