Lots to mull over in the Westmorland Gazette this week.
Two inquest results, of accidents which seemed puzzling at the time.
The young lady killed in October last year, under mysterious circumstances - causes mooted at the time were wet leaves and speeding - turned out to be over the drink drive limit.
Speed was estimated at 40 in a 30 mph limit - but this would not have caused the accident on it's own.
The wet leaves idea was a non starter - but it appears she got out of line in a bend ahead of the crash site, and ended up sideways on in the road, before hitting a tree and the wall.
The second accident in which a motorist crossed a busy DC main road, and was struck by a motorist who was overtaking, appears to have been a case of a driver driving without glasses, after having been warned by his optician that he should wear them!
The coroner has written to the minister concerned to ask for more stringent health tests for elderly motorists rather than the self-certify system we have at present.
The LETTERS page carries a flurry of letters regarding cycle helmets, and the merits of the same, following a letter last week, extolling their virtues, from a cyclist who claims one saved his life!
Two councils are urging action outside local schools to improve safety. Curiously one does not involve speeding so much as the volume of traffic at dropping off and picking up times!
There is an article about speed cameras in Cumbria, with the usual glib comments from Kevin Tea, and along side of it, a report on a case of a failed attempt to prove the camera was ineffective in the rain.
The solicitor in the case did not seem well versed in the shortcomings of the LTI 20/20, and Steve Callaghan
was able to show from measurements of road markings to work out the speed using distance and time. I hope the road markings are more accurate than those in Staveley!!
Frank Garratt turned up to say that if a slip error had occured, the equipment would have reported it! How that man can eat with the same mouth escapes me!!
A claim that the camera equipment did not have the relevant CE certificate which demonstrates the product complies with a common set of laws failed. The judge criticised the CPS for not producing the document but ruled that this would not have a bearing on the accuracy of the equipment.
If this is so, why do my customers spend large sums of money on obtaining CE certificates, and CE plates for equipment they produce?
The Highways Agency Incident Support Unit is to hand out HiVis vests to stranded motorists in Cumbria, to help protect them and make them more visible while awaiting assistance on the M6.
I recall this post from a while back...
Quote:
I was talking about the High Vis vest thread to my brother who is a Highways Technician, and spends half his working week, standing in the road with a High Vis on.
He assures me that this type of clothing only serves to aid blind/partially sighted drivers in aiming for you.
He went on to confirm that these days he has taken to wearing an all-black ninja suit and just making sure that he gets out of the path of any approaching cars
Finally, in a bid to avoid getting a speeding ticket from CSCP on Rayrigg Road, a local company is to introduce a new bus service from The Steamboat Museum, to the steamer piers, using a 1932 Sentinel Steam Bus.
While the blurb says it can travel at up to 30 mph - todays excursion through Bowness saw traffic travelling at up to 30
feet per minute, as hordes of the North West's Crack Suicide Display team, hurled themselves from pavements, balanced around the outside of railings meant to keep them on the footpaths, and tried to negotiate a demolition site which was fenced off right to the roads edge, rather than cross over at a safe place!