jr135 wrote:
Firstly, what happened to this guy's classic car is outrageous and an apology obviously isn't good enough. However, this kind of thing is extremely rare, and probably just down to some idiot in this case.
The particular outcome of this case may be rare, but look at the wider picture of genuinely innocent motorists being incorrectly penalised in some way and having to expend no small amount of time, energy and money to battle the bureaucrats to clear themselves.
It took me several months to get a simple parking ticket dropped-I was in a position to be able to easily revisit the area a few times to gather the evidence I heeded to prove my innocence, but what if the ticket had been issued whilst I was on holiday on the other side of the country? Even if I were as sure of my innocence, I might just have paid up on the grounds that it was less expensive than another round-trip to the area...
Quote:
Where I drive, in Greater London and Surrey, the chances of the police pulling you over for doing a few miles over the limit is practically zero.
Who's talking about getting a pull from a real live trafpol? Most of us here would prefer this to the reality of finding a brown envelope sitting on the doormat one morning, accusing you of speeding at some point in the past 2 weeks (assuming the SCP is following protocol and not just dishing out NIPs willy-nilly regardless of time limits...) at a location you might not recognise from the somewhat vague description, and asking you, if you'd be so kind, to admit your guilt without seeing any actual evidence, on the grounds that it'll be less painful for your wallet to just pay up now rather than try and defend yourself once it goes to court.
Quote:
And if you do get caught once or twice, and you stand to lose your job, your career, your living and, maybe, your marriage, then you really need to just adhere to the law.
I'd be more inclined to accept that argument if people were only at risk if they were behaving in a manner inconsistent with the majority of road users, but when someone could potentially rack up enough points to lose their licence before the first NIP has even arrived, for driving at speeds which are entirely consistent with the motorists they were sharing the roads with at the time, then it becomes far less agreeable. Especially when, at the same time people are being pinged for simply making good progress and keeping up with the flow, the cameras are ignoring the people who really do need a slap on the wrist.
Quote:
And let's be honest here, in reality we're not literally talking about "a few" miles an hour over the limit.
Depends on your definition of "few".
Quote:
Tax: we are heavily taxed in all areas, so let's not pretend that that somehow adds up to a war on motorists.
Which other areas of everyday life see us being taxed as heavily? I might grimace a bit each month when I see how much of my pay packet has been snaffled away by G.Brown Esq., but as a proportion of the total it pales into insignificance compared to what he grabs from my pocket every time I visit the petrol station.
Quote:
You mention that "More & more cameras are being installed to monitor all our actions as drivers", well, more and more cameras are installed everywhere else as well.
Imagine that it was illegal to walk on the cracks in the pavement, would you be happy to get fined if one of those CCTV cameras saw you doing it, even inadvertantly (perhaps someone pushed you, or you lost your balance in high winds/icy conditions)?
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Members
