Safe Speed Forums

I really couldn't believe this when I read it? If they spent as much time and effort on pursuing robbers and junkies (one and the same) crime would half overnight.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050125/80/fazi0.html


Cops use plane to nab apple-eating driver

LONDON (Reuters) - Police called in a spotter plane, helicopter and video-equipped patrol car to help convict a woman who ate an apple while driving to work, newspapers have reported.


After nine court hearings and a trial lasting more than two hours, nursery nurse Sarah McCaffery was fined 60 pounds on Monday when a court upheld a police decision to give her a penalty ticket.


Police used the plane, helicopter and car to film road conditions on the route she took in Tyneside, northeast England, after officers pulled her over in December 2003.


"It is a joke they put so much effort into this," McCaffery, 23, told the Sun newspaper on Tuesday. "You would think they had better things to do."


She said she had both hands on the wheel of her Ford Ka and was driving safely.


But police and public prosecutors said she was not in control and they were obliged to gather evidence when she chose to fight the fine in court.

_________________
It's a scam........or possibly a scamola


Homer Simpson

It must have been a cooking apple!

_________________
I stole this .sig

Yep..it was on the news this morning.

Do you think that Police resources could have been better utilised...I expect the CC to get a b*llocking over this one.

T2000 will probably give the force a "best persecution of a criminal motorist" award... They may even have the stats on how many children have been killed outside schools by motorists eating apples.

_________________
Speed camera policy Kills

Total cost to the tax payer is alleged to be as much as £10,000.

Is this serving the "public interest"...

25 years ago I was in court for a blown tail light. I could not believe that they were going to prosecute. They got the summons wrong so I went to court to defend myself. I was in there over an hour. ended up getting busted £10 no points (FPN only).

It makes you wonder what their motivation is sometimes.

_________________
Speed camera policy Kills

Yes. There's no doubt about it, a camera could not have detected this - it takes a human to bollock things up this much!

_________________
I stole this .sig

Bah, so what about all those drivers who struggle to change gear without looking at the H/or taking there mind off the road, or do these people have a magic way of changing gear without taking there hand off the wheel? (no sarcastic automatic comments please lol) will these people be prosecuted next?

In the area where I live, I know of two drivers who each only have one arm.
They have both declined the use of a disabled badge and drive manual gearboxes.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Oh, By the way, they both drive ARTICS.

_________________
Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

Ah yes, but as is well known, a lorry driver can steer with his gut

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

PeterE - this gets my prize for the funniest thing I've read all day... I almost wet myself!

Just read this in The Sun by Jane Moore on the subject:-

'Last week I was putting my daughter into her car seat when a woman driver smashed into my rear car door, missing my legs by millimetres. . . . . . ., but when she stepped out of her car, she was very old, doddery and confused. Thankfully a Met. policeman had witnessed the accident and confirmed it was her fault.
"Should she be driving?" I muttered as she finally drove away. "Probably not," said the policeman, before informing me that he wouldn't be filing a report as it seemed a simple matter for our insurers.

These two examples of police at work show that the Northumbria force clearly has too much time on its hands while the Met presumably has too little.

But when the police send out such mixed messages, it's little wonder that public confidence in them is at such a low'

"THE LAW IS AN ASS AND AN IDIOT." Charles Dickens.

Terrible waste of tax payers money....by the driver that is. If she had accepted her punishment in the begining this would not have happened. You can't eat an apple and drive safely. Firstly you need a hand to hold the apple, and secondly you are not concentrating on your driving if you are eating an apple. Its the same as using a mobile, or doing make up etc.
This woman should have been made to pay the full price of the legal proceedings, and then perhaps she wouldn't be taking the p**s on the front pages of our great british tabloids.

_________________
'Detritus, get yer stoney arse over ere'

I've never seen evidence to support that statement.



This simply cannot be right. We need a hand to change gear and other perfectly legal stuff. Hell, about half of all drivers steer with one hand most of the time. Oh, and one armed people are not debarred from holding a licence.



How would anyone know that?



Clearly it isn't the same. Using a mobile is (more or less) scientifically proven to affect some drivers concentration. I've seen no science regarding driving and eating. If eating an apple affects concentration, hat about chewing gum? What's the difference?

And putting on makeup isn't something that can be done without looking. I know I could eat an apple in total darkness, and I don't believe you can do that with makeup.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Sorry, I disagree entirely. Legally she had every right to challenge the fixed penalty, and as a matter of principle I'd say she had no alternative but to challenge it - if she'd meekly rolled over and accepted her punishment like the bad little girl she's been made out to be, then what would happen the next time one of Northumbrias finest spotted another driver with one hand off the wheel... If the legal system condones the actions of one police officer for prosecuting this sort of behaviour from a driver, where does it end? Next time it'll be someone fined for changing their radio settings, or their satnav settings, or their aircon settings - anything that involves removing one hand from the wheel and which isn't directly concerned with the control of the vehicle.




Or changing stations on the radio, or adjusting the aircon, or having a conversation with the passenger... There are god knows how many things we as drivers do which momentarily and slightly reduce our ability to control the vehicle, but if you condone prosecuting every driver who performs such an act then you might as well just slap an extra 30 quid on the cost of a tax disc, because at some point during the next 12 months I can pretty much guarantee that EVERY driver in the country would be at risk of prosecution for such an act.

Again, where do you think it should end? Would you prefer to see every driver keep both hands on the wheel except for the absolute minimum amount of time required to change gear, use the handbrake or other safety-critical hand controls, not speak, and not look at anything other than the safety-critical instrumentation and the road?




All she did was challenge a prosecution she thought was unfair and unjust. Would the tabloids have been quite so interested in the story if it hadn't been for the apparently over the top reaction from the police and CPS? Someone is taking the p**s here, but I don't think it's the driver...

Ultimately, whether she was in the right or in the wrong no longer matters - it's the way Northumbria Police responded to the challenge that's the issue. For all of their comments about how they have to do whatever it takes to build their case, it doesn't look good for them to be expending so much resources on what was a truly minor offence given the number of more serious cases on which those resources could have been better spent. Yet again it ends up looking like the police/CPS throwing their entire weight behind the prosecution of a motorist simply because they're such an easy target, despite the total insignificance of their crime.

I think the copper who pulled her was just miffed, as 'He thought she was using a mobile phone'.................

I stopped a van that was swerving in the road last week. I asked the driver what he was doing and he said "eating a sandwich" THe driver appolagised, and I let him continue. Now an experienced drivr can drive quite well with one hand, but are you suggesting it is ok for an able bodied person to do this as a common practice? is it not better to drive with both hands on the wheel?

As for changing gear and the 'other legal stuff' that is for a short period of time only, that apple was no doubt held for at least a couple of minutes.

When driving, you drive. If you want to eat then stop. Paul I don't believe your stance on this, here's a safety forum saying its ok to eat and drive at the same time

_________________
'Detritus, get yer stoney arse over ere'

Everyone has the right to challenge a prosecution. As for your views on changing a radio setting, that's why they are now being incorporated into steering wheels, so you know where they are and just touch them. My 2nd cousin (5 years old) was killed by a driver who admitted he did not see him in the road, because he was changing his radio station. When you're driving, you drive, if there is anything else that requires your attention, you stop.

_________________
'Detritus, get yer stoney arse over ere'

The stance is exactly the same stance that I take on all safety issues: "show me the evidence".

In the van driver case you quote, the evidence was clear, but drivers have wildly different abilities. Just because the van driver couldn't cope doesn't mean this lady couldn't.

I'm very concerned about over-simplified road safety messages, and I SUSPECT (no more than that) that this is another oversimplification. I'm not in the least little bit convinced that what you do with your hands is an important road safety issue. I'm 100% convinced that what you do with your mind is vital.

Safe driving certainly cannot be reduced to "holding the steering wheel properly", and that's what concerns me most of all.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Sorry, but you're comparing apples with oranges now. (no pun intended)
While in no way wishing to downplay the tragedy, your 2nd cousin was killed because the driver wasn't looking at the road.
You don't have to look at an apple in order to eat it, you don't have to even think about it, so it doesn't affect your concentration or your attention.
Even with radio controls built into the wheel, you usually still have to llok at the display to see which station you've selected. As with everything else, the trick is to know when such actions are safe and when they're not.

Regards
Peter