Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[nhp651]

Thank god that this government has finally woken up to the problems that inferior drivers and their poorly maintained vehicles cause on our british roads whilst getting away with it.
About time the police were able to take action against them.

[Bunkerbarge]

I am absolutely staggered that we have not been able to do anything about this until now.  When you think of the other way round and what can happen if you break a traffic law on the Continent I can only say that it has been gross incoptetence that has allowed this situation to go on for so long.

I hope they throw the book at every one they catch from now on.

[Mark47]

Thank god that this government has finally woken up to the problems that inferior drivers and their poorly maintained vehicles cause on our british roads whilst getting away with it.
About time the police were able to take action against them.

It's people driving with mobile phones in thier hand they should be taking more action with . In the idustry I work in if I used a mobile whilst driving, I'd loose my job which has a knock on effect, can't pay morgage and so on and on.........

As a pedestrian I have been hit twice by people on mobiles at traffic controlled crossings and the F*** Wits have still kept driving

[TCC]

We watched a bus driver get a ticket the other week week from a copper for that, the common consensus amoung us was that it was 'probably his manager asking where he was'.

He had the look of a doomed man, poor fella. It was one of those little buses.. little company... little route. Will there be 2,000,001 unemployed after his court date?

Re: the foreigners who drive: I'm fed up of watching polive/stop/chase programs where they pull some poor numpty after the number plate recognition has sussed them and taking his car. Yes, I do feel satisfied when it's an asian/chinese/Romanian who suddenly, after conversing with the police pefectly well for 10 mins or so, can't 'speakee de engleesh and needs terpritor' when he realises his car is destined for a tow truck. 

[Circlip]

Yep, we should tolerate the "It's only" brigade who constantly flaunt the law which seems to apply to everyone else apart from them.

[nhp651]

Yep, we should tolerate the "It's only" brigade who constantly flaunt the law which seems to apply to everyone else apart from them


I don't understand that statement, circlip. can you explain, please.

[TCC]

Yep, we should tolerate the "It's only" brigade who constantly flaunt the law which seems to apply to everyone else apart from them.

Well it depends on what laws you trying to uphold.

I'm too long in the tooth to have someone elses idea of their morals forced upon me when they are bigger theieves than I'll ever aspire to be. I can't smoke in my local but one of the only exempt locations from the smoking law is the house of commons bars.

The Govt. just doesn't do 'fair'.

[wideawake]

The Govt. just doesn't do 'fair'.

As Death said (in capitals cos that's how he spoke!) "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS JUST ME", to quote the wonderful Terry Pratchett.   Actually, looking at the subject line, maybe death started this thread   

Guy

[Hagar]

Funny how people, regardless of which land they come from forget all about law, danger, respect and good road maners when on holiday in other counties.
Just the other day a BMW estate on GB plates flew past me, on the inside. mobil phone in on hand, on seatbelt, Changed lanes in front of me (just) with no indication. All on a road in the rush hour in a 50mph zone.
Being in a transite land, where traffic is often through traffic between Germany or Britain, to Sweden ans vise versa I think it is about time we started to send fines to England to. We send them to Germany and sweden. If you are stopped by the police in Denmark GET YOU WALLET OUT! On the spot fines WILL be given. Dont have the money on you. No problem, you WILL get an escrot to the nearest bank or cash mashine. No pay the fine you no go ant where!
no seatbelt £60 mobil phone; £60, change of lane with out indicating; £60 each time. Drinkdriving, Hope you dont earn to much. Fines are pay relayted. Bad news for the director at £1m p.a.
Nice and simple. Oh they can also, if there is co-operation between the other country, send details of this to the country in questions police and you risk getting the points on your licence when you come home- HA HA.

I'm no angel on the roads my I aint a prta either!

[nhp651]

I totally agree with you Ian.
If people respected the law of the land more, there wouldn't be as many dead and ionjured on our roads today.

[jonny shoreboy]

The Police in New Zealand were ruthless (but in a nice way) when I was young. If you did anything naughty, you got pulled over and got a ticket. You might have gotten away with it one day, but the next time you tried it you could guarantee a ticket. But then again only a couple of people live in New Zealand, so it was always going to be easier to get caught.

Since living in the UK I am always surprised by how often while driving I see people flaunting the laws, while police cars cruise on by. I always figured they always the police had something more important to do then give tickets to driving infractions.

I have also been pulled over many times in France with my GB plates because France has funny laws about Fluro vests and stuff and the French police what to make sure that I am obeying their laws. Why should the UK be any different?

[Circlip]

Sorry nhp, the "It's only brigade" Well I was only using the mobile phone a little bit, I only parked outside the school to let little Johnny out, I'm only a little over the limit, Need I go  on?? I hope that TCC's comment above mine was either a joke or ironic, otherwise it displays the "I was born here so this country's laws ONLY apply to Foreigners" attitude, and it aint only foreiners that ride round b'at tax and insurance.

   Regards   Ian.

[bogstandard]

Years back when driving on the Continent, it payed you to carry at least £100 in local currencies. It was very easy to fall foul of road regs on the autobahns, especially at night, when speed restrictions change at certain times, to prevent sound pollution.

The last time I got an on the spot, it was about £60 in local, £85 if you paid in sterling and well over £100 if paying with plastic. They had you all ways.

On the spots should be introduced here, and if you couldn't pay there and then, you would be on your bike with the car impounded, with all the added costs that that entailed.

The idiots with the mobiles would be left at the side of the road trying to phone friends to pick them up, and speeders would be late for work for most probably more than a couple of days. They would definitely think twice before doing it again.

You break the law, you got to expect the consequences. I do, why not others?

Mobiles are banned from being turned on in my car, no matter who it is. If they want a lift, they stick to my rules.

Bogs

[nhp651]

Sorry nhp, the "It's only brigade" Well I was only using the mobile phone a little bit, I only parked outside the school to let little Johnny out, I'm only a little over the limit, Need I go  on?? I hope that TCC's comment above mine was either a joke or ironic, otherwise it displays the "I was born here so this country's laws ONLY apply to Foreigners" attitude, and it aint only foreiners that ride round b'at tax and insurance.

cheers ian,
understand now, and totally agree with you.
A little lad was knocked down the other day outside our school( unhurt but shocked) by a totally inocent driver doing about 15-20 miles an hour.
CULPRIT...............his grandfather who had parked across the road in a perfectly signposted RESTRICTED area and had dropped him off, letting this 7 year old dash across the road in front of him.
He then proceeded to give the poor innocent driver hell for knocking his kid down, until a police officer intervened and booked him for parking illegally.

These idiots who you refer to never learn, he was back parking illegally 3 days later.

[Bartapuss]

Driver, 93, banned over biker death.

Pensioner Alfred Ross admitted causing death by careless driving and is thought to be the oldest person in the country to be convicted of the offence.

He shuffled into New Forest Magistrates Court in Lyndhurst, Hants, with a walking stick where he was fined £3,750 and banned from driving for five years.

Ross pulled out in his Rover 216 in front of Jeffrey Bennett's Honda VFR 750 on the A337 Lymington Road in Brockenhurst on October 8, 2008.

Mr Bennett was so badly injured he died at the scene. It was just one day after his 65th birthday and his retirement.

When you see the state of this guy going into court, I don't know how he could breathe never mind drive a car, Silly Old F**t.

[Ghost in the shell]

if a car driver carves a truck or bus up and lives, as part of his sentence he must drive under instruction a big rig on the MIRA site, just so he can understand what nearly waxed him.

over 65, annual medical.

get points for speeding (yes i have 3 for that) compulsory speed limiting for 5 years from the time the points went on.  restricted to 30mph so you can't use motorways, if you had to drive at 30mph everywhere, even on a 60mph road, and you want to get to blackpool and you live in London, and can't use M-ways or fast A-roads, maybe you will think twice about speeding next time

[tigertiger]

I think the trick with punishment is not to make them more drakonian. Otherwish the punishment does not fit the crime. Anything that would prevent you from doing your job would be drakonian. To loose your livleihood over speeding say is drakonian IMHO. Please lets not go to extremem cases here.
I heard a member of ACPO agree that speed does not kill, but inapproriate speeding does. So loosing your job for doing 90 on an empty motorway at night would be tough. As many of us have done this, and never harmed anyone.

When I live in West Wales drink driving was endemic. And unless you went into town, there was little if any risk of getting caught. A 10 year ban would make no difference.

If every time you commited any offence you got a 20 quid fine (no points), you would soon stop.
Like the example in NZ, it is about getting caught.

[nhp651]

 

"and you want to get to blackpool "

trust me Ghost...........you wouldn't want   to come to Blackpool, even from London...............except for the model show, that is.lol

Sorry, TT,
But those liberal ideas of your's are what have gotten us into this mess over the years.

The law benders/breakers take the p*%& out of the law......................good STRONG deterents is the only thing some people take note of, and I'mm all in favour of ghost's Ideas,..................i mean...........a murderer gets pregnant on day release from a murder sentence, and then..................... her punishment......gets slapped into an open prison for her crime.........at our expence...............just b*&%$*y lunacy.

GHOST  for home sec.............so long as his missus don't go buying porn vids on my tax payers money, lol

[Bunkerbarge]

I don't think you can simplify the issue of speeding to that extent.  Doing 90 on an open motorway is a completely different offence to doing 50 in a 30 limit and to be honest when you get to some of the extreems we hear about nowadays then loosing thier livelihoods as a punishment can be quite appropriate. If loosing thier livelihoods is such an issue to someone then the responsibility is with them to drive appropriately.  Unfortunately there are too many who seem to think that they have immunity from normal prosecution because thier livelihoods depends on thier ability to drive.  The owness should be on them to drive responsibly not the legal system to have a seperate set of rules for them.

I've also found it strange that if you have an accident and kill someone as a result of speeding the punishment is completely different than if you are caught simply speeding.  Why?  To me the crime being committed is exactly the same in either case, it just happens that in one you were unlucky enough to become involved with a third party.

[tolnedra]

If you break the law, you should be prepared to accept the consequences, without exception. I'm a retired driving instructor, and for years have advocated a re-test for everyone, after every five or ten years. A driving licence is a privilege, not a right, and we should all treat it as such. In many cases, age is not the problem, apathy, lack of interest in keeping up to date with traffic law/Highway Code, and laziness are far bigger problems. What effort is involved in operating an indicator switch? When I learned to drive, and I suspect many on this forum, it was window open and arm signals, irrespective of weather; how many drivers nowadays indicate their intention of leaving a roundabout? I could go on for a long time about driving standards as you may imagine, but would like to see not only safer driving everywhere, but also a return to the old days of courtesy and consideration, still part of the Highway Code, but rarely practised by a large percentage of the public.

Will now get off my soap-box!

Danny

[tigertiger]

If everybody got done for speeding everytime they did it they would soon stop.

It is something the Police technology and science division has been actrivley looking at for at least 10 years. Modern telematics make this a real possiblity. A real time tachograph for all vehicles.

Car insurers are already using black box recorder technology for new drivers in Ireland. No black box means no insurance for young drivers. If these drivers are involved in an accident then the box is examined.


The trick with enforcement is...enforcement.
Not getting caught is not a detterent. Even if the punishement is big.

[Colin Bishop]

In all the discussions on this subject, whether on here or in the media generally, it is almost taken as a given that the speed limit on any particular stretch of road must be the right one. Certainly it is enforceable in a court of law but that doesn't make it right or appropriate. Anyone who has ventured out of their immediate neighbourhood cannot fail to be aware of the obvious inconsistency in which speed limits are applied. You may be driving down a country road with a 30mph limit and as soon as you cross a County border it changes to 40mph although the road itself has not changed at all. It's just a different bunch of people nominally applying the same principles and coming to a different conclusion. There is one nightmare road in Norfolk I drive along occasionally where the limit varies between 30mph to 60mph with sections at 40mph and 50mph for no discernable reason except maybe for the presence of the odd house. Enough to confuse anyone, especially at night.

Also safe limits can vary with circumstances or the time of day. In France the upper limits are reduced in wet weather to take account of increased braking distances - if it works there why not here? Likewise, a 20mph limit in the vicinity of a school during school hours is something no reasonable person could object to but outside those hours it has no point and if there is a camera enforcing it then it's bound to be seen as a cash cow. There are some instances now where limits near schools are time dependent but it's far from universal - why do it one one place and not another?

If you are going to have a crackdown on drivers then there needs to be an equally rigorous examination of existing speed limits to a strict national set of guidelines to ensure some measure of consistency. Only then can you hope to give them widely accepted credibility. Too often it seems, the local committees responsible for setting limits just exhibit a knee jerk reaction and keep reducing, reducing, reducing - maybe to cover their backs.

Most people respond to common sense and if they believe the limits have been set sensibly then they will observe them. The joyriders who are usually the worst culprits will never observe ANY limits and strict enforcement is the only answer there.

Colin

[TCC]

"and you want to get to blackpool "

trust me Ghost...........you wouldn't want   to come to Blackpool, even from London...............except for the model show, that is.lol

Sorry, TT,
But those liberal ideas of your's are what have gotten us into this mess over the years.

The law benders/breakers take the p*%& out of the law..

I think that was meant for me?

I'm not liberal, I'm just like everybody else that draws breath and we all only obey the laws we want to obey. Never fiddled your taxes? never parked on a double yellow while you run in the newsagent for a paper? Take speeding... who drives at 30 when there's no police cars behind you? Like everyone else, we all drive about 35 in 30 zones.. and the low 40's in 40 zones.

[nhp651]

nahhh TCC....................meant for tiger tiger. thinking that a 20 quid fine and a slap on the wrist would make any difference to constant law breakers.
neil.

[tigertiger]

Nhp

I agree 20 quid is too low. It is a matter of ballance.

But the ability to loose you license very quickly for minor infractions is disproportionate.
the current policy of lots of enforcement cameras has alienated a vast number of otherwise law abiding citizens.

The points I have made, and that seem to have been missed are: that getting caught repeatedly, or the high probablity of getting caught, is a better detterent, and the punishment should fit the crime.

That's not liberal thinking, that is being rational.