Safe Speed Forums

According to recent reports there has been increase in hit and runs of 62% - which co-incides with decrease in traffic police since 1996.

The programme is supposedly going to be investigating how declines in traffic police and increases in scamera activity since 1996 had led to steady increase of hit and run incidents, disqualified drivers, uninsured and drivers of untaxed and defective cars.

Should be interesting!

Wonder how much bias there will be

I don't think the program lived up to it's expectations. It was more about the lack of control of registered keepers and the penalties of convicted drivers. Brace yourself for more legislation on car ownership!

No mention of the reduction in trafic police numbers. Looks like they contributed to the editorial content so nothing that looks bad on them would have got in.

One interpretation is that camaras are working. By identifying law breakers and giving them points, thier insurance is becoming dearer. This is right; more risk should be dearer. But by making insurance dearer, the speeders are simply not buying any, preferring to risk it. When they have a smash, without insurance, they simply drive on because they know there would be trouble otherwise.

The answer is not to give up on going after speeders! The answer is to have more monitoring, cameras and coppers and such like to catch the offenders and treat them harshly. The general policy has to be that, if it is hard to catch an offender, then you have to treat those you do catch very harshly indeed to make up for the ones who get away.

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Nice try, Basingwerk, but these "throwaway" cars are typically <£100 cash - and no-one, but no-one can get insured for as little as that!

Besides which, these drivers are frequently already banned or otherwise non-qualified, in other words outside the law and beyond its reach as no punishment can affect them further.

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I'd agree - in the good old days, cars cost quite a bit, and insurance was a relatively minor added expense to the cost of the car itself. These dynamics have changed - now the insurance costs quite a bit and the car is a relatively minor added expense to the cost of the insurance! Now every Tom, Dick and Harry (both saints and sinners) can afford the wheels. You cannot blame cameras for this, though, that would be too much!

Instead, you need more cameras (with plate recognition), accurate record keeping and checks. I'd suggest that insurance companies pool thier driver database information, and for coppers to do random roadside pull ins. Offenders should wear curfew tags to stop them reoffending.

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Or, instead, why don't we put more traffic plods on the streets in cars, able to do a PNC and plate check on a dodgy motor, and able to haul the miscreant in THERE AND THEN! Cameras may well be able to do the recognition, but they remain rooted to the spot. Incidentally, I believe the insurance info you are after is already available, though maybe In Gear knows better.

As for the curfew tags, I remain to be convinced that they'd keep some of the scum who drive these wrecks off the streets.

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Yes, recently, I have been paying around £150 to £180 for my insurance, and once had to pay the shocking sum of £212, fully comp though.

Amazingly, my brother got his Ford Fiesta insured fully comp with Egg for £98 a couple of months back. Some kind of special deal.

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Sigh!

We do random pulls here - but we are quaint and old-fashioned and believe in proper policing!

Accurate record keeping on part of DVLA in particular is but a pipe dream! And as for more cameras detecting these scrotes .... they have disappeared before you can despatch patrol to arrest them. On patrol - we know what to look for and target - and generally -- we know where to find them too! Trouble is --- less of us than ever before! So -- less cameras and more coppers can target these idiots.

And speed cameras will just increase uninsured chancers as pings increase premiums for 5 years from date of offence! Prices it beyond budget - and this leads to normally law abiding people eventually blighting their characters because of a scamera ping at low speed such as 34mph or even 35mph which decent traffic policeman will use common sense and discretion as to whether acid warning and lecture on safety or a fixed penalty = and calling us rude names when we nick you usually earns one !

Curfew tags? Tagged louts still break curfews!

And to get them banged back to rights ... you need .... policemen and women!

Will you stop trying to replace dynosaurs like me with a gadget, box or computerised whatever!

Perhaps some ANPR at petrol stations and puncture bars to stop them driving off if positive identification of untaxed/uninsured chap trying to fill up would help matters!

Please refrain from such blatant trolling.

Curfew tags - heh heh good one yeah, I was just reaching for my "Outraged from Slough" notepaper then. Not.

I know. There is no process for properly systematising the driving authorities. Cops, DVLA, Insurance Companies are the stakeholders in this, and the politicians, of course. Any systems analyst could come up with a list of improvments as long as your arm, but it needs consensus among the stakeholders for measures to become real.



Its the lack of integration that is breaking the system. A national insurance database is required and easy to implement technically. A national MOT database is required and easy to implement technically. Cameras with real-time plate recognition would be medium/hard to implement but very nice.

With that, cops would know who is driving what, where and when. Watch-lists could be made using the insurance, tax and MOT databases. If car carrying a plate on a a watch list passes a camera, cops can track and trace the route used by the suspect car, and get to know thier routine routes, and head them off. In other words, more tracking and tracing with good records and automatic monitoring. The cops still have a part in this - we need more and smarter cops strategically picking off the offenders.



I really don't think we should give up on detecting speeders because it puts up their insurance. That's brushing it under the carpet.



The tags will tell you where they are, and you can pick them off strategically, and treat them harshly. Penalties may be too low. I wish we still had transportation, maybe to the Falklands.



I hear you - I've changed my views on this. I think a proper balance of technology and traffic cops can be found. I don't think we have it yet. Times change. Technology will increase. The best thing to do is to make sure it is designed and used effectively, not stop it.



That would need the databases I spoke about, but consensus is needed among the stakeholders for measures to become real.

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And don't I know it!

[quote-"basingwerk"]
The cops still have a part in this - we need more and smarter cops strategically picking off the offenders. [/quoe]

Well - don't want to brag -- but our patch manages vewy well on aggregate! but we do have the "smartest"



We target all OTT offenders here - points are given to severe and recidivist offenders, but we educate and caution when we can!



True - we can locate!


Wish we could deport to hard labour camps! If only!



But - trouble is - subject to abuse! We need sensible policing of this and sensible governments - else we lose what parents and grandparents fought against!

Glad to know you like having us around!



If only! If only! Make our jobs lot easier!

Cousins Wildcat and SickofScamfarce both lived for short time in GDR as I think Mad Doc mentioned!

They had cameras in the petrol pumps near western border! If dissident was found hiding in car boot - stasis were there in flash and all whisked off to deepest dungeon!

Not sure I would like this for normal folk - but sounds good idea for those scrotes who drive around illegally and cause grief to people like mahali!

If you live in Slough - my sincere commiserations.

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heh

I don't as a matter of fact, but I do note a large proportion of the inhabitants of Slough do write a lot of "outraged" letters.

no one lives in slough, it's langley village, eton wick, burnham, farnham common, ... unless of course they are upset about something.

slough also has the most stupid limit setting ever on the A355 dual carraigeway north of the roundabout. A 20 limit for 10 yards around each traffic light junction (and the green wave seems to have gone and if you pass one light at green the others will all be red ) and a 30 limit on the rest of road, which has frontage roads for shops. all the limit change signs are yellow backed, and you can see about 5 limits ahead as even if 30 repeaters were needed rather than just lamposts, there would be the need for about 2 of them .

This limit setting is saying to people that they've judged the correct speed for all the hazards and these are signed up. the red light cameras scare most people into compling with the 20 limit.

Disgruntled with Sluf

Simon