Safe Speed Forums

http://www.southtynesidetoday.co.uk/Vie ... ID=2068736

POLICE WARNING TO KEEP BELTED UP

DRIVERS and passengers on South Tyneside are being warned to belt up or face a fine.
The message is being delivered by Northumbria Police as part of a European-wide campaign.
Launched this week, it aims to remind drivers and passengers to belt up every time they get in a car.
Anyone found not wearing a seat belt will be given an on-the-spot fixed- penalty ticket of £30.
Campaign began on Monday and runs until Sunday. It is being backed by the Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership which will also be involved in targeting drivers not wearing seat belts.
It is 24 years since it became compulsory for adults to wear seat belts in the front seat of a car, and 16 years since it became law for rear seat passengers.
Chief Inspector Kevin Wellden, of Northumbria's Operations Department, said: "People who fail to wear their seat belts must be aware of the risks.
"Where a crash may result in minor injuries when a seat belt is worn, not wearing a belt could lead to serious injuries and even death. Those not wearing seat belts are given £30 fixed penalty tickets, but this loss is nothing compared to what can happen."
The European-wide campaign, named Operation Seatbelt, is the first in a series by TISPOL (European Traffic Police Network).
However, while seat belts are mandatory in Europe their use varies.
Estimates believe if everyone across Europe wore a seat belt it could save an extra 6,000 lives and prevent 380,000 serious injuries a year.

Among non-users, it is estimated that 50 per cent of fatalities could have been avoided if seat belts
had been worn.

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And so it begins... More time and money spent doing 'other things' means less time and money spent on speeding.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

May we hope that the "other things" are real road safety items.
As this article is from a tyneside source -could it be infection of sensible thinking from nearby Durham??

What's the legalities surrounding camera operators issuing fixed penalty tickets for offences other than speeding? Another thin end or the same part of a huge wedge inserted in another location?

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Prepare to be Judged

There should be a legal requirement for vehicle to be fitted with operational seat belts. It would be the drivers responsibility to ensure that minors wear belts.

If an adult chooses not to wear a belt it is their own responsibility. It would also be their responsibility to pay for any medical/rescue expenses resulting from injuries sustained in an accident while not wearing a belt.

Then again you could say the same of excessive speed.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

The law at the moment is that it IS the drivers responsibility to ensure that children are secure in the car.
No maybe. It is already law.

'children' in this case being 13 and under, I believe?

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Andrew.

[quote="toltec"
If an adult chooses not to wear a belt it is their own responsibility. It would also be their responsibility to pay for any medical/rescue expenses resulting from injuries sustained in an accident while not wearing a belt.
[/quote]

That is fine if you are the only person in the vehicle. The benifit of being properly strapped in must be reduced if there is another body being hurled around in a car that is in the process of crashing.

It is your decision to be in the car with them though. Tricky in the case of minors though, adults in cars containing minors also have to wear belts? Of course instead of having a law for that you simply bring them up on child abuse charges.

What I am somewhat clumsily trying to point out is that these laws serve to remove or minimise personal responsibility. IMHO naturally.

Then again maybe I am just suffering from grumpy old man syndrome.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

When I sat my advanced test, at the start of the test and so still on private land, the examiner instructed me to commence the test. He was still unbelted, and instructed him to 'belt up'. I then had to mitigate myself that although it was not my responsibility to ensure he wore a belt, my car somewhat annoyingly rings an alarm every 10 seconds when the car is in gear and a front seat passenger is un-restrained.

He remarked that it is in fact law that the passenger, not the driver in that circumstance must enure the belting up. As someone else stated, all adults make their own decisions.

As time goes on, the ineffective speed camera departments will be wound down, as they add their support in numbers and quotes but nothing in terms of technology, manpower or ability to detect these other issues.

You can point as many LTI 20-20s as you like at people not wearing seatbelts - it's going to make no difference.

When the LTI/GATSO/TuVelo breaks down, don't expect it to be replaced....

Not sure if this is of any interest?

http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/ViewArtic ... ID=2064605

I'm not sure how the police could ever have subsised the SCP though?

Contains:


Yep. The carve up has definitely begun.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Do we have a crocodile tears smiley?!

From personal observation, it is very noticable how much the van activity has dropped recently on the A34 between Stafford and Stoke. (Mind it's iso infested with cameras anyway they were having trouble finding gaps between them big enough to park the vans in! )

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I won't slave for beggar's pay,
likewise gold and jewels,
but I would slave to learn the way
to sink your ship of fools

So if SCP money is being allocated elsewhere & thus the hours of operators are possibly being shortened, is this why some Police Forces are pushing the Community Speed Groups, where they get general busy bodies doing their dirty work for free?

So in theory, it looks as if something is being done about speeding, but its actually not, because they don't have any powers.

Quite, but Joe Soap won't realise the lack of power, will continue to devote far too much attention to the numerical speed rather than its appropriateness, and the wrong message will continue to pervade.

Can we get some free knitting needles issued to some of these folk and point them to the nearest wool shop so they can find a new interest?

[quote="Roger


Can we get some free knitting needles issued to some of these folk and point them to the nearest wool shop so they can find a new interest?[/quote]


Or alternatively - enroll them in silver surfer groups so that they get to learn the other side of the coin - must cost NHS a fortune after these oldies being exposed to the weather

As most people on this forum will concur, in most places with sensible speed limits less than NSL we endeavour to keep within them, whilst often drifting over, but paying close attention to our driving, not talking on phones, drinking coffee, eating a hamburger, reading a map. ( I am sure I saw one motorist on the M6 doing all four, once, and in the middle lane as well !!)

We on this forum will continue to be careful like most other people in the UK. What is needed is acceptance by the authorities that is is reckelessness and inattention that are the main causes of road accidents not some breaking of an arbitrary limit by a small margin.

My suggestion is that 'Mens Rea' be mandatory in prove a speeding cases as it is in all other criminal cases. So if you're on 50 in a 30 then you will need a pretty good excuse that you did not intend to exceed the limit whilst up to around 38, you could say it was not intentional and expect a much lesser penalty or even none.

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

Yes. But you have to remember that the police have their own separate mobile cameras. The existing fixed cameras will not be reduced, some are permanent and others have the internals moved about from one location to the other. We also have fixed speed displays in towns and villages, some are able to be remotely interrogated and data about the number of times drivers don't slow down is read from elsewhere. In Bedford you might like to keep your eyes open from April....some of the cameras will be re-installed at other locations, in which case the chance of them being marked is exceedingly low. The idiot brigade on the new barford bypass can expect nips' at regular intervals....since the strategically placed laybys allow for speed vans to read the oncoming vehicles without being seen easily....by the time you notice them (slight bend, uphill and the road has a "mirage" shimmer) it is LONG too late.
It's not a carve-up, it's re-allocating resources to continue as is. The 7 speed cameras in 2 miles will still be there......

No. It's definitely a carve-up. See:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/284
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/296
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/297

And it's only the very very begininning.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety