Safe Speed Forums

I really enjoyed the bit of Traffic Cops I saw last night, especially the Clio driver dangerously tailgating the unmarked BMW, not noticing the officer's uniform as he went past, accelerating up to a genuine 100 mph (it didn't look capable of such a speed), undertaking at high speed, entering the 40 limit at 70 then slowing to 40 for the Gatso (rather pointed out the pointlessness of some cameras). 6 points in court for this lot. He said he was late for his girlfriend's graduation. Then the Corolla driver tailgating on the motorway and pulled for doing 94, refusing to get out of his car, found to have 6 points for speeding, got 6 more for driving without due care, but kept his licence! There was a trailer at the end of an Impreza driver who drove straight into another vehicle on a roundabout and went to the clink for dangerous driving.

The interesting thing was that the BMW appeared to be single manned. Therefore all the devices had to be operated by the driver!
I would suggest at least a charge of "without due care and attention" ahh but like the 159mph plod he wears his Y fronts outside his tights there goes yet more goodwill.
The clio driver - Idiot as was the Corolla BUT it's not the speed but HOW you drive that is important.

Still at least being a traffic cop you can drive a big flash car and break the rules with impunity how much fun is that!

One other question: How come all these reporters and others who talk to camera when they drive don't get nicked?

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Stupid is as Stupid does

To leap to the defense of the plod, operating their in car gadgetry is basically a driving task for the BiBs and (I hope) they're trained to do so safely. The guy in the stealth Beemer seemed pretty switched on and aware, e.g. the thinking about where he could pull the Clio twat over safely and legally. It seemed like his mind was where it needed to be, which is the important thing. (And for sucking up to the BiBs round here I'm hoping for some latitude when they're tugging fat bald blokes in Honda Preludes ).

The same can't be said of journos and actors taking their eyes and brains off the road. The Flash car wash spray advert particularly gets up my nose on that score.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

A few facts....

Radio - I have a choice of foot operated or voice operated radio comms.

Video - Ours runs permanently whilst the car is in use. It's a digital system in which the footage is only saved permanently if I choose to save it after the event, so if a pursuit starts, etc I don't have to start thinking about getting the equipment running. We have one forward facing camera which can be rotated to sides if required, and one rear facing camera on the back window. Other speed recording equipment, etc is permanently running.

Don't forget, we don't have cds / radios etc in the cars, so we probably spend less time fiddling with gadgets than the average motorist.



That's always the first thought. Enough bibs in this country and abroad have been hit by uninvolved vehicles whilst at the roadside to make scene safety an absolute priority. If I can't pull someone safely, I won't pull them at all - after all, the video evidence is good enough on its own for later action if required.



It's a increasing problem. Personally I don't like it (although I spend most of my time single crew) as to me it's a basic safety issue - especially for those operating at night. Fine when pulling Mr Middle Age nice motorist, but try with a car full of chavs. That's why we tend these days to get the driver into our vehicles as quickly as possible complete with their keys - then if it all kicks off at least me and suspect can get out of the area safely.

But as long as trafpol numbers keep being cut, single crewing will increase as it keeps the same number of vehicles on the road.



And enjoy such other lovely activities as scraping young girls off trees and breaking the news to their parents at 3am. And at least if you hit 100 on the motorway going home, no-one asks you about it if we aren't around, whereas if I do 100 on the motorway my boss asks me about it as soon as the data recorder is run!!

To be honest, what the programme made me want to do is have video equipment fitted to my car so I can submit the tape to the CPS the next time a police car steams up behind me and drives along a few feet from my rear bumper because I have the audacity to drive at 30mph in a 30mph limit. Oh, I forgot, they're highly trained, so it would probably be deemed perfectly safe for them to drive along so close to the car in front, and they'd be let off in court, unlike the people shown on TV last night.

IMO it was completely unreasonable for the unmarked BMW to block the outer lane like that whilst going so much slower than the speed limit - if he was intending to drive so slowly, why didn't he just stay in the inside lane when it changed from one lane to two. Okay, the driver behind shouldn't have reacted the way he did, but I can understand someone getting pretty annoyed at the car in front behaving like the unmarked BMW did.

That guy had a real 'punch me' attitude. He kept accusing the cop of patronising him when he had only said a few words
I half expected the arrogant asshole to come out with the immortal "I pay your wages"; perhaps he did but we didn't get to see it.

We did not see what was in front of the Police Officer.

He was driving faster than those in lane 1, and the road then went down to 1 lane for roadworks so traffic in front was very likely driving slower than speed limit too, then when roadworks ended he overtook cars in lane 1 and once past them he returned to lane 1. Nothing wrong with that.

Only one driving badly in that clip was the Clio driver who got what he deserved.

to me it just showed the futility of speed cameras......i see that sort of driving all the time and as the clips showed unless the BIB are actually out there he would keep getting away with it forever......

I agree that the Clio driver was driving badly. However whether there was anything wrong with the police driver's driving depends on his motives. If he had observed the irate driver behind him, and deliberately drove slowly in the outside lane to goad him into reacting, then IMO that is not appropriate behaviour. As you say, though, we couldn't see what was in front of the police car. For all we know, the road was completely clear in that lane ahead of him, or he could have been tailgating the car in front of him, or he could have been following a slow vehicle at a safe distance, we'll never know. What I do know is that I see a lot of highly questionable driving of police cars around here, and I also know that footage can be conveniently edited and narrative put over the top to present a very misleading picture if someone wishes to do so. Whether that was done in this case, I don't know. An example of an aspect that might have misled some viewers was when the police driver said "shadow" at the start and stop of the timings, and the gap was very short. It then showed the video readout where an alert viewer would know that 45 seconds had in fact elapsed in those few seconds of TV. Another misleading aspect is when they portray the real-time speed readout as being that of the car being pursued, when it is in fact the speed of the police car.

I would say that there can't be many more people more vehemently opposed to 'safety cameras' than me.

FWIW, my 10 pence worth on the subject was overall, I'm pleased with what I saw.

Whilst I admit I exceed the speed limit and drive to the conditions, I don't tailgate, I don't undertake and I don't 'give it large' and try to intimidate other road users off the roads like the pricks we saw last night.

In the examples shown, in ALL of them, the drivers caught deserved what was coming and I feel slightly safer than I did Sunday night....

Now if we could get it off of the BiB that if they saw any motorist go down that road at 100 mph but wouldn't do anything about it IF the road was clear, IF it wasn't raining, IF they weren't tailgating, If they weren't causing others unnecessary danger then surely that's what all of the responsible among us want?

I want more marked and unmarked police cars recording ALL of what we do (not just the speed element). If the film shows us causing danger then we deserve what's coming.

Time for the 'nick everything that drives at 1mph in exces of the speed limit' brigade to takew this on board and police the roads properly, eh?

You'll never get that, mate.

And 100mph on a quiet Sunday morning motorway could lose you your licence. Unlikely, but feasible.

I'd like to be given the opportunity to penalise as I see fit, with discretionary fixed penalties. If I felt that someone doing 105 on a quiet motorway deserved 3 points and £60 I'd like to be able to issue that. Unfortunately the current system doesn't make allowances for that.

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Fixed ideas are like cramp, for instance in the foot, yet the best remedy is to step on them.

Ian

Might be true for dopes in pandas who think a blue suit makes 'em God's gift to the road, and yeah, probably there's some in traffic as well that use this as a snidey tactic to nab more drivers before crawling back under their rocks (I have been pulled by a snidey one, but that wasn't what he was doing though, it was the old "couldn't see your tax disc, oh there it is, well since we're here I'll go over the car with a fine tooth comb" job ). But the vast majority of the traffic cars I pass seem to be driven by fair sorts, and the few traffic plod I've met didn't seem the type who'd do this. Frankly there's enough numpties on the road that a half decent trafplod shouldn't need to goad anyone into commiting an offence.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

At the point I guess the poster is referring to there was no-one in L1. Remember that it was a 2 lane road, but the inside lane was closed off. So he was tailgated past the traffic cones, and when the roadworks ended he should have moved inside. There was no one in L1 here of course, or for the next 30 odd seconds. He claimed he "was looking for a gap" but there was a huge gap and he chose not to use it. He also did not overtake anyone at this point, and was driving very slowly, presumably below the limit. He could have accelerated away from the frogmobile if he really wanted but he was trying to get tailgated IMO.

Of course he could claim he was "gathering evidence" or whatever which is probably fair enough. But he shouldn't have lied on the programme. And if you deliberately block someone in an overtaking lane well below the limit, you can hardly complain when they get angry.

I have seen both Met and Essex police cars where the driver has been using his personal RT, because they where single manned, drive through, at some speed, pelican crossings where the light has been against them good job no peds on the crossing - no lights or sirens on the cars


It seems that this demographic group are constantly being targetted because they have something to lose and will pay up


Unless the recorder has been wiped or lost - it happened recently
Also I'm sure that I'm not the only person who has driven a vehicle with a tacho on this forum and knows of others who have been penalised for exceeding the limit at the time - lots of cameras pick up heavies exceeding 40 now - no wonder there's a driver shortage

If we had seen the unedited tape of the BMW both front and back it would be interesting to see what traffic was about - being fair I see civvies who do not see emergecy vehicles with lights and siren on
Having seen a quite a few of these programmes the editing appears to make everything "exciting" but as we all know life ain't like that.
Some of the comments by individual officers are a bit scary though as they think they are in the Sweeney

It is a difficult job not made any easier by the polticians and like any job you get a fair share of clowns and these certainly make it harder for the better ones and yes I have had friends and relations do the job

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Stupid is as Stupid does

Indeed we are. It becomes second nature after a while too.

Trouble with these progs - lot of edit snips as they cannot include every fine detail - else it might be like paint drying. Wildy is very good at making up family videos to send to her parents back home and she includes my family in her antics! She will edit, snip, paste, explain with voice overs in her own lingo (it's a good job I know what she's saying there! ) , sound effects and some suitable music too - result is surprisingly watchable! But have seen her "at it" - so can see that this kind of programme may just include the bits which show us "at our best!" - and where they will cut for most entertaining bits too. So - you might not see the whole vevidence which the court would see - extracts relevant to the programme really. So it makes it a bit harder to judge whether the BiB there provoked or not. Probably he was keeping a distance behind the car in front. But there was not one excuse I could see for the Clio driver's tailgating - it was way too close - and highly dangerous. He'd have got more than my acid tongue if I'd been that BiB. And yes - we do choose a safe place to stop them too. We are supposed to be pro -road safety



I am sure I will give "first class service" same as the BiB in the film!

Fat and bald? Nah! Yer just sayin' that to make me feel better about me grey hairs!



I loathe that advert and know where I would like to put the Flash!

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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.

Targetted ? By whom ?

Certainly not my team - my dealings with this age group is minimal, most of my time is with the chavs, boy racers, young/inexperienced, or elderly/dangerous. Despite the popular idea that the roads are made dangerous by middle aged reps practising their low flying, I don't really find this in practice.

The reason I mentioned this age group is purely because they're the ones least likely to give us abuse / a kicking.



There is a problem with "GP" vehicles - general pupose, pandas, etc. The higher end (expensive) radio gear isn't fitted to a lot of them. The only time I tend to use the Tetra handheld is when I'm out of the car, or want a private conversation when a member of the public is in the car, but not while I'm moving.

Obviously I don't know the circumstances regarding the crossing incident you describe, but it doesn't sound good.....

I agree that at times the driving standard of cops in Panda cars can be a little questionable, but no more so then an average motorist and they are only human at the end of the day. More often then not traffic cops have a much higher degree of competancy - and I should hope so too!

Do Panda drivers get much in the way of advanced driving lessons or not?

I've just been to Asda and was amazed to see a Police car Parked nose first in a Disabled space.
I took a photo on my phone but have no idea how to get it on my P.C. anyone have any ideas?

I've had one or two of those before, and you can tell they are fuckwits before they even start.
They certainly don't like it when you tell them that they don't need to be able to physically see the tax disc, because a simple vehicle check will reveal whether the vehicle is taxed or not (as well as where & when it was taxed).


You need to connect your phone to your PC either via a data cable, Bluetooth, or Infra Red, and then use a suitable proggy to connect to the phone.

If you can't do any of the above, then you can send it to me as an MMS or an e-mail and I'll host it on one of my customers servers.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

It was a good 10 or 12 years ago, so I'm not sure if they had that facility then. Wouldn't surprise me though. I certainly got the impression that it was just an excuse to tug me for a fishing expedition, and since I had plenty of time I enjoyed being really helpful and polite while anticipating the eventual look of disappointment on the tosser's face when he found that everything was in order.

Contrast that bloke with a young copper who pulled me over in Guildford about a year or two previously who said he was doing random vehicle checks and politely asked if I minded. I really don't mind being stopped for a random check if they're honest about what it is. It's the sneaky underhand behaviour of the other bloke that got up my nose. Besides, the honest copper was out in the pissing rain and I felt sorry for him. He looked young and new and a bit fed up, so I thought maybe getting him to do vehicle checks in the rain was the police equivalent of sending him out for a bag of sparks for the angle grinder.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein