The city’s traffic officers have been stopping cars they saw as having been modified and removing their licence disks, forcing the owners to go through a roadworthy process.
Traffic department spokesman Richard Coleman said that it doesn't matter if your car is a sedan, small suv, sport sedan or a regular suv and pointed out that regulations stated no modifications could be made to any vehicle that was not specified by the manufacturer, and that all work on cars had to be done by individuals or organisations who carried a letter of authority regarding the specific car.
Essentially, no modifications were legal, including lowering a car or changing the wheel size, he said.
In 3 short pages we will try to explain what's wrong with this new law!
FEELING VICTIMISED
Owners of modified cars complained that they were being victimised by traffic officers even when the modifications they made were with proper, high-quality components that were recognised around the world.
But Coleman contended that the mere action of lowering a car made it unsafe on the road. When asked how it could be unsafe if the Federation Internationale d’Automobile (FIA) allowed the lowering of cars for competitive motor racing, he said it would be safe for the track but not for the road.
This week the city said that it was renewing its focus on fast-tracking regulations to tackle illegal racing. This would include imposing heavier fines, impounding vehicles and calling for longer jail sentences for those caught breaking the law.
Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the city was not authorised to arrest motorists nor suspend illegally modified vehicles from the roads.
He asked that the new provincial traffic regulations, which are set to be announced by Transport MEC Donald Grant in April, give city officials more authority.
But several owners of modified cars, who spoke to the Cape Argus on condition of anonymity, said traffic officers who stopped them, directly accused them of being street racers.
“I have installed a very high quality coil-over-shock suspension system on my car. The coil springs are made in such a way that the coils are closer together at one point and further apart at another, in order to allow for a stepped spring action. A traffic officer stopped me and told me the springs were collapsed,” an owner said.
Coleman referred to various regulationsmand said traffic officers were not able to change or interpret the laws, they just had to apply them.
One of the regulations he referred to was that which determined roadworthiness and what roadworthy testing stations had to reject. Here, the regulation expressly states that components which were not specified by the original manufacturer had to be rejected.
Cape Argus
