v8mike

Driving back from montreal in my gf's lexus. Im doing the limit and am surprised when an OPP cruiser pulls me over. He gives me a ticket for the tinted plate cover she has on the back (which I didnt even realize she had). Ive heard that insurance rates go up for any moving violation. This would be my first... is there any leeway that the insurance companies provide? This happened near kingston, so Im not sure where the court house would be if I chose to fight it.

kwikshifter

Phone your broker/agent. The court would likely be Kingston or Napanee area. Take the coloured covers off the plates.

v8mike

Taking the plate covers off is the first thing I did when we got home. Had I paid more attention to her car, I would have removed it the moment I saw it.
Dammit. This trip is going to cost me more than I anticipated.

84camaro

thats a pretty shitty ticket... i mean wtf..

kwikshifter

Sadly a hundred big Lincolns or Buicks will cruise by with coloured covers, expired plates, plates so rusty they're hardly there, blue numbers rubbed off completely, yada, yada. Then a nice car will come by and get a garbage ticket like this.

Yes, it breaks the HTA rules, but so does every plate holder used by almost all dealerships. They all cover part of the writng so the dealers' name can be advertised.

AMKK

Agreed, $hitty ticket. But what can you do?!

kingcasino

Hey its not illegal to have a tinted plate Cover, especially since there SOLD AT THE MINISTRY. Go and fight it and get that off your record man. Canadian tire sells them too, id be fighting that big time.

v8mike

they are sold at the ministry?? no way.

i intend to fight it.. even if i "win" in court, its still a loss for me due to the time/aggravation/money spent fighting it. such is life i guess.

gldwngr

Anything that obscures or changes the colour of your plate is illegal, including the smoked covers and the blue ones. Even clear covers are illegal if they interfere in any way with viewing the license plate.

The "Ministry" doesn't sell the covers. Some of the independent operators who contract with the Ministry to process plates and licenses might still do so as a sideline, but that does not make the plates legal.

AMKK

You need to be informed about this. It is illegal, no matter how you try to look at it. Guys sell crack..That doesn't make it legal. (One extreme to the other, but true in this case)

v8mike

Im not questioning the legality of the tinted cover.. I guess Im just upset and think its unfair that my insurance rates should go up after driving someone else's car that had an improper modification done to it. It seems a bit silly to me - I mean, am I supposed to do a full inspection of the car prior to driving it to see if it has a cats, full emissions controls, and otherwise fully compliant with the HTA? I just switched to the drivers seat 15 min prior to getting pulled over!!!

car_crazy89

Wow that sucks, I never knew that was illegal... our truck has a tinted cover on the rear..

Good luck with it though, hopefully you win the fight :thumbsup:

Barry95

wow that sucks i've never had a problem with the covers i have the smoked out ones on my black 95 civic and have never been bugged by the police

Bookm

The real kicker is that Canadian winters render MOST plates totally un-readable due to snow and dirt kicked up off the road, but of course we wouldn't expect to get a ticket for these totally illegible plates. Yet try to add a little "style" to your plate (usually over a vanity plate), and your robbed of your hard-earned money. I see these covers every day and I have NO problem reading the numbers (especially the yellow tinted ones). But I suppose there is a possibility that they could interfear with our precious red-light cameras. Why doesn't the law do something to prevent their sale at Canadian Tire. It's illegal to sell Radar Detectors because they're illegal to use. So why not make it illegal to sell tinted covers too?

There was a time when cops were more interested in educating (via a warning) rather than citing. Those days are gone. Older, more experienced cops may still give a warning. The young ones have a zero tolerance mentality. As soon as I see a "young'n" in my mirror, I know it's hopeless.

I think you should fight this ticket on the grounds that it is a Strict Liability offence. You did everything a "reasonable" person would do to comply with the law. I doubt a judge would agree with the Crowns contention that you should inspect someone elses car for all these little detailes before driving it. Safety related issues such as bad tires, burned out headlight, etc. maybe, but not a plate cover. If YOU installed these covers, you wouldn't stand a chance, since YOU caused the violation. You didn't cause it so I feel you'd have a good day in court.

I hope you ignore the inconvenience-factor and stay mad enough to see this through.

Best of luck to you,
Book

gldwngr

Want to bet? Accumulated dirt is just as good as a plate cover for getting a ticket. You may get more leniency for snow build-up, particularly during or right after a storm, but seeing as you should already be clearing snow off your tail lights anyways, a quick sweep of the license plate shouldn't be seen as an onerous task.