SEMA Note

From: Richard A Pyburn (rap777@juno.com)
Date: Tue May 01 2001 - 15:27:19 EDT


I got this e-mail from SEMA today, in case anyone is interested:

More and more, SEMA hears about people being "turned in" to authorities
because they violated the law by changing their oil in the driveway
rather
than at the local gas station or because a nosy neighbor peered over
their
privacy fence and reported them to zoning officials for having a project
car
in their backyard.
 
Other folks point to being pulled over (and sometimes ticketed) for silly
reasons, including, but not limited to, the following:
 
Street rodders pulled over for "unsafe" blue-dot taillights or for having
"non-stock" parts on a customized vehicle.
 
Antique cars owners ticketed for not wearing seatbelts when the car was
never originally equipped with them.
 
Import-performance rides pulled over and cited because they simply have a
modified exhaust or it "sounds too loud."
 
Lowriders ticketed for using hydraulics at a designated car show (not
while
driving).
 
Lifted 4x4 owners pulled over and cited because, "Man, that thing is just
TOO tall."
 
Garage owners who were forced out of business because of overzealous
government regulation.
 
The automotive hobby, from street rods to lifted 4x4's and every vehicle
type in-between, is subject to a nationwide hodge-podge of silly laws,
weird
regulations and chaotic enforcement . And it seems everybody has a story
to
tell about their experiences.
 
We want to hear these stories! Write to SEMA with your experiences,
tales
of woe, accounts of silliness and narratives of the bizarre. We'll do
our
part by publishing them in a semi-regular column in the Driving Force
called
"Can You Believe?!"
 
Perhaps by publicizing the ridiculous lengths the government will go
through
to harass, restrict and confuse hobbyists, we can inject a little common
sense into how vehicle laws (and vehicle hobbyist laws) are developed and
enforced.
 
Submit stories, pictures, documentary evidence, etc. to the following:
 
Can You Believe?!
Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA)
1317 F Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004
202-783-6024 (fax)
brianc@sema.org
 
 
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