Safe Speed Forums

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=46142006

"cameras could be used to counter inappropriate driver behaviour ", behaviour caused by the cameras

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Yes, you have to laugh. If the camera wasn't there he wouldn't have made the sign and no offence would have been committed.

Also, how come the camera snapped him when he wasn't speeding? Do the police now continuously monitor camera output?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

That really is pathetic.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

It's not pathetic, he took his hands off the wheel and leaned across the car to deliver his gesture! What is the problem? Maybe it wasn't "Dangerous driving" but certainly "Driving without due care and attention" !

Safe bet that even if he had kept one hand on the wheel(perfectly safe) and made the gesture with his free hand they would still have prosecuted him, after all this is New Britain.

We all read the stories about people being done for gesticulating to a camera while driving.

We all read about people being done for eating an apple while driving.

When do you think they will make it illegal to smoke a cigarette while driving?

Maybe they have no plans to bring in such a law because they run the risk of losing £8 billion a year in smoking revenue

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

What about letting your hand linger on the gear stick just a little too long?
Has the section on handsignals been removed from the Highway Code?

Only last week, I was guilty of raising my hand, leaning across the vehicle, and lowering the passenger sun visor, to remove the glare from the setting sun, on my way home!!

I'm off to tape up my heater controls in case I inadvertantly get a ban for using a free hand to warm my feet once the screen is in no further danger of misting up these cold mornings!

I WOULD have to see the video and see if the driver was dangerously abusive though

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Interesting. I make it a point to sound the horn and make a clear middle finger gesture at EVERY scumera van and manned trafpols in North Wales ( as they are interested only in supplementing the talivan take here)

However I make it a point to use only my right hand to do it with left firmly on the wheel.

We'll see.

He got what he deserved. However much I might agree with his motives, it was a foolhardy and potentially dangerous thing to do at any speed.

Now if the Scamera Pratnerships would use their Talivans to spot genuinely dangerous driving rather than merely to raise revenue e.g. by clobbering people for straying up to 35 in a 30, they might just be worth having.

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Brian

That's me buggered then- I passed a talivan with one finger raised yesterday.


Again though, how come they photographed him if he wasn't speeding?

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Smokebelching,CO2 making,child murdering planet raping,granny mugging,politically incorrect globally warming (or is it climate changing now it's getting colder?)thug.
That's what the government want you to believe of me. If they get back in I'm emigrating.

Alright people I know I am dreaming here, but would'nt it be wonderful if we could sack the entire police force and start again with the most important entry criteria being 'COMMON SENSE' and giving them a license to use it. After all we pay their salaries so effectively they should answer to us instead of constantly dreaming up daft new ideas on how to bully us. maybe they need reminding more often that they do not run this country-however much they might want to. what a sick thought!

Reading the majority of these comments, I must admit to becoming worried that the motivations of this forum and group in general are becoming less adhesive to that of safe driving.

The guy took his hands off the wheel and was spotted. I don't see why his resultant prosecution should not be applauded. After all the whole point of this programme is to get dangerous drivers off the roads and bring our roads to a reasonably safe state. Well, he was dangerous, and he's now off the roads.

The partnership should be applauded for this action and encouraged to keep it up. I can guarantee that the driver won't be doing it again.

Regards,
Martin

I'm with you on this one Martin. OK, if the camera hadn't been there he wouldn't have "given it the fingers"... But it was... And he did. It was a bloody stupid and dangerous thing to do - if he'd done the same thing to a policeman at the side of the road we'd all be applauding the copper for nicking the twat. The fact that it was "caught on camera" shouldn't be a reason to think that "it doesn't really matter". The crux of the matter was that the driver was by his reported behaviour driving without due care and attention.

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

There are a lot of things wrapped up in this.

- Is a one year ban reasonable - equating this offence with drink driving?
- How did the "speed" camera come to snap him as he wasn't speeding? We should know if these are now on continuous monitoring duty. If so, who monitors them and at what cost?

He may well be an idiot but there are some other issues to be addressed.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

i entirely agree with you malcolmw, seems to me that 'some people' on this thread are maybe not seeing the bigger picture (threat) here.

It’s usual for lidar enforcement to be done in conjunction with an accompanying camera and video recorder, permanently recording the entire session, offences or not. It won’t be taking ‘snapshot’s as suggested in that report (the photos proving offences are committed are taken as stills from the video).

In this case, all the officer needed to do was replay the tape after the session to confirm the offence and get the vehicle details.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

That's the only bit I find questionable. But without seeing the actual video of the offence it's impossible to make a judgement whether it's reasonable or not.

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

The guy may be a twat, but a one year ban is not justified for taking his hands off the wheel unless there was also some kind of incident.

It is obvious that the sentence is more about the gesture than the driving offence.

Speculating:
could the media have spun the sentence? could the driver have received a normal totting-up ban? (the fact that a retest is demanded would suggest otherwise, but the 21 year old could have been on the 2 year probation . . . . . .???)

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign