200zl mandat and 3 points for not wearing seatbelts?

I had heart attack in 1980, was given a triple by-pass in in Krakow in 2008, treated lppenappently he "English Hosiptal, neber even gave me an " angiogram" which was " dome body is censoring this !!!!!

Actually he glanced over, whilst waiting to enter a roundabout (we were on the roundabout). He must be the first policeman I have seen in poland acting in an assuming manner. Think Germany or UK and the way they just assume you have done something wrong/illegal. Reminds me of the time I was pulled in the UK for going TOO SLOW. On what basis? Because only drunk men or criminals drive slowly when they see the police!! This whilst a murder, rape, robbery and mugging were all taking place around the corner (actually that's not true, but I'm sure we all get the point). I just hope we don't see the "send the shooting squad, a teenager's just stolen a Mars bar" mentality here.

100m or 100km - it really doesn't matter how far you drive, you always need to wear a seat belt. It's the law. I'm glad he fined you, solid cop. Go ahead, lose respect for a cop who does his job. You're just bitter that you got fined.

No they didnt assume, they knew you had broken the law and punished you accordingly.


Because you were a danger to other drivers?


Or yourself.


Well done, attempt to turn a simple thing like not wearing a seatbelt and try to compare it to rape ect....
You broke the law, and u knew it whilst doing it. Suck it up and accept it. You have no god given right to be let off.

Cannot? That's interesting indeed - though as I understood it, you always had the right to pay later anyway if you had permanent residency/citizenship.

(one particularly annoying thing in Poland is that EU citizens with the right of residence certificate still have to pay on the spot despite the residence certificate being indefinite. I can understand those with foreign licences, but I have a Polish licence!)

But why were they looking in the first place?? Assumption??


No, because they were assuming I had done something wrong.


No apparently it's only criminals or drunks (according to the policeman's assumption)


Now you're assuming that I broke the law, when in actual fact I didn't break the law. Ermm are you a policeman??


I suppose a quote like 'solid cop' indicates you're American. So, you probably think he was reasonable for not pulling out his gun and shooting me.

I don't understand - you were driving without seatbelts on, but you're saying that you didn't break the law?

How does that work?

Technically the driver is at fault for allowing his/her passengers to travel without a seatbelt. I wasn't the actual driver in this case, hence the points didn't go on my licence, nor the fine in my name. I don't know is if this applies to both the front and rear of a car?? Either way, it's another example of daft laws in effect.

how hard it is to put a seat belt on? on a scale of one to ten? my difficulty rating would have it at 1. you got busted for not wearing a seatbelt. in the grand scheme of things it really is a stupid fine. stupid for the cop and even more stupid for you for not putting on a belt even though you were only going a short distance. but the law is the law- the cop did his job and shouldn't be faulted for it.

and seriously, how much time is lost or saved when putting on a seat belt? 3 seconds?

Aha, I get you.

It's not so much daft, as just a different way of doing things - the driver is in charge of the vehicle, and has the responsibility to make sure that it's operated in a safe manner. Polish law is pretty consistent on this.

The seatbelts are just constrainig and uncomfortable. And the law demanding to wear it, it is downright stupid. As i have said, it is my life and my decision. If I decide to jump, head first, from the roof of 10th floor building, it is my buisness too, and no one's else.

ok- so if you survive a car crash- who pays the hospital bills? we the tax payers unless you have private health care. you sound like a stupid american.

I don't even notice mine when driving, and I'm not the tallest of people. If it's constraining and uncomfortable, then it's probably not adjusted properly.

That wasn't fair, Pip. He just sounds stupid.

sorry, you are right. but it is a typical american thing to say....

To say that seatbelts are uncomfortable thus I won't wear them was a typically Russian thing to say. :)

That's true, but from the way he writes I think he's British. Either way, stupidity knows no boundaries.

Intersting Sasha. I note you say 'was'. Is this a reference to all the old Skodas, where you had to continually get out to push the cars, hence it was a waste of time to fasten your seatbelt :)

How to overtake in Poland, ahh i do miss the Polish roads. Cant believe i recorded this on a 400 PLN mobile phone.

then he should know better. the law regarding seatbelts is just the same over there.

krakman is looking for any and every possible excuse and trying to put the blame elsewhere.

Yep. Nice video. What car were you driving? The instruments on the dash make me think German.

A thread about WB's driving skills already exists. Stay on topic.

Cheers, it was my old Mercedes CLK 430, V8.

I live in canada, limey. There's no need to shoot, a ticket to a cocky limey such as yourself will suffice. Sounds like you think you're above the law in Poland.

If you can get that law passed, it will take 85% Polish drivers off the road.

More than 85%!

Having said that, generally speaking in Poland, speed limits are sensibly set. You don't see UK-style nonsense of lower limits without justification - I especially like the way that you have 90km/h sections of road, then 60km/h for a junction, then straight back to 90km/h. Fair, safe and reasonable.

Have to agree there. Apart from the odd police trap (where they set-up shop just after a badly signed 50kmh section). On the whole fair! I think it's also 21kmh above the limit before a ticket can be issued. Delph mentioned he was caught going 71kmh, so must have been spot bang on the borderline??

naukajazdy.pl/kodeks_ruchu_drogowego/punkty_karne.html

Here's a list of everything that you can get points for - as I understand it, they can stop you for doing 6km/h over. In practice, it seems to be more like 10km/h over - and they aren't interested on motorways unless you're doing over 160km/h.

One thing I do like here is that when the speed limit is lower, it usually tells you that there's a bloody good reason for it. It definitely means that you have more respect for the limits, because they aren't lowering limits for the hell of it.

Just wish they would do something about the dreadful amount of tailgating that goes on here... I remember one guy boiling with rage behind me because I dared to obey every single speed limit - I'd just been caught and didn't want any more points. But nooo. Mr Important in his company car couldn't stand it!

Have to wholeheartdely agree. That and the nasty habit of standing on the breaks 0.01mm before a turning (hence going from 100kmh to 15kmh in a nanosecond). The mandatory flick of the indicator usually follows when the driver is 99% around the corner.

Ahhh, yes! I noticed that I even started slipping into this habit a few weeks ago, it's a nasty, nasty thing.

What confuses me is that the driving test is equal to the UK test in terms of demands, and is even fairer due to the microphones/cameras in cars - so why the hell do they drive so badly? I can only assume it's down to one thing - the almost total lack of enforcement. In Poznan, there are about 4-5 places where they always sit - as long as you know not to speed there, you're almost certain never to get stopped.

By the way, I was thinking more about why the driver gets the punishment - and it could be because it's easier to give the driver an effective punishment (points) than to merely fine everyone. If it was, for instance, 50zl fine for each passenger - many people would simply not be bothered to wear the belts. But with the driver getting points, the driver has the motive to make sure that everyone wears them. When you think about the rebellious Polish attitude, the carrot-and-stick approach probably works best.

Why have you posted this, hero? Are you a teen to post a video where you break the law (start passing through the double solid line + use your cellphone)?


No, the fine for not having seatbelt fastened used to be lower - so low that corrupted Russian cops didn't bother to stop those who didn't use it. Also on some cars seatbelts are really uncomfortable.

Here's my first car: No AC + uncomfortable seatbelts made any summerday look like hell.