Returning from a week in the Barossa Valley on Tuesday 14OCT14 , I depart Horsham eastwards at 9.30am in the 200, towing the caravan. Weather conditions were beyond deplorable, however had to be
home in
Melbourne by 15OCT14 for some medical appointments.
We, (my wife and I) had taken two vehicles to cover a swag of visiting logistics of relatives etc in the time available. Must say, I highly recommend the two car travelling idea, her driving one vehicle and myself the other. What a fabulous way to travel, if you get the gist that is.
Anyway, I had a few oncoming vehicles flicking their head lights at me which indicated to me, that some sort of Police/speed camera thingy was up ahead which didn’t bother me as I was towing under the limit.
Just before entering
Stawell my wife informs on the UHF that a marked Police car has passed her and is sitting right behind me. So I have a look in the mirror and sure enough I can just see the dude hanging in there behind me. Approx three seconds later he pulls out a bit and all the ‘lights’ go on and I pull over right on the 60kph entry
sign to
Stawell, VIC.
Out he gets and walks up to the driver’s window and asks for my drivers licence which I produce, nothing else is said and he returns to his vehicle. My wife had by this time pulled in behind him.
About five or so minutes later he returns and walks to the front of the car and kneels down on the ground and appears to look along the side of the 200. I am starting to think that there is something wrong with the vehicle and/or caravan, such as too wide or illegal something or others etc etc.
He then gets up and comes back to the driver’s window and proceeds to give to give me the CAUTION:
“I must warn you that you are not obliged to say anything and that anything you do say may be give in evidence at a later time. etc etc etc”.
Holy chit! Batman, you only get that prior to being questioned for some criminal offence of serious import. Keep in mind that NOTHING has been said other than produce your licence, which I had complied with and which he still had in his hand. My mind was starting to spin like a Merry-go-Round. (a) it couldn’t be a terrorist thing because he had obviously identified me on his on board computer and no ‘terrorist flags’ or arrest warrants were out for me, (b) my drivers licence, vehicle and caravan rego were all current from his computer checks. (c) Maybe he suspected I was a narcotics courier or possibly an arms dealer etc. This didn’t look good at all and I fully anticipated the next move would be – ‘please step out of the car sir’ then ‘put your hands on the car where I can see them’.
Guess what, nup, he doesn’t do that all, he produces a yellow thingy like a multimeter that was in his left hand and I hadn’t seen and breathalyses me. Not a molecule of alcohol in me. He then says ‘are you travelling with that vehicle that has pulled in behind me’. I say ‘yes it is my wife’ ( maybe it’s her that’s in the chit, whatever it maybe) He says ‘that’s okay then.
This is the punch line of it all
He says ‘have you got your headlights on’
I say ‘yes’
He says ‘are the on high beam’
I have a look at the dash and can’t see any lights on due to the sun and the sun glasses I was wearing. So I removed the sun glasses and sure enough the dark blue light indicated high beam was on and I switched it off.
I said ‘yes’
He says ‘didn’t you see those vehicles flicking their lights at you.
I said ‘yes I did’
He says ‘
well, why didn’t you switch your lights off of high beam’
I said ‘I had no idea they were on high beam’.
I couldn’t very
well say that I thought they were flicking me to warn me of his presence on the highway ahead of me.
He repeated the same question and I repeated the same answer and he returned to his vehicle.
He came back about 10 minutes later carrying my copy of a traffic infringement notice for Failing to dip headlights $221.00 and 1 point.
I said ‘thank you very much’ to Leading Senior Constable B Van Maanen (No. 22803) of the Northern
Grampians Highway Patrol and proceeded on my way.
There you have it, the Dukes Highway is now a much safer place that I dipped my headlights, which I was totally unaware were on high beam in broad daylight.