QLD failed to stop at stop sign fine - stopped at the sign not at the line

[Paul Nguyen]

Long story short stopped at the stop sign instead of the line at an intersection
sign is about 10m from the line. Officer acknowledged i did this and said i was in the wrong .. np

My understanding is that the law says you ignore the sign if there is a line. ok

The infringement says failed to stop at stop sign.... which im pretty sure i did

End of the day i messed up and can live with it. There is just something that annoys the crap out of me that the infringement says i failed to do something the officer acknowledged i did

Google Maps

Thoughts???

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

Don't worry necessarily about what the infringement notices say in terms of wording - it's the underpinning regulation that applies.

Section 67 of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management - Road Rules) Regulation 2009 (the 'Road Rules') provides:
"(1) This section applies to a driver at an intersection without traffic lights who is facing a stop sign or stop line.
(2) The driver must stop as near as practicable to, but before reaching -
(a) the stop line; or
(b) if there is no stop line - the intersection.
Penalty - Maximum penalty - 20 penalty units."

Notice how in subsection (2) it doesn't mention the stop sign? That's because it is the line that is the important factor on determining where you should stop. A stop sign is just there to catch things in case there's no line - a possible, but rare, occurrence. It also covers the more likely scenario of having the line but no sign for whatever reason.

Given the linked map, stopping at the actual sign is pointless. It's more of a hazard to do that, if anything, as you'd be unnecessarily stopping in the middle of a lane. Plus there's no way that stopping at that point could adequately give you sufficient opportunity to assess the traffic conditions in all directions for the moment when you would actually reach the intersection. This is especially the case for oncoming traffic from the left due to the trees obscuring a driver's vision if they were to stop and the stop sign.

 

[Paul Nguyen]

Np so ill take it to mean as long as the underlying legislation is correct which i have no dispute over. They can call the infringement basically whatever they want...
good to know

 

[Scruff]

It doesn't really matter how they describe it - they just need to get the applicable section number right.

With that said, I've driven all over the country and I don't recall having ever seen a stop or give way sign that far from it's line before. Very odd indeed.