Safe Speed Forums

Though technically true ...Not as immediately as if his eyes were on the road, his hands were on the wheel, and his mind was on either driving, or police business.Posing for a photo, while driving with no hands, with eyes off the road, above the posted 'limit', during a 999 call?

My knees can't take much more abuse from my hands ...
If not for my pants, my @$$ might fall off.

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The Rules for ALL ROAD USERS:
1) No one gets hurt
2) Nothing gets hit, except to protect others; see Rule#1
3) The Laws of Physics are invincible and immutable - so-called 'laws' of men are not
4) You are always immediately and ultimately responsible for your safety first, then proximately responsible for everyone's
Do not let other road users' mistakes become yours, nor yours become others
5) The rest, including laws of the land, is thoughtful observation, prescience, etiquette, decorum, and cooperation

If the cameras weren't present as SafeSpeed proposes the 'crime' would not have been committed, or no one would have been any the wiser. Does SafeSpeed now recommend further cameras to catch similar antics by police drivers? Surely he was just showing his contempt for the infernal things. Obviously we do not know the officer's driving history but is there any suggestion he is considered to be a boy racer or a maniac? I doubt it.

JK, this is a reason for getting rid of speed cameras. The officer would not have posed with his hands off the wheel without the camera being there.

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www.thatsnews.org.uk / www.thatsnews.blogspot.com / http://thatsmotoring.blogspot.com/

...or camber on the road, uneven road surface, cross-wind, difference in tyre pressures, etc.....

The fact remains that allowing a car to run straight is not the driver's sole responsibility. Avoiding the emergent situation in the road ahead is, and one will find oneself rather ill-equipped to do so expeditiously if one has neither hands, nor eyes, nor brain on the road ahead, not to mention being blinded by the scamera flash.

Yes I agree entirely. Some seem to have succumbed to the thinking that it is a good thing that we have these cameras for police officers to pose into!

I'm pretty sure that the clip I saw on the local news showed the vehicle in motion, not being flashed at by a speed cam, unless it was an annimated still shot giving that impression. All I can re-iterate is that what I saw didn't look dangerous to me and I have seen far worse.

edit: No it was definitely a movie shot as we saw him giving the thumbs up. Definitelty no cam flash. I do not think you can have seen the item so I suspect your response is largely based on hearsay. I only posted here myself about it because I had seen the news item regarding it.

If you look at Ernest's picture on page 1 of the thread, its pretty clear they are being subjected to some form of bright illumination.

More dangerous situations there may well be, but that does not excuse this one. Some people are serial killers, but that does not excuse those who have only commited one murder.

Blimey, that’s a bit OTT.

I’ve absolutely no doubt that this guy was doing nothing in the least bit dangerous. He’s simply demonstrating that he’s a complete arsehole.

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

What happened if -for example- an emergency situation occurred just as he was driving without his hands on the wheel, whilst he was gawping away from the road?

Tyre blowout, something in the road, whathave you?

Police officers who have kept their attention on the road, not gurned into a roadside camera, their hands off the wheel, have had unfortunate accidents.

IMO he was doing several dangerous things at once.

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www.thatsnews.org.uk / www.thatsnews.blogspot.com / http://thatsmotoring.blogspot.com/

Emergency situations don't 'just occur'. I've no doubt that if a 'situation' was developing, he wouldn't have done this.

All too easily we can fall into the ways of the masses and condem things simply because it goes against 'The Rules'.

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

Black ice on the road? He would not have prior warning for this. 4 died in Wales as a result two years ago.

Sudden blow -out? They can occur - though in the case of a police vehicle - tyres are checked as constant.

The cam must have flashed to have the photo anyway Forward shot - means a Truvelo. This uses infra-red technology and gives no visible flash - so it "cannot be held to blind the driver and cause an accident as a result of this". New type Truvelo being tested in London and a couple of other places - "d-cam" - It takes photo of car reg and driver faces without any flash and stores both photo and video evidence in an in-built hard drive.

But this officer was an idiot. He's in a job whereby we can and DO prosecute other people for eating apples, sandwiches and drinks whilst driving in addition to holding a mobile phone Their argument would be that they had more "control" than this officer because they had at least one hand on the wheel as opposed to his no hands.

Furthrmore - he was not even looking at the road ahead - such was his pre-occupation of "smug cannot do me for speeding cos I'm a cop on duty" -:furious: which does not bode at all well for improving relations with the public and rebuilding that essential trust in us.


We spend a lot of time and effort training up our RPU here and the brief has always been to drive to an incident at an appropriate but SAFE and SAFTEY LED choice of speed.

The brief to all serving officers is not to do anything which will compromise our profession and professionalism. His action did just that - seriously compromised the profession


I do hope he gets very severely reprimanded at the disciplinary.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Photo took a forward shot. Means it was a Truvelo device. It does not flash - and this again shows that this officer knew he would have certainly trigged it and this makes his action all the worse - perhaps showing a deliberateness - but most cdrtainly immaturity.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

He would know if it was cold enough for there to be a risk of ice.



How often? Once in a lifetime of driving? None of us drive as if we're always prepared for a blow-out. What if it's very windy? Do you not drive because a tree might fall on your car?

Driving is about risk assessment. He may not be a Class 1 Police Driver, but he will have had extra training. He would have made his risk assessment and known it was safe to do what he did.

Obviously, he failed to assess the risk of being 'shopped'.



Probably.



And that makes the law look foolish. It's ridiculus to say it's always dangerous not to have both hands on the wheel.

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

Juggling with knives is safe thing to do, until you drop one on your toe.

micro-climate can create a sudden chill factor and be icy when other roads and stretch of road before this spot is not.

Diesel spills.. muddy patches.. tyre deposits.. loose gravel could cause a sudden problem which mean you need to steer effectively. Taking both hands off like that .. a big

I am sure the bloke who got done in Cumbria for sticking up a V sign at a scam-van whilst at 20 mph will be more than "rather annoyed" if this idiot is seen to "get way with this offence"


Rightly so. You cannot have one rule for a policeman and another for everyone else at all. I do not consider myself above the law and when I have driven at well over the ton .. it's usually been "on the job" or on track or in Germany ...




It has happened .. tragically in the storms of last January and the legendary 1987 South East hurricane ..

OK .. the chap Wildy refers to as "Kismet" is usually behind these situations.. chance.. co-incidence.. bad luck..

Personally I found the question about the squirrel on the test trial Highway Code test bizarre. (Question was about hazards you could encounter when driving on a tree-lined road - I am not joking.. the correct answer was to "beware of a squirrel jumping on your car" This question even made it onto the actual test. I am sure no one answered it correctly



Being able to give a thumbs up to a Truvelo is not one of the risk assess checks criteria most out there would take into account when passing one


I admit I stick my tongue out at one though and my youngest kid makes a burping sound. when we visit the Mad Cats over the "mad border" .



Equally infortunately - they will spin it out into "scam catches other offences" - which only occurred cos the officer was an d:censored: head.




Definitely.




We always take a look at the whole driving as observed and make an appropriated professional judgement... and we may well reserve the right to have a thoughtful discussion on good driving practice instead of fire away straight off with a punishment. But it's a judgement call ... and I think we have trained up right and tight in this area. We have a decent reputation for fair and safe anyway.

If you like - our discretion is a risk assessment each time.. and fortunately we do make the right decisions most of the time when we do use this.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

I think he did drop one here to be fair to you.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

If he wanted to stick his thumbs up and make a stupid smile, obviously that action was part of his risk assessment. It may not be part of yours or mine, but it must have existed in this incident.



I'm sure you do. You've always impressed me with your fairness. But this case is about a police officer behaving stupidly and many are quick to say it was a dangerous act also. I can't believe that.

There's a common belief that we all drive at maximum capacity - we can't even smoke whilst driving coz we'll over-load. That's rubbish, and this idiot had bags of spare capacity - or he wouldn't have done it.

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

Only I do not defend police officers who err or do "dumb things". I am honest enough to concede that some officers sadly do not warrant the right to wear our dark navy blue to indigo serge.


Some are just not cut out for the job and it's really kinder and fairer to the public and he "failing/weak/not really cut out for the job (and who will not get job satisfaction as result) officer concerned" to weed out the less than capable before they do extreme damage to us.




But he undermines professional integrity. He may well have been "safe/not placing anyone in danger".. but he knew the Triuvelo was there and he knew he trigged it. To smirk at it /.. indefensible. I am one very honest person.. and I will admit that if he'd pulled a funny face.. stuck out his tongue or took one hand off the wheel to give a "thumb down" signal - I may not be so rigidly offended by his action But both hands and a smug smirk to the Truvelo.. not once but twice.. it really causes irreperable damage in public relations and gives out the wrong messages as to how we view our professional duties and high speed responses.

I cannot find any reason to be on this officer's defence here.

Believe me.. I have tried to.. but I just see this as destroying trust given we have prosecuted mobile phone users (hand held) with one hand on the wheel.. sandwich/water swiggers -and ONLY if their standard was below par and if they failed to understand when chatted to with fair reason that their act was actually rather compromising safety. You could say they "failed the attitude test". I assure you that the RPU here are very much supporting of their public and will only get "tetchy and NIP" if all other avenues get blocked or if the standard was just really AWFUL!



He made a very unprofessional gesture .. and we have prosecuted members of the public for lesser offences than this. Oh sure.. they could have buried it.. but they chose not to. It was both hands and a smug smirk.. and I think the smug smirk was what really offended here to be honest.

I am in the profession of enforcing the laws of the land. I trust myself.. my integrity.. my sense of personal honesty and professionalism to deliver this properly and within the intent of righting a wrong with regard to the law I am supposedly enforcing. I apply some professional judgement and discretion within this rubric and never seek to undermine either justice or safety.

This officer knew he trigged a Truvelo and knew it. A real professional would have logged his speed past on the shout... and given his guv a full "mitigation report" so as to cancel the ticket without costing the taxpayer a fortune.


Oh sure.. none of our officers would be so daft.. We do train to strict standard .. and we do not have speed cams either... so little temptation to be a d:censored: head. if you like

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Um... The 'original' Truvelo (Combi SMc) has an ordinary white flash. This must (legally) have a magenta filter fitted when used for front photography. It's in the type approval certificate.
From what I've heard of people who have triggered them at night it is quite blinding.

You don't get colour photographs from an infra-red flash.

Which is a little puzzling, why does the car show up white? Maybe the magenta filter fell off?

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Andrew.

Right. So when my cousin was riding his bike and the engine blew up, unexpectedly, or when his mate was riding along and the road collapsed beneath his bike, or when a car had a bowout and slewed across the road sideswiping a couple of bikes... yeah. Of course.

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www.thatsnews.org.uk / www.thatsnews.blogspot.com / http://thatsmotoring.blogspot.com/