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 Post subject: Westmorland Gazette
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 19:43 
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Second week in a row Paul Smith has been quoted in the gazette, this time on dodgy road markings - very interesting


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 13:58 
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I haven't seen it yet - it's not by Andrew Daniels by any chance is it? 8-)

I wonder how they got on with their FOI request appeal regarding the accident causation at Ings?

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 14:12 
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The Westmorland Gazette's online archive makes interesting reading.
One of the accidents which led to an INCREASE in KSI's at Ings, which the CSCP claim to be reducing was rather amusing as it turned out.
the Westmorland gazette wrote:
'Badger pile-up'
By Gazette News Desk
A BADGER caused a five-car collision on the A591 between Windermere and Staveley during the Monday morning rush hour.

Drivers dodging the animal crashed into each other and blocked the southbound lane towards Kendal shortly after 9.15am.

The vehicles that crashed were: a Ford Escort van, driven by a 35-year-old man from Windermere; a Volvo 740, driven by a 42-year-old man from Ambleside; a white Ford transit van, driven by a 55-year-old man from Coniston; a Land Rover Discovery, driven by a 37-year-old woman from Windermere; and a Nissan Primera, driven by a 62-year-old man from Distington.

The police could not say if the badger was injured.

The white van was loaded with paint - and witnesses seeing red paint over the dash feared the worst - but the driver was OK, his load had been flung forward and burst in the drivers seating area.
Police called upon him to move his own vehicle to avoid becoming "Boys in Blue and Signal Red"!

Sadly the badger was killed. In fact it was already dead when I passed it at 8.15 am, and I had telephoned the local taxidermist to see if he wished to recover the intact corpse!
Perhaps speed cameras should have badger tunnels close by to improve their limited effectivness! :lol:

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 00:12 
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See page eleven of this weeks Gazette for news of my attempt to get something done at Bannerigg. :oops:

As usual the words attributed to me are a fiction from the Gazette reporter, but the story gives the gist of the councils concerns after my presentation.

The police representative was supportive too. :) Now for Cumbria County Council 8-)

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 09:53 
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It beats me why people swerve to avoid some animals. I must admit I'd do my best not to run over a cat or dog but the rest of them just would get run over if the choice was squash them or have an accident myself.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:37 
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teabelly wrote:
It beats me why people swerve to avoid some animals. I must admit I'd do my best not to run over a cat or dog but the rest of them just would get run over if the choice was squash them or have an accident myself.


As a 17 or 18 year old I ended up on the 'wrong side of the road' facing oncoming traffic because of a cat. Admittedly the oncoming traffic was a couple of hundred yards away (in a 40mph type situation). But I made a decision that day: "never swerve for a cat".

A decade or so later I added "... unless I'm CERTAIN that I have the space required."

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 02:10 
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When I passed the Badger an hour before the accident, it was lying on the white lines.
I cannot imagine how they would have to swerve to avoid it, and nobody should be overtaking there, the view ahead is too short - not that that stops some of them! :oops:

Dont cats have nine lives?

I was coming off the M6 at the J32 cloverleaf on my motorbike, in the dark.
A cat shot out from the right.... straight into the side of my front wheel.

I turned around, and went back, and it was lying twitching.
I put the bike on the centre stand, and put the indicator on, as a marker, turned around intending to put the cat out of it's misery... and it had gone! :o

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:32 
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Ernest Marsh wrote:
When I passed the Badger an hour before the accident, it was lying on the white lines.
I cannot imagine how they would have to swerve to avoid it, and nobody should be overtaking there, the view ahead is too short - not that that stops some of them! :oops:

Dont cats have nine lives?

I was coming off the M6 at the J32 cloverleaf on my motorbike, in the dark.
A cat shot out from the right.... straight into the side of my front wheel.

I turned around, and went back, and it was lying twitching.
I put the bike on the centre stand, and put the indicator on, as a marker, turned around intending to put the cat out of it's misery... and it had gone! :o


About 40 years ago I hit a dog on a main road (30 mph limit) in Scarborough. It ended up on the grass verge out for the count, so I had a look at its collar hoping to find the name and address of the owner. While I was doing this it suddenly leapt to its feet and legged it at a rate of knots. It appeared to be functioning pretty well! Just to keep things straight I reported the incident at the police station, but I don't think there was much more I could have done.

Best wishes all,
Dave.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 13:07 
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A friend of mine was on holiday and hit a dog that ran out in front of his rented car. He stopped and moved the dead animal to the side of the road, then thought he'd better do the right thing and report it. It took him several hours to find the police station and communicate with them what had happened, filled the forms in etc etc.

Eventually they let him go, whereupon he drove around the corner and the same dog ran out in front of him again!

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 21:05 
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My ultimate loony animal story was on Red Bank - the road from Grasmere into Langdale. I had a Honda CD175 at the time.

Near the top, the car I was following pulled over to let me pass - and as I did so a sheep lept off the high bank on my right - straight into the side of the bike, nearly knocking me into the vehicle I was passing.
As soon as I was able, I turned around, and went back to see if it was hurt, only to see it trotting off towards Grasmere.
A lady in her front garden called me over, and said "dont worry - it's the third time this week it has pulled the same stunt - it must dislike motorcycles!"

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 21:46 
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Last week, Dennis Aris made an observation that drivers only slow down for 100 yards around the cameras, then speed up again.

Dennis Aris wrote:
TRAVELLING along the A590 in the Witherslack area has become a little more hazardous in recent months.

Everyone belts along the road as fast as they can go, then they slam on their brakes to make sure they go past the speed cameras at around 45mph before putting the pedal to the metal again for the rest of the journey.

The same sort of thing also happens at cameras in the 40mph speed limit on the A591 at Ings.

It suddenly occurred to me that both sets of cameras, and I am sure many others, are not really a speed limit enforcement device.

They are a new form of tourist tax as the only people likely to be caught regularly are visitors who do not know they are there.


Kevin has written in with the usual blurb... sites are well signed, information is given out on local radio and newspapers, AND the schedules are available on the website.
So if this was todays schedule....
Quote:
A6 A685 M6 A66 A66 A6 A595 A590

what was the camera van doing in Windermere at 9.30 am, heading towards Bowness and the A592?
And if A66 or A6 is supposed to be helpful - which A6 or A66 site would that be then?
In the penultimate paragraph he says:
a Joseph Goebbels clone wrote:
Fourth all roads have their speed limits signposted so any driver, regardless of where they live, is not being taxed but fined for breaking the law.


Why didnt he just say that then, instead of giving all that crap about signage and schedules being available? :roll:
And why dont they STOP people from breaking the law, instead of letting them continue on their merry way - hell bent on death and destruction? :oops:
I dont suppose it's because they need the money to pay their wages?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 19:16 
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Keep watching the Gazette!
In my original letter, I did point out that I did not get paid to defend the anti-camera position full time like Kevin, and that I dont have the services of a statistician to come up with new spin on tired figures - but of course you know that already.
Maybe it's time the public found out! :wink:

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