Safe Speed Forums

Question aimed at In-Gear here I suppose.

Driving east along M54 this morning (Sunday), happen across a youngish couple in a 1.2 Nova in the outside lane, belching smoke. No other traffic around yet the driver stays in lane 2 , is veering from side to side and speed is going up and down between 65-80mph. Driver wil not pull into lane 1, what to do?

Can't call police, 999 seems a bit OTT for the circumstances and don't know the number of local feds. Besides, I'm on my own and using a mobile whilst driving is illegal.

Drop back and wait, and wait, and wait...which is what I initially did. Nada.

So I did an illegal maneouvre of my own I'm sorry to say, I undertook it - with the express intention of clearing the hazard and getting on my way. Glancing in my mirrors I could see two other vehicles in the same dilema, one flashing away in the outside lane, the other creeping up on the inside.

So what is the right thing to do here? Clearly (to me) the driver was behaving extremely erratically and presenting a hazard to other road users. What might have a trafpol have done if they'd seen me undertake?

I thought we'd decided that undertaking in itself isn't illegal - it's only if you pull off an irresponsible manouvre, such as undertaking when there's no cause to, that you could be in trouble. I'd hazard a guess that in this situation you would not be pulled over by a watching policeman, or if you were (I'd hope that) they would listen to your explanation and then take no further action.

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

Oh where -oh where- is a trapol when you need one! Speed at 78mph or above ---and three of us turn up from nowhere at once!

Pity one was not there though - would have stopped your numpty, given him a VDRS and a HO/RT/1 (Defective vehicle doo-dah and present docs to cop shop or else!) May even have impounded the car and crushed it if really dangerous too!

You did the right thing by holding back under circumstances.



If we had seen you undertake - would have very probably taken no action on this. In any case - we would have been stopping your numpty and throwing proverbial book at him! In fact, you may not even have got into the predicament at all if BiBs had seen this!

We do use common sense based on the set of circumstances. Different if you speed though on the undertake!

Given the description, a drug impairment test would seem appropriate too.

Do the police ever bother with that kind of thing? Do they hang around nightclubs with carparks at 3 am?

Surely any sensible person, if they knew they had a knackered car, would keep to a maximum of 50 mph in Lane 1.

Regards,

Peter

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"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

The drink/drugs test would be part of our "chuck proverbial book at him"

And yes - I have lurked around nightclub car parks in the past in wee small hours of the morning to cop those staggering back to their cars! We still do this - despite the cutbacks!



Ah! but people are not sensible. I could write a book on numpties I have met on motorway.

Had people stop in L3 and exchange details after minor bump, tow trailers at ridiculous speeds (over the ton), carry on driving after the caravan has jacknifed, drive on a flat - at high speed, even stop and ask for directions whilst on the carriageway!

Also - debris on the cariageway - just drive over it at high speed. Numpty like me (many years ago now) assigned to sweep up the debris - just carry on driving at him - ignore the cones!

Last year - the Mad Docs went on their jollies and saw someone having a picnic on the M2 (Canterbury area)

And that is just for starters!

Might have been tempted to call 999 for this. And before InGear gives me the lecture (and I'd love to see how he'd do That Voice with only a keyboard ) the phone is in a cradle and I use the voice tags to make it almost totally hands free - better yet, if you've got a passenger get them to make the call of course. InGear, would it be appropriate to use 999 in the situation Rigpig described? Have dialled 999 once to let 'em know about a very erratic driver on the M4, guy was speeding up and slowing down again, couldn't keep it in the lane. I honestly thought he might be sloshed or stoned, so I felt plod should be told and 999 was the only number I could use. When I spoke to them they didn't seem to think I was being a time waster, but maybe they were being polite. I was thinking that once the police knew about the problem it was up to them to decide how much of a priority it represented, but if they were never told about the hazard at all the idiot might have caused a crash. Be nice to have the copper's view of how big a numpty justifies the call.

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

Actually Peter, that's exactly what crossed my mind at the time. The couple were a really odd looking pair, a gormless looking bloke who gawped at me as I went by, and a female, I think, driving.

With 20/20 hindsight perhaps I should have pulled off at the next exit and informed the local police at least.

Think I would have to use a few ********* and But since....



.... I will let you "off the hook!"



Yes - it would. Be sure to mention suspicion of illegal substances - though.

It can make a difference to prioritising. We get a lot of calls - and it does become a lottery as to which we deal with first. And as you know we are in much shorter supply in many areas than we used to be!

We have bit of problem at the moment. Bliar et al drone on about how many more coppers they have recruited ..... not seen that many to be honest. What they really mean is the civvy mob at half price and half the IQ!

They have also cut back on probationer/recruit training in some areas - 15 weeks cut down to as little as 10 weeks in some Forces!

It is disgraceful. We all deserve better. How on earth are we supposed to solve crimes, catch crooks and keep streets safe from moronic drivers and real thugs at this rate?

I had a similar one on the way back from the Bullring on Sunday afternoon. I'm not local to Birmingham, so won't pretend to know the area too well, but...

About 5 minutes out of the Bullring, following signposts for the M5, along mostly dual carriageway roads varying from 30-40. Numpty behind me, on a hand-held phone virtually the whole way. Weaving all over the place, very slow to move away from lights, generally being very cautious and creating a lovely queue behind him.

My fiancee (in the passenger seat) got my digital camera out of the back seat and took a few photos of him with hands divided between the steering wheel and phone, he's just totally oblivious. As soon as we hit the NSL stretch just before M5 J3, I was only too pleased to create space between mysef and the eejut.

I really wanted to report the idiot, but.... 999 seemed OTT. The "non-emergency" number for each Police Force is different (a personal bugbear of mine because of this exact situation) so I only have Avon & Somerset stored in my mobile (full handsfree carkit before anyone asks!!). Fiancee made a note of his registration thinking of reporting him later on, but then it hardly seems worth it by the time we get back to Bristol a couple of hours later.

Grrrr

Couple of years back I had the idea of mounting my camcorder on the parcel shelf whilst travellng back home from Duxford in Cambridgeshire.
I wanted to see if I could video tailgaters on the M6. The battery ran out before I got to the M6 but I captured a couple of prime examples on the M11 and A14.
I floated the idea of sending the tape to the police with some guys at work, but those who didn't think I was a sad mupped for doing it in the first place ( ), thought it a waste of time. We decided that the police had enough to do without analysing videos the public sent in of each other and besides, it only showed what the other drivers were doing, not what I may have been doing to provoke them.

So, In-Gear, is it worth it, or just a waste of time, bearing in mind the points you made aout manpower etc above?

I would love to say yes - but then we do not have the manpower - and would imagine the cam hotspots spend too much time looking at the Gatso photos. And then - numpty could be in hire car - or RK's car And if I were to say "Send them to us" - we would probably get sack loads! I would say - if in your judgement - this footage contains extremely dangerous behaviour rather than numptiness - then send it and we may place on data base and be on alert for it. Though cnaces are - it is stolen and "disappears"

What happened to the national non-emergency number?

I dug up this article from the Gurinad which says it is to be introduced "this year", trouble is that's dated 1st Jan 2003.

This could be handy to print off and keep in your car. Just need to know which constabulary you come under at the time.