I was reading a link that mil1on had set out on another thread about a bunch of police in ontario busy on the long weekend with vehicle checks and whatnot. I was curious, has any of you guys been through these checks? Do the officers get pretty picky about stuff, or is it pretty obvious stuff they ding you for? Only "unfair" thing I have ever realy heard of is one frined got a ticket for forgetting to put his validation sticker on his plates, thats about it.

 

Hows that unfair?


The checks here are mainly for seatbelts, If they see youre wearing them, they wave ya through... There are also LARGE ORANGE signs before the stop stating its a seatbelt check, So, anyone that does wind up with a ticket, Pretty much deserves it.

 

yeah,they do stop checks here,but no advance warnings until you pop over the hill or go around the corner,and there they are. Kind of funny how they do it on nights when there is a big race going on at the local track or some other event going on there. doesn't work so well these days any more since the invent of the cell phone and a few good freinds that leave early

 

They have here also but mostly for license check. If you don't have one, they sock it to you on everything else.

They have them around the local county honky tonks which is a good thing because they get a lot of drunks off the road that way.

 

The ones at night after a big event are to catch drunk drivers. I live near a race track and have seen several cars off to the side with their drivers in handcuffs waiting to be picked up and taken to the station.

 

Around holidays and whenever the police get bored and set up much like cjben described it. No big orange signs, warnings or anything. They catch a good run of drunks too, so if you happen to come up on one, you will know cause you will have to wait forever. Dont try to turn around either, they will chase you.

 

Decades ago, California had roadside safety checks that did involve vehicle equipment. Sometimes it was just "toot the horn and flash the lights" and you were done. One time they went over my car looking at everything, wanting to write me up for something, anything. They even crawled underneath and checked all the suspension parts. No luck. I pride myself in keeping my cars in perfect shape. If you passed you got a sticker good for a year.

Jim

 

In my part of North America, they check seat belts, sticker, vehicle insurance, driver license, & sobriety checks, child booster seats. The officers use a pen like flash light that can detect if there is alcohol on driver or vehicle. There is no warning signs, just the orange cones and a STOP sign at the location of the check point.

buck

 

The Ontario Provincial Police have been doing blitzes every summer long weekend for the past three or four years. They started after there was a bunch of runaway tires from poorly maintained trucks (several people were killed), then changed their focus from unsafe trucks to all vehicles.

They check for: drunks, seat belts, overloading, rusted-out vehicles, worn-out brakes, suspension & steering parts, bald tires, unlicenced drivers, uninsured drivers, expired plates, "borrowed" plates, etc. And OPP Seargent Cam Woolley reports the highlights (lowlights?) to the TV news reporters every day of the blitz. This past weekend, one Cavalier was stopped where only the driver didn't have a licence, but he had the only working seat belt. Apparently the car looked like it had been rolled, and the plates were "borrowed" from a friend.

I don't get it... the safety blitzes happen every long weekend, and along Hwy 400 (one of 2 main routes to cottage country) the blitz is held in the same spot. The police are very public about the existence of the blitzes and the drunks, idiots and junkers they find. And yet people still head for the lake in cars that belong in a smelting furnace. Some people are just stupid.

During one blitz last summer they targeted U-Hauls, and something like 75% had their licence plates pulled for being unsafe. There is/was a loophole in the truck & trailer inspection laws that vehicles rented for transport of personal goods were not required to have annual inspections, & U-Haul took advantage of it. They have since revamped their fleet (so they say). My first experience with U-Haul (pre-blitz) was horrible: truck wouldn't steer straight, 50% of the trailer lights were burned out & none worked because the gound wire wedged between 2 pieces of steel in the truck's bumper fell out when I made the first turn... and they rigged it like this knowing I was taking off at dusk. The second experience (post-blitz) was much better, but the car hauler only had 10 psi in one tire when they sent me off - I made sure to check **everything** before I left (900 mile trip). Unfortunately, we in Canada are stuck with them because no other company does one-way rentals here any more.

OK, I'll stop ranting now...

Cheers,
Eric

 

[QUOTE=jake00] Hows that unfair? [QUOTE] Exactly, it was totally fair, thats why I have the ol " " around unfair Here they kind of surprise you with the stopchecks too, not usually a big orange sign, although sometimes they do have a small blockade, similar to construction ones.

 

In Calgary they set them up in "no way out type traps"
ie:
On Macleod Tr S (a major route out of downtown) south bound between 17 ave & 26 ave se .. & again just before 34 ave se.

On Mission road "on a secluded curve "either direction.

The Calgary Check Stop detail knows what it is doing.

They even publish it on their web site.

http://www.gov.calgary.ab.ca/police/...ty/frame1.html

 

In Calgary they set them up in "no way out type traps"
ie:
On Macleod Tr S (a major route out of downtown) south bound between 17 ave & 26 ave se .. & again just before 34 ave se.

On Mission road "on a secluded curve "either direction.

The Calgary Check Stop detail knows what it is doing.

They even publish it on their web site.
Right now they are doing vehicle equipment & bicycles .

http://www.gov.calgary.ab.ca/police/...ty/frame1.html