My son tuned into a cop show on the telly the other day…I sat there cringing…
Two lady coppers stopped a chap for “no-seat belt” …a heinous offence to be sure… then they noticed he had a damaged tyre… so ….they knocked him off for both… FP X2… so ….£120 quid…
Was he arsey? Nope… Gobby? Nope…
He was after that though…
They seemed to miss two points:
You don’t have to do people-we have a power of discretion
and…
Why not issue a Vehicle Defect Scheme ticket?
I would have given him a caution for the seat-belt in my pocket book with advise to the effect he would be knocked off should I see him do it again and… a defect form (they are stamped by an MOT centre when the defect is corrected-no fine or points).
My way, the member of the public sees my desire to stop any future injury and a chance to put right a potentially deadly defect…
He also, sees that I am not interested in screwing him for £120 quid…
The other way the driver goes away pissed off to the extreme…and £120 quid poorer…
Is it any wonder we loose support?
There are a number of ways that ‘summary justice can be attained without the dreaded FPNs or prosecution.
No idea what happend there. To continue the story, a colleague of mine, on his last day in the Job, took a walk around his beat, to say goodbye to a number of people and have a last look at what has been his life for the past 5 years. During this time, he stopped 3 people who were driving whilst using a mobile phone. A recent edict from on high had stated that such offences were to be either by FPN or prosecution. In each case, he reported the person for the offence and then stated that if they produced, by 16.00 hrs (he was due to end his shift at 16.30 hrs), one hundred lines that they would only use a handsfree phone whilst driving a motor vehicle, the no further action would be taken. No lines, prosecution and court appearance. Lines, no further action. At about 1555 hrs, he received a radio call that three men were at the front desk waiting for him. His view was that at least three people would think twice before using a mobile phone yet still think that not all Police officers are bastards. Perhaps he was right. Who knows?
Depends how serious you want to take car saftey. A number of people have died in my area in last few years simply because they weren’t wearing seatbelts (attended one of them personally) – who’s to say that they won’t accept the words of advice and then just simply not wear it again next time they drive.
As a result, I almost always ticket for no seatbelt.
I am a retired traffic man, black rat, gutter rat whatever you want to call it…I would always target criminals using vehicles and would “knock them off” for the most minor of offences as a way of continually getting them into court. they would often FTA and then wouldnt pay fines so warrants would be issued. often the penalties imposed by the courts for minor traffic offences were far in excess more than for crime….there are levels of tyre offences to look at, a VDR is suitable where the tread is visible but not measured. where the trad has gone completely, or worse the steel and canvas casing of the tyre is exposed then a prosecution is deserved as this could be noticed by the driver in the adverse way the car handled on the road. I was also under the impression that if more than one offence was found then an FPN was not appropriate and a report for summons was necessary…as for no seat belt, if people are that stupid they want to injure themselves then let them, I used to carry picture of a laminated windscreen with a head shaped impact and blood stains over the glass and the car interior. that usually did the trick…..
keep safe out there
I once worked for a multi national company walking through the company car park i could always find at least three vehicles with defective tyres and it would not cost the drivers a penny to replace them they once gave me a van to drive with four bald tyres all of which had steel banding protruding i told them it was unsafe ! The bosses reply well some one drove it up from london yesterday i replied that person was a cunt get it uplifted i got threatened with dismissal and my boss drove it from bristol to cheltenham he losy his highly paid job through that sorry i dont have any sympathy for car drivers i see too many witj no belts mobile i. Hand speeding aggressive driving and lethal vehicles if you cant afford to maintain it you need to walk
Police complain about a lack of respect, but it works both ways. If you the police don’t treat the public with respect then they won’t get it back. But it is the police who should do their best to ignore the lack of respect because they are the ones whose image is more important than the odd lack of respect case.
@rosco, you are suffering from what’s called confirmation bias. You see the accidents so you assume that the death is purely down to the lack of seat belts. But what about factors such as some deaths would have happened even with a seat belt. Or that the driver is incapacitated in some way and so law or no law, they would not have worn a seat belt.
Because you always see the results of accidents you assume that all accidents where death occured is due to the lack of a seat belt. What you don’t see is the millions, yes millions, of miles driven without any harm coming to the driver even when they aren’t wearing a seat belt. When you factor in the small number of fatalities compared to the millions of trips carried out where nothing happens, then the actual risk is very small.
Popping down to the shops on roads of 30mph limit is a lot less risky than driving at 60mph on windy country lanes. In the former case I sometimes don’t bother with my seat belt, but I always wear it on unfamilar roads or where there is lot of fast traffic. Laws are dumb as they never take into account the many many factors and decisions that everyone makes before every trip. Just like safety cameras are dumb enough to “think” that driving at 3am is the same as driving at 5pm and that the speed limit is just as valid at both times.
I think seat beats for the driver should not be an offence of any kind…it’s down your own dumb ass if it goes wrong…
seat belts for the children in the car? Yes… should be an offence.
But you are wrong about the effects in accidents…
Not wearing one is a major factor in your walking away…
I suggest you meet my wife sometime she was not wearing a seatbelt and hit the windscreen at 15 to 20 mph months of her life in hospit permament scars bits of glass still coming out 30 years later and partially sighted you donr even want to know the mental suffering she has gone through i see lots of drivers not wearing a belt funnily enough they are usually obese i dont know if their is a connection ps nearly 40 years ago i was made to wear a crash helmet by law my.first journey along wandsworth bridge road a cyclist.did a u turn i hit him my scooter went flying and my head hit the kerb knocking me out a young probationer was first on the scene he helped me up then pointed put i was wearing a bra !! My new helmet had split from the impact he pointed out that a few weeks before it would have been the slab for me and would have ruined hs bacon sarnie
Jimmy Saville would turn in his grave! but society is educated these days and we cant and shouldn;t wipe everbodys arse , should you personally decide not to wear a seatbelt and your skull becomes a pile of mush then so be it …your choice , children are the responsibility of the parents and therefore should be protected and the duty of the parents is there safety so they should belt up ,and no we dont have to do everybody but it is likely the SMT pressure/target could have some part to play in the officers decision on this occasion and retired to the sun;s picture education is the way forward.
@sadbutmadlad. Actually no: I am not suffering from confirmation bias, as I have it in good authority that the people involved would not have died had they been wearing their seatbelts. I do realise that it may be only a factor in many accidents, and the risk is small, but so is the effort of putting on your seatbelt every time.
Every fatal accident costs an average of £1million apparently to the state, and it’s also the friends and relatives of the person that is killed or seriously injured that suffer. If there’s a chance I can prevent all this at the cost of £60, then yes: I’ll take it.
I reckon Shijoro was that copper on the TV programme and he or she is teasing us ??
Oh no! Rumbled!