Speeding On The M4 In Wiltshire !!!!

Far to soft, hang him and be done with it!

Good grief over 100 posts already PB there's no stopping you is there?

quote:

Originally posted by Polarbear:
Far to soft, hang him and be done with it!

Actually in the first instance he was only sentenced to six months (suspended)sentence, but after crying out to the Born again Muslim Judge from the dock that his Dad was a Freemanson, he got the book thrown at him, and the full two years inside.

Fritz Von I bet they'll be chuckling at that one down the at local Lodge over their Taxfree VAT's

quote:

Originally posted by JonR:
Good grief over 100 posts already PB there's no stopping you is there?

Only 9900 to go

quote:

Actually in the first instance he was only sentenced to six months (suspended)sentence, but after crying out to the Born again Muslim Judge from the dock that his Dad was a Freemanson, he got the book thrown at him, and the full two years inside.

even worse!

Thrash him in public then hang him!

The thing is, if you do hang him, wouldn't that be deemed umm.. a "suspended sentence" eh...? geddit??

It'd certainly be a non-desirable loophole

quote:

Originally posted by JonR:
The thing is, if you do hang him, wouldn't that be deemed umm.. a "suspended sentence" eh...? geddit??

Groan

Was the boys name "Lewis"?

Not only was that the first post Fritz has sent in that made me laugh out loud, it's also the first post I actually understood.



Stephen

quote:

Originally posted by Polarbear:
Was the boys name "Lewis"?

No. It's 'Thrustan'

That Mick Parry, eh?



Stephen

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Bennett:
Not only was that the first post Fritz has sent in that made me laugh out loud, it's also the first post I actually understood.



Stephen

If I was from Norwich I'd still be larfin bigstyle minus any Fritism's, purely on Sir Alex's expression last weekend, innit.

Fritz Von I'll try to speak more German, promise !

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:

If I was from Norwich I'd still be larfin bigstyle minus any Fritism's, purely on Sir Alex's expression last weekend, innit.

Fritz Von I'll try to speak more German, promise !

Thanks Fritz. Back to the incomprehensible!



Stephen

PS I'm not from Norwich.....

I said if I was from Norwich ! This is known as a Matism, innit.


Fritz Von Wunderbar

Anyone been on the M4 since the """"Safety"""" cameras have been in operation?

It is as clumped up as feared?

Do people set thier cruise controls for 68 mph ?

DS

I will be going to Oxford on Monday. It will be interesting to see if we're all behaving ourselves.

Of course, that particular stretch of the M4 is a blood bath. Burnt out wrecks littering the verge and dead bodies strewn all over the road. Thank goodness they've finially done something really significant about road safety on such a dangerous stretch of road. Isn't it nice to know that they're looking out for our best interests........

quote:

Thank goodness they've finially done something really significant about road safety on such a dangerous stretch of road. Isn't it nice to know that they're looking out for our best interests........

When I last went on a course at Devises, the M4 was shut due to a fatal crash on my way down there, and 5 days later when travelling back, it was again shut due to another fatal crash. One would hope that speed was not a factor in either of these incidents, eh?

andy c!

Better buy your self a 'lordship'. This from my Home Town

quote:

A decision not to ban a Tory peer caught speeding for the third time has been criticised by safety campaigners.

Lord Howard, 63, of Castle Rising, Norfolk, was doing 113mph on the A47 at Terrington St John in February

Full Story

Andy

Chaps

I live about 10 minutes away from a M4 Junction and without doubt everyone is cruising along just below 70 mph. The publicity saw to that.

I saw no signs of bunching, all that has happened is that there is no stupidity in the fast lane.

The problem with this stretch of motorway is that it has long up hills and downs. So the fast cars tried to overtake the slower cars which had run out of steam. They sometimes took a chance and occassionally became a cropper.

It will take a few weeks to assess whether it is reducing accidents or not, but most policemen in this area are prepared to bet money that it will.

Regards

Mick

quote:

Originally posted by andy c:

quote:

Thank goodness they've finially done something really significant about road safety on such a dangerous stretch of road. Isn't it nice to know that they're looking out for our best interests........

When I last went on a course at Devises, the M4 was shut due to a fatal crash on my way down there, and 5 days later when travelling back, it was again shut due to another fatal crash. One would hope that speed was not a factor in either of these incidents, eh?

andy c!

Impossible to say. Inappropriate speed possibly - it's quite possible to kill yourself or someone else at 40mph or less. Plus or minus driver error, lack of skill, tailgating, maybe the odd drunk thrown in - the permutations are endless. I know of a number of serious accidents on the M4 in the last few years but none involving deaths. Can you please provide more information on these two fatal accidents?

I don’t have any problems with speeding motorists being nicked. But don’t tell me that coming up with an easy way of detecting and fining them on a rural section of the M4 is about my safety. That’s insulting.

Putting more coppers back on the ground will do far more to curb the damage caused by dangerous/illegal drivers/cars (including speeders). You could say that the cameras are a start - but it never seems to get beyond that - I wonder why? And again, I question if it’s primarily about safety.

Cheers

Harry

How old is the M4 ?

HI Harry,

You are preaching to the converted, trust me!

It all boils down to cash and efficiency. You get what you pay for. Speed enforcement is cheaper that a traffic cop.

Thats quite simply what it boils down to.

Driver behaviour fluctuates dependant upon deterrant. If you deter a driver from speeding during an area where enforcement is happening, he/she may well try to make this up by speeding up elsewhere.

To try and adopt a purist 'well don't speed!' approach is futile.

Im my experience of dealing with crashes, the two main factors are going too fast for the comditions prevelant at the time, and misjudgement by the offending driver (whether deliberate or not).

andy c!

Ps there is no such thing as a road traffic 'accident'.

We have just had a bad accident round the corner from where I live. A TVR salesman was killed while taking a client for a test drive in a TVR Tuscan.

The client accelerated so hard on a straight road, lost control of the car and went head on into the oncomming lorry. By some mirracle the lorry driver and the client survived. The salesman the passenger in the TVR was killed instantly.

A case of very poor driving ruining a wife and two children's live all for something that was totally unnecessry. It wasn't necesarily the speed which killed the passenger but a guy driving a car he couldn't handle on public roads.

The sad thing is nothing will be learned from this!

Note to Self: when travelling in England in future, do so by autogiro or maybe ornithopter.

When I passed my driving test first time, nearly twenty years ago now, I was as impatient and impetuous as the next driver and would often scream incessantly at the wheel, my common complaint being that I was stuck behind a much slower driver who in actual fact was doing the speed limit - 30mph or barely that.

That impatience and impetuosity continued for some years afterwards but I'm glad to say has lessened over time. However I'm still far happier doing 40 or more as 30 just seems too slow.

However, last year I began a course to become a driving instructor. Obviously to succeed in a career like this demands much higher standards of driving, and a great deal more consideration of other drivers, than one usually expects of the average motorist nowadays. Now, whilst I'm not entirely sold on the idea of being a driving instructor as a career move and have yet to finish the course, one of the biggest things I've got out of it so far is the value of sticking to the speed limit - especially the 30 limits!

Now I'm not about to say at this point this makes me a better driver than most - that would be ridiculous. In fact maybe it's because I'm not a particularly good driver but I found that driving at the speed limit of whatever stretch of road I'm on allows me the time I need to make the right judgement call about the relevant traffic situation I happen to be in. Even then I won't always make exactly the right call but I'm rarely stressed out as a driver nowadays and that makes a huge difference to the driving experience. Not exceeding speed limits and making proper use of the mirrors also, I find, demands great discipline as a motorist. It also helps I drive a small and not very powerful car.

The result on the road is that whereas in the exuberance of youth I could be found tailgating other drivers in exasperation, I now find cars tailgating ME most of the time! These cars tend to be bigger and more powerful and I often get the impression that most people who own such a car think they own the road and want to imtimidate others out of their way. That's a generalisation of course and I'm well aware that most of us here are thoroughly responsible and considerate drivers but please don't everyone jump on me here and say you are all whiter than white because I will have trouble believing you!

PB's account of that tragic TVR accident is a case in point but I'm certain there are countless other examples of this type of tragedy and I'm sure andy c can recount a few from his experiences.

What exasperates me the most, though, is that whenever I hear about widespread fog on the motorways in our area, the very next thing I hear is that there's been some motorway pile-up of 30 or more vehicles, all because everyone's been driving at top speed and too close to each other in conditions which are completely inappropriate for that type of driving.

What troubles me is, we can all sit here in front of a computer and preach about responsible motoring, but how many of us are so mindful of such responsibilities when we're at behind the wheel in an interminable traffic jam, full of other motorists who all just want to get somewhere and are sick and tired of other traffic getting in their way??

Cheers,

Jon