We all remember how awesome and suddenly completely terrifying it was taking off in the car for the first time after passing the test and getting our driver’s license. Slapping those glorious P-Plates on the front and back windows. Adjusting the seat from wherever Mum, Dad, or whoever had it set last. Gingerly taking off down the road with only a light sweat glistening on the knuckles and a burgeoning sense that you’re a grown ass adult now. It was mad.
So spare a thought for a Victorian teen who managed to hang on to her freshly minted license for all of two hours before having it immediately suspended after tasting the cold kiss of the speed camera’s gun.
Cops in Wandin North in outer eastern Melbourne nabbed the 18-year-old driver on Monday afternoon driving just on twice the speed limit.
Ordinarily for that sentence you’d expect the kid to have been doing some obscene speed, but in this instance it would appear a slight lack of awareness is to blame (we hope).
Police caught the teen just prior to 3pm travelling at 79 km/h on the Warburton Highway, in a stretch of the road that just so happened to be a School Zone.
Officers on the scene issued the young driver, who had received her driver’s license just under two hours’ prior, with a $595 fine and suspended her extremely new license on the spot.
Road cops are out in force over the holiday period – stretching from December 15 until January 7 – as part of Operation Roadside. A name which, frankly, suggests they’ve either run out of other options or have simply stopped trying.
As for the young driver, chalk that one up to inexperience and move on. We’ve all ran afoul of the law while behind the wheel. It’s just none of us have managed to do it that quickly.
If nothing else, that’s a hell of a pub yarn to spin up.
