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Thursday 8th January 2009 Make us your HOME PAGE  What is RSS?
 
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ARTICLE SUMMARY

Ban speed cameras say road safety campaigners

Road safety campaigners yesterday called for speed cameras to be banned after police slashed road deaths by 40 per cent without them.

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TRAFFIC DIVISION

25.08.08, 9:14am

I used to go to the Ace Cafe and my favourite bike was my Bonnie. One of our pastimes was spotting coppers asleep in their patrol cars at night, turn around and come past them freewheeling, thumping the roof of their vehicle before driving away at speed. Morris Minors and even P6 Rovers were no match for Bonnevilles.

When I grew up and drove ambulances, we used to squirt water at coppers on point duty and in return, they whipped out water pistols and squirted us as well.

Can you imagine pulling out a water pistol and squirting a copper today? If you managed to avoid being shot or getting arrested, you would both be up on serious fizzers and end up with the sack or at the very least, a political correctness indoctrination plus, "advice and guidance."

• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment

TRIUMPH!

18.08.08, 2:08am

Have you ever tried to hold a 650? I'm more of a Daytona man myself (although i pine for my now ex- Monster) Its not a shock that women were refrained from experiencing such a vehicle. Mind you the modern Hondas are not much better, especially not after the addition of extra fairing and equipement.

As for our kith in the fire service, I have to admit that i'm the black sheep for shunning the life of the water fairy.

• Posted by: ruhe03 • Report Comment

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ICE CREAM, CHOC ICES!

17.08.08, 12:21pm

Yes, I am going back to the early 1970s when traffic were first issued with them. I also remember that they were the first to have double "Mickey Mouse ears," blue beacons specifically for motorway driving. I also remember when they excluded women from traffic division because it was claimed that they would not have the strength to hold up the 650 Triumphs.

Mind you, when Trumpton first employed women, they made Geoff Capes look effeminate.

• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment

SPEED CAMERAS

16.08.08, 8:45pm

The first speed camera in London ran out of film in 2 hours.

Such was the speeding on that road!!!

Now there is no film just digital cameras.

• Posted by: Flyer • Report Comment

MR WHIPPY

16.08.08, 4:52pm

Actually white-crested hats were standard issue up until a few years ago and have now been reinstated.

• Posted by: ruhe03 • Report Comment

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RED LIGHT CAMERAS

16.08.08, 2:07pm

The first red light camera installed as an experiment was at the Hanger Lane Gyratory system at Park Royal. The film ran out in a couple of days because it was the main escape route for ambulances and traffic division cars. It hardly caught normal vehicles and when it did, they all had Polish number plates.

I witnessed a collision when a drunk driver went through red lights at speed at Hillingdon on the A40 and crashed into some poor sod crossing legitimately on the green. His excuse was, "These lights are always green when I go through them, hic!" The ice cream men took him away. (For those of you who did not know, the ice cream men joke was directed at the new issue white caps for Traffic Division.) I thought it was far kinder than the Black Rat nomenclature.

• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment

BAN ALL 'GOVERNMENT CASH MACHINES' , AKA 'SAFETY CAMERAS'

16.08.08, 2:16am

I also believe that that the ones known as 'Red Light cameras' should be banned. There are several stretches of road around the Manchester area where these are present on 60/70mph dual carriageways and some of the lights on these particular roads go from Amber to Red unusually quickly, as a result of this, people jam on the brakes at high speeds to avoid being caught. How someone hasn't had a lorry or even another car up their backside I will never know.....

• Posted by: Manc_Mike • Report Comment

I'D DISAGREE LEF

13.08.08, 11:01pm

If i drive a marked police car along a road for a certain distance i would have already enforced greater speed compliance than over the twenty yard stretch of tarmac that the speed camera could.

I would also argue that i could stop motorists who are unfit through intoxication, driving without documents and even driving unsafe vehicles. I've yet to see a Gatso PG9 a dangerously defective vehicle.

Kind of proves that the one-trick pony is not really there for safety and the destroying of road policing has not helped the cause. The constant trend of deaths on the road prove that.

• Posted by: ruhe03 • Report Comment

HARRI

13.08.08, 6:42pm

"Great Britain is hardly free of crime is it . i am sure he could find a criminal somewhere if he looked hard enough."

--not of harvey and ruhe have their way. he'd be spending all his time doing a job that a piece of machinery could do much better.

• Posted by: LeFinDuMonde • Report Comment

BORED COP TRYING TO FILL HIS MONTHY QUOTA WITH A RADAR GUN.

13.08.08, 2:53pm

Bored !

Great Britain is hardly free of crime is it . i am sure he could find a criminal somewhere if he looked hard enough.

Then he could spend the next 6 hours filling in forms ?

• Posted by: HarriUK • Report Comment

MIFF

13.08.08, 12:37pm

I would argue that any rules on parking would HAVE to be displayed clearly for all to see- much like clamping signs have to be. I've yet to see a McDonalds that has this sort of condition on their parking but i've now seen plenty of supermarkets that stipulate the amount of time one can spend on their car parks.

• Posted by: ruhe03 • Report Comment

DUDES

13.08.08, 11:44am

i seem to remember recently a ruling making all private car clamping illegal now. which would be great news. now that is cynical money making in the extreme. I remember my ex once being told by a shop that she could park in the lot next door while she shopped there. when she came out, her car was clamped (it wasn't the shops lot, but it was obvious they were running some sort of scam).
parking regulations are a different matter (no ones life is in jeopardy).

--anyway, i'd still rather have an objective speed camera than a bored cop trying to fill his monthy quota with a radar gun.

• Posted by: LeFinDuMonde • Report Comment

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WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IS...

13.08.08, 11:31am

How legal is it for a private company hired by the landowner to charge you an excessive amount, say £90 and upwards, for over-staying your permitted parking time? Surely this can be challenged in County Court? Anyone out there who knows civil law?

• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment

MIFF

13.08.08, 11:17am

A classic example of the condone sale of your private details by a governmental agency.

The DVLA has been permitted to sell your vehicle details to private companies to use through ANPR. This is now employed by petrol stations, debt collectors and it seems McDonalds and Tescos.

Every little helps eh?

• Posted by: ruhe03 • Report Comment

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AUTOBAHNS

13.08.08, 10:09am

The old Europeans seem to have a better sense of lane discipline than us. You spend a good many pleasurable miles on auto routes and autobahns where drivers know their place.

Come back to Blighty and you get granddad with cap and gloves sitting in the outside lane doing 50, who then brakes every time he sees what could appear to be a speed camera. On the way home, pop into a Maccy Dee's, get a hamburger, sit in the car and eat it, go home and five days later you receive a perking charge from some bogus cowboy parking enforcement agency to fine you for sitting in McDonald's car park 5 minutes over time.

To add insult to injury, they send you a photo of your car with the times recorded - lucky you did not have someone else's wife with you. Then on the letter they threaten you with a CCJ, which everyone fears, can affect your credit. What worries me is who gave permission for a private company to pursue you to your home address from number plate data?

• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment

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