Speeding On The M4 In Wiltshire !!!!

Ade,
I know what the law says re exceeding the speed limit in emergencys... i was just trying to keep it simple..

andy c!

quote:

Originally posted by Nime:
I should very hastily add that I have nothing against concert pianists living or deceased. No matter how fast they play.

Did you ever see the old sketch of Rowan Atkinson as a concert pianist playing an imaginary keyboard? Absolutely brilliant!

Regards
Steve M

quote:

I just read 18 pages of repetitive drivel

Probably what the Judge thought reading the defences testimony re the vectra case!

andy c!

quote:

Originally posted by 7V:

quote:

Originally posted by Nime:
I should very hastily add that I have nothing against concert pianists living or deceased. No matter how fast they play.

Did you ever see the old sketch of Rowan Atkinson as a concert pianist playing an imaginary keyboard? Absolutely brilliant!

Regards
Steve M

7 Up, It surely was good, but the pianists in the audience thought it was pitiful, innit

I was out in the car at lunchtime and on the way back I was behind a marked police car (not a traffic one) for 4 roundabouts (I work in a new-town). No matter if he were turning left, right or heading straight on not once did the officer let the other drivers on the road know what he was up to by using his indicators.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve G:
I was out in the car at lunchtime and on the way back I was behind a marked police car (not a traffic one) for 4 roundabouts (I work in a new-town). No matter if he were turning left, right or heading straight on not once did the officer let the other drivers on the road know what he was up to by using his indicators.

That's a bit rich, you'll be telling us he/they
weren't wearing seatbelts next, either, innit !!!

They are above the law.

quote:

I was out in the car at lunchtime and on the way back I was behind a marked police car (not a traffic one) for 4 roundabouts (I work in a new-town). No matter if he were turning left, right or heading straight on not once did the officer let the other drivers on the road know what he was up to by using his indicators.

I'm not sure of the current basic assessment for driving low-powered marked police 'panda' cars, but in the past it has consisted of driving a car around town for a couple of hours, whilst complying with the basics of the highway code.
They should be setting an example to other motorists, but don't have sufficient pride in their own standard of driving, through lack of training, to care.

Mind you it's a well known fact that in Scotland what are seemingly roondaboots are in fact giant heaps of elephant dung, so maybe don't require to be signalled at ? innit:


Fritz Von Panda 2 to panda control are you sober, over ?

quote:

They are above the law.

...next you'll be saying each and every one of them are, and of course you can prove that, can't you

andy c!

Not a lot I can add to that

Oh well, if you can't beat them, join them!

quote:

Originally posted by MichaelC:
Not a lot I can add to that

Oh well, if you can't beat them, join them!

Congratulations! Good career move for someone who enjoys driving! (allegedly)

So what exactly is the problem here?

It can’t be that he was speeding because many people here(me included) admit to exceeding the speed limit when we feel like it.

Can’t be dangerous driving due to excessive speed, otherwise we would be admitting that on occasion we drive dangerously.

It must be envy that the police can drive how fast they like, when they like, where they like to get their jollies and need not fear conviction. We on the other hand would have the book thrown at us.

Wonder how the victims and relatives of those mown down by “expert” police drivers feel?

I find it interesting that a teenage tearaway in a stolen car (which he was presumably not used to driving) remained [safely] on the road to escape while the chasing police car swerved to the wrong side the road to nearly destroy a local historical building. Which one was the true "concert pianist" of the two?

quote:

I find it interesting that a teenage tearaway in a stolen car (which he was presumably not used to driving) remained [safely] on the road to escape while the chasing police car swerved to the wrong side the road to nearly destroy a local historical building.

Ok,
I'm going to get defensive here, but feel I need to, a little.

What standard of driving had the cop been trained to? What experience did he/she have? Do we know the reason why the cop crashed? Are we aware of the full circumstances???

Don't bleat to me about how god the tearaway was - you are condoning it if you do - that person should not have been failing to stop in the first place. These days police pursuits are so tightly regulated they don't happen nearly as much as they used to. Usually thanks to helicpoters who just latch on and then thats that for the villain. The same applies for responding using emergency lights/sirens etc to incidents - again so tightly controlled it does not happen nearly as much as it used to - and quite rightly so.

Re cops and bad driving - all the above examples relate to bad driving, but most of you have not balanced this off against the countless examples of good driving and skills displayed - typical that we diss the bad and don't praise the good.

I'm all for a balanced argument. I feel the vectra driver should not have got off the charge he faced. But there is a certain lynch mob mentality underpinning some comments here, and its a shame because it clouds a balanced debate.

andy c!

For the Vectra offence my main problems with it are the arrogance and hypocrisy, plus 84mph in a 30mph is something I feel can very rarely be justified. When appropriate I don't regard 131mph on an A-road or 159mph on a motorway as dangerous, especially as I've done over 150mph legally on A-roads myself.

On police drivers in general from my own experience I'd regard it as rare to see a police car which is well driven and within the speed limits. Recently I've seen police vehicles do U-turns on roundabouts, overtaking over double white lines, causing oncoming traffic to take avoiding action due to overtaking in a blind dip, doing perhaps 60mph (or more) in a 30mph near a school at 4pm on a weekday (that wasn't even a traffic car and it wasn't using blue lights or sirens), taking junctions or roundabouts without using indicators (come to think of it I've rarely seen a police driver use indicators), exceeding 60mph in a 40mph limit because they'd missed the initial speed limit sign and a repeater (that was on an observed ride, I was following and I later asked the officer why he'd done it) plus I also quite often see police vehicles with blown tail or headlamp bulbs.

My impression of police drivers is that in general they're no more competent as drivers than civilians and their arrogance and disregard for traffic laws and the highway code certainly doesn't make them an example to other drivers.

Regards
Steve

Nobody likes hypocrisy and we would all prefer to be led by example - hence the outrage at a copper doing 84 in a 30, 159 in a 70 etc.

Then he Gets Away With It so the chasm between Authority and its Subjects seems to widen as one doesn't appear to be particularly accountable to the other.

Apart from this issue of hypocrisy and law enforcement, this thread has gone round in circles for nearly twenty pages and neither of the two sides of the debate (the pro-camera speed-kills lobby, and the focus-on-the-real-causes-of-accidents/stop-making-driving-such-a boring/oppressive-activity brigade) have yet to convince the other of its arguments - nobody has changed sides here!

I'm biased here I know, but the speed-kills argument has been well-and-truly lost.

Some folks will cling onto it as though it were their pet blanket, and for them it will always be an unshakable truism no matter how much evidence to the contrary you push into their faces. For them the soundbite will always win over any logical argument as they naively believe that Authority is a benevolent force acting in their best interests.

Then there is Mick. He always sides with Authority no matter what. A few tickly handshakes/Friends in High Places and he'll be All Right anyway.

The Law is the Law and the proverbial jackboot wll stamp for all eternity on the heads - not just of those who disagree with it but all those who, unlike Mick, can't face up to this harsh reality.

Rights and wrongs don't really enter the equation at all. It has more to do with who is in Authority and who is subjected to it. The two are clearly not the same, and as Mick would say, we'd better get used to it.

quote:

and as Mick would say, we'd better get used to it.

At last you are learning.

Regards

Mick

Yawn to all the limp wristed squibs

I couldn't help noticing the parallel between andy's mention of a lynch mob and this police driver. The irony may have escaped you but the lynch mobs were a form of authority above and beyond the law. No doubt tolerated by the real police authorities through fear or personal conviction of the right to hunt and execute other human beings without personal risk.

Steve

Inertia (momentum) = Mass x Velocity. NOT mass + velocity. Nor Mass - Velocity. Nor Mass/Velocity.

I suggest you examine the images of cars in deliberate collision by road testing laboratories (usually only at a humble 30mph). Take a stroll round a car breakers yard and take look at the car wrecks there. Then do the sums. If it was just crash test dummmies it wouldn't matter other than the cost of replacing the vehicles. But in the real world thousands of real people actually DIE on the roads! That's Dads and kids and people we know. They are not statistics. They are families damaged forever. The unnecessary deaths of those who might have taken us to the stars or cured cancer or written a great symphony or developed time travel or would have become the most gifted lead guitarist in history. Or just somebody's mum.

Anything which takes the driver's attention away from driving is multiplied by velocity. The higher the velocity the smaller the elapsed time to make good the awful mistake you have just made. By dialing your mobile phone, reading a map, doing your paperwork or reading the paper or turning to talk to your kids in the back of the car. I have seen all these activities taking place behind the wheel on the roads this week. And last week and the week before and the week before that. Perhaps it's because the driver is bored from driving so slowly?

Nime

Good post Mister

Fritz Von And maybe somebody would have been famous for getting a drink from Mr Parry in the Gluepot Public House Swindon (real prices) rather than the private club, where drinks are very cheap, and are quite often nicely financed by the back door of the treasury (IR) not too mention all those posh cars that drive home every night out of that carpark steered by totally sober upholding members of t'community like, innit

Fritz,
bored?

U started it all LOl!

Steve,
I wonder if this cop will be subject to internal discipline because of his actions. Some public authorities staff get tried twice you know, once by the courts and then under the discipline code. We won't find the result of that out, so no sarky replies here, but the Professional Standards Unit will have looked at this case, and will have acted upon it, if only because it has brought this case under the public spotlight.

Regarding the rest of you reply, I have made my own standpoint very clear re speeding being a factor in crashes - not the only one - but it has been in crashes I have investigated. To say that speed is not is incorrect in my view. Its what we do about the speed thats the issue here I feel.

Fritz is right, we have gone round in circles...

But i say finally you get what you pay for...

I'm off now to enjoy me supercap2.

andy c!

He'll get tranferred and promoted as you well know mate.

Fritz Von I thought supercap2 was a catholic contraceptive device, innit ?

quote:

He'll get tranferred and promoted as you well know mate.

the 1st bits right, but if he gets disciplined the 2nd bits a bit out....

andy c! von fencing with sharp as a tac fritz von quick reply LOL