BBC1's Motorway Cops - on last night!

[Nickynibbles]

Only watched a bit of this through disgust! Saw the bit when the plod wearing the shades & a tash stopped a biker on a Honda Blackbird doing quote "95/96 mph" but let off with a warning because they hadnt had a chance to get a decent speed readin on him. Rubbish, they were following him for long enough to be on tape as he was speeding up as traffic moved out of his way on the M6, a busy M6 I might add!! The copper was a biker so probably was being lenient, which as a biker I can appreciate.

The bit that really got on my wick happened next when they stopped a mile later to retreive a ladder from the outside lane. A little further on they caught up with the van driver who'd lost the ladder. He'd pulled over straight away and reported the incident and was waiting for plod to turn up. He was chatting a lot and looked worried by what had happened so they decided to give him 3 points and £60 fine!! Not being funny but yes it was very dangerous, and yes he could of been talking a lot to try & get out of trouble but he had pulled straight over & called plod to report it, they turn up and give him points & a fine after just letting a biker doing over 90 mph off!!

Can anybody else say double standards??!!! Turned over after that in case I got a case of couch-based road rage!!

 

[diesel-a4]

i seen that to and was very suprised at the 3points and fine to that van driver.

He seemed to be very worried incase something had happened and pulled right over just up the road. double standards indeed

did you see that wee cheecky git in the honda Civic? man i would loved to have smacked that nose of his right off

 

[Kontraband]

hahah yeah. I saw that too and was a bit put out at the clear double standards.

The kid with the smart mouth tho, did have a case to hold. Innocent until proven, yet the cop came running out the car and tried to drag him out his... plus his point that they gave him a ticket saying 14 days, and he didnt do anything but got stopped and fined in that time makes little sense to me. Why say 14 days if they mean do it now??

Either way tho... Traffic cops! Blah!

 

[Isoproturon]

They have to follow the biker for a set minimum distance for it to stand up in court. His average speed over that distance would have to be high; if he only blasted it for a short distance, words of advice were the right course of action (and possibly the only one) to take.

 

[jdp1962]

The clue to the decision to fine the van driver for the lost ladder was, I suspect, in the PC's description of it as an "absolute offence". In layman's terms, this means that even if it was not the driver's fault per se (i.e. it didn't happen because he had acted carelessly or negligently - although of course we don't actually know that he hadn't), it was still his responsibility in law. If we take a car onto the road with a load attached to it, we have to accept that responsibility and any consenquences that might go with it.

A similar situation would be if my bank failed to pay the direct debit for my car insurance by mistake, and I didn't find out about it until after the insurer had cancelled the policy. I am still guilty of driving uninsured, because it is an absolute offence. The circumstances in which it arose could not be offered as a defence against conviction, merely as mitigation against any sentence.

The youngster in the Civic was a silly little boy who has been indulged all his life and has never been taught about the responsibilities that go hand in hand with his rights. The PC who ran to his car was in a potentially very dangerous situation. He was immediately adjacent to the traffic lane, and could not exclude at that point the possibility that the driver was a car thief, prepared to act with violence. All it needed was for the car door to be flung open & that PC could have been thrown back into the path of the traffic. The priority in that situation is is to remove the driver to a safe place, at the same time containing any potential danger from the confrontation, and then deal with the facts and circumstances as they then unfold.

His argument that it was the fault of the supplying dealer was laughable. It is his car, his responsibility, only like I mentioned a moment ago, he hasn't beeen taught about responsibility. And so what if he has previously been given 14 days to rectify the offence? He is still commiting the offence until he does rectify it.

 

[jdp1962]

Either way tho... Traffic cops! Blah!

So, does that apply to the traffic cops who spend 10 hours overnight trying to keep order on a flooded motorway, attending to the safety and wellbeing of 30,000 stranded car drivers & passengers?

Or to the traffic cops who are trying to rescue a couple trapped in their home by floods, but who are delayed by a moron driving the wrong way down a closed motorway, or a bunch of kids ar$ing around in the car in the middle of the night, because they "wanted to see what the floods looked like"?