Suspended Sentence

 Andy Wilman is going to be slightly inconvenienced for six months.

Some Car+Driver readers think it's the beginning of the end of the world.

They've been commenting on this story about him having his licence suspended for driving at 24 in a 20 zone.

Except that is not why he was banned for driving for six months.

He was banned because he accrued 12 penalty points on his licence.  It's true that the last 3 points were down do him driving at 24 in a 20 zone - but if he didn't already have 9 points, he'd have got away with a speed awareness course.

It is clearly stated in the article what has happened here.

Although it does go on to say, "Speeding fines in the U.K. are calculated based on income" - this includes a link to this UK Government site which clearly states the exact opposite.

Anyway, there is much shit lost by the American commenters about all aspects of this including the existence of speed cameras.

And one adds, "And if Wilman posts a mean tweet about the fiasco he'll likely get six months in jail."

No he won't pal, this isn't America.

Cop Out!

Crime prevention is much better than having to catch criminals.

And while it is a tad harsh to describe people committing certain motoring offences as "criminals", it is better to stop them committing the offences in the first place - hence lots of signs around warning drivers about speed cameras.

So I figured that crime prevention was behind the headline in drive.com.au that reads,

Police thwart speed camera revenue by warning motorists

But when you actually read the story, a very different narrative emerges.

It seems that the local state government enjoy the profits from the speed cameras in question and the Police are happy for motorists to speed because they get caught and pay fines.

Although, at the  moment, they are getting motorists to slow down to cut the income from the fines going to a party that they are in dispute with.  The dispute is, as is often the case, about wage levels and since they can't take strike action, this has proven to work in the past so they are giving it another go.

Apparently, another tactic in the battle is "an automated voice when a police station is phoned" - not sure what the automated voice is going to say but given that the state in question is Victoria, I hope it mentions Victorian Values.

Now, as a bit of a Leftie, I tend to be on the side of the disgruntled employee - and as a motorist, I'm happy to be warned about the presence of speed cameras.  Although, as a Volvo driver, I am concerned about the safety element of wanting people to speed.  Although, if you are going to speed, you need to do it in a safe car like a Volvo.  Although BMWs are safe too - as long as you don't write slogans across the rear window.

Although the biggest take from this story is...

THEY ARE DEFINITLEY SPEED CAMERAS NOT SAFETY CAMERAS.

Falling for it.

That title would work better with American readers.

And it's taken an Australian site to point this story out to me.

It's a crime that only works in the Autumn.

A UK driver taped a leaf over one letter of his number plate in order to fool speed cameras.

Ingenious.

Until you think about it.

That last character must be a letter of the alphabet but can't be an I or a Q.

The remaining characters are visible and the colour, make and model of car will be visible too - I wonder if it was a Nissan Leaf.

So not surprising that he was caught and fined.

So no more Autumnal tomfoolery.

He'll have to wait for Spring now when the blossom is out.

Justin Case

Actually, it's Justin's Court Case.

Penny Mordaunt really annoys me.

She's a rabid Tory but I still fancy her.

Here she is playing an important part at The Coronation:

Although arguably not as important a part as this chap's:

And he has a better frock.

It has been a busy week for The Archbishop of Canterbury.  First he had to crown King Charles III.  Then he had to hear about getting 3 points on his licence and a £510 fine.

He was caught driving his Volkswagen Golf at 25mph in a 20mph zone - which is probably very racy for an archbishop.

I hope this doesn't overshadow The Coronation.

After all the careful preparations, a perpetrator of misdemeanours would not look good in The Abbey.

Entitled People

Yesterday, I posted about an entitled person.

Here's two more:

The first one is a Conservative police and crime commissioner married to a Conservative MP.

The second drives a Range Rover.

Or did until she got banned today.

They have both committed motoring offences.  I have marginally more sympathy for the first one of these - Caroline Henry who has been charged with five (YES FIVE!) speeding offences between March and June last year - the story, as reported by the BBC, is here.

However, those five offences were all between 5 and 10mph over the limit in a 30-Zone.

I speak as someone caught doing 37mph in a 30-Zone.  I got a speed awareness course which did educate me quite a bit and I now have to accept that 37mph is dodgy in a 30-Zone.

Normally, you can spot the fixed cameras and the mobile vans miles off - I was caught out by a van parked on the opposite side of the road in the dark.  So I don't understand how anyone could be caught 5 times including twice by the same camera.

The fact she drives a "silver Lexus with a personalised number plate" doesn't make her any more palatable and the fact she is a Conservative explains why she isn't looking to resign despite her promise to "reduce crime with action, not words".  Another example of her arrogance is that she ignored the advice of her solicitor and wrote to the Court stating that she was sorry, ashamed and embarrassed which may sound like contrition but made his job a lot harder.  Mind you, he's a solicitor so who cares?

The second woman is Sherrilyn Speid who,despite her name, didn't commit a speeding offence. No, she nudged climate change protesters with her car because they were blocking her route to take her child to school.  Her solicitor "challenged the driving ban as it would mean Speid could no longer shop for her mother, who has multiple sclerosis, drive to work, or drop off her son at school or football."

I suspect that she is rich enough to order an Uber but if not, then how about doing what unentitled people do and get on a bus?

Constable Gummidge

See if you can spot this:

I didn't.

 

Until I came back the other way shortly after:

It's not a sneaky Policeman, it's a scarecrow.  They probably need to move him out a bit.

 

This is a sneaky Policeman:

I caught him back in February.

 

Note the jaunty way he's parked his unmarked car:

Obviously got his conniving head on.

Renault T-Wing-O

Is this a very lucky German?

My initial thoughts are "No - he drives on old Twingo."

But he has just saved £93 by having most of his face obscured by a dove in the speed camera photo.

And he has managed to get an old Twingo up to 34mph.

The story is here with German Police citing Divine Intervention.  Apparently a number plate and an ear are not enough for a conviction over there.

I think it just means that God does not approve of 18.6mph speed zones.

Easy Come, Easy Go.

An unnamed German 18-Year old passed his driving test.

Yippee!

Then, less than an hour later he passed one of these:

at 60mph in a 30mph zone.

He has been formally banned for four weeks, but police said he would only get his licence back after "expensive retraining".  He is also facing a €200 fine, two points on his licence once it is restored, and his probationary period as a new driver has been lengthened from two years to four.  The BBC story I nicked this paragraph from is here.

I bet his four mates in the car with him were impressed.

Dummkopf.

Viennese Whirl

The Great British Bake Off starts again next week.

I wonder if they'll make any Viennese Whirls?

I like Viennese Whirls.

Talking of Austria and bakers...

 

An unfortunate Austrian baker has been caught speeding 42 times since he started a new job.

 

He was travelling home in the middle of the night and didn't see the signs or the camera (which used infra-red rather than a flash).

 

Various news sources had the story - here is the BBC version.

 

He elected to pay the fines.

 

It raises several questions...

• Do they have infra-red cameras in the UK?
• Do they not have a points-based system in Austria for motoring offences?
• Why such a long gap between first offence and him finding out about it?
• Why would anyone have a 30kph speed limit?
• Is it possible to drive that slowly in the middle of the night?
• Why did he point out that his wife did not blame him for the expense?
• Any other bakers known for speed?

Portable Cash Machine

On the day Donald Trump joked about having Hillary Clinton shot (and let's be honest, that is what he was joking about), his favourite TV News Channel was reporting a speed camera design that is allegedly bullet-proof.  Here is the Fox News story.

And here is our own Sunday Times article that they nicked it from. (but since they are both owned by Rupert Murdoch I don't suppose it really matters)

And here is the offending device:

It looks a bit like one of those generators you see towed behind trucks that come along to dig up the road:

Especially when you hear that the camera has wheels that are retracted when in situ for security purposes.

And this generator is painted yellow which is what the camera would have to be if used in the UK.

But I can't help thinking that this inconvenience could be easily fixed with a bit of duck-tape.

And so could the speed-camera.

Sign of The Times

Correction, make that The BBC, not The Times.

I read this non-story today about people complaining about some new LED advertising signs put up near the Liverpool end of the M62 motorway:

 

I say "people".  It is actually the ABD, the Alliance of British Drivers, an organisation I was unimpressed by three years ago. They are probably upset because one of them missed the speed camera on the motorway in that area because they were busy reading whatever it was displaying an advert for.

The Liverpool Echo covered the plans for the signs back in June although the location was a bit different and the main objection then was "due their size, elevated location and that they will be illuminated, which we consider would have a significant detrimental impact on the local community – both to local residents and local amenities.”:

 

The picture looked good though.

I'm not seeing any real dangers myself - they are not moving pictures (like I saw in November '14 when both the adverts AND the pictures were moving) and it is claimed that lighting levels are controlled.

At least no real dangers unless Wonderbra revisit a certain advertising campaign from 1994.  Hello Boys.

Look! No Hands!

There were a couple of stories on the BBC News site today that caught my eye.

 

The first involves driving along hard-shoulders.

 

The short video tells us how certain motorways around Birmingham have the option of letting people use the hard-shoulder for driving down during busy times with the option of the shoulder reverting to usual shouldering duties if someone needs it.  I have driven on that very motorway myself under those same circumstances.

 

Very clever.

 

The video then goes on to tell us that The Highways Agency want to shut off 300 miles of hard-shoulder altogether to ease congestion.

 

It doesn't mention what happens in the event of a breakdown on one of these stretches.

 

Very un-clever.

 

Especially when you look back to this BBC video story from the Summer.

 

The second BBC story today involves this twerp:

He was caught by a "safety camera" - I put that in quotes because we all know it's a speed camera - driving his Volkswagen at 62mph with his hands on his head.  He was banned for a year and fined nearly £700.

 

Good.

 

Lord knows how long he'd been going like that, he's certainly doing it for the full length of the video.

 

This guy, also in a Volkswagen has got a mate with him and is doing the same thing: 

I suppose he does have an excuse, though, in that his is a self-driving Volkswagen.

Car-Loss Tevez

Am I missing something here?

This BBC story today reports on Manchester City's Argentinian striker being banned from driving for ignoring two speeding tickets. His Hummer was clocked doing 39mph in a 30mph zone in March and clocked again doing 66mph in a 50mph zone in May.

He claims he wasn't driving.

He may well not have been. He has been photographed with a driver. Good job since he doesn't appear to have a valid UK Driving Licence. If he was driving, he wouldn't have been insured.

He also claims that he did not respond to the letters because he didn't understand what they were - he didn't know the English word "constabulary". Also possible - I'm sure he would have been taught stuff like "offside" and "man on!" first.

Only thing is, he has had some dealings with the constabulary before.

The BBC tells us that his Porsche Panamera was impounded in Manchester in November as he could not produce a full UK driving licence. Three years ago, his Bentley Continental GT Speed was impounded in similar circumstances.

The BBC go on to inform us that "As an Argentinian driving licence holder, Tevez is permitted to drive in Britain for the first 12 months of his stay in the country, but is then required to apply for a provisional licence and pass the UK driving theory and practical test." His lawyer informs us that "the theory test will be problematic for Tevez as it is normally conducted in English." Since Tevez joined West Ham in 2006 and he's played in Britain ever since, his 12 months is well and truly over - or does it get reset every time he visits Argentina? I don't think so somehow.

Surely they allow interpreters into driving tests and surely, since 2006, he has picked up enough English to answer some driving questions.

But that isn't what I'm missing here.

What I'm missing goes back to 2011 and this story. Then, he admitted driving at 38mph in a 30mph zone in his Bentley.

So what happened about his driving licence? Supposedly it had three penalty points added.

But what to?

Pasta Their Best?

This week is a week of anniversaries.

It is 15 years to the day since myself and Mrs.Metro walked down the aisle.

It is 20 years +1 to the day since Former policeman Roger Reynolds turned on Britain’s first-ever speed camera on the westbound A316 on Twickenham Bridge in Surrey. The Gatso camera was in a 40mph zone but was set to 60mph and caught nearly 23,000 drivers exceeding 65mph in 22 days. Good. Alledgedly. MSN Cars have the story.

I'm not a fan of speed cameras but driving at 65 in a 40-zone is silly. Also, they are so well signposted now, and painted bright yellow, that you shouldn't really get caught by one.

When I looked for a good picture of a Gatso, this strange-looking car kept coming up:I'd forgotten that Gatso himself was a rally-driver who had invented the speed camera to measure his own racing speeds. I guess this Gatso 4000 Roadster was one of his inventions too. It might have looked OK without the Davros "third eye" thing going on.

I don't know if there are any speed cameras on Gravelly Hill Interchange but...

...it is 40 years to the day since Spaghetti Junction (as Gravelly Hill Interchange is better known) opened. Hence the pasta title and picture of the 1957 spaghetti harvest.For most of those 40 years, I have wrongly thought that spaghetti junction was where the M6 intersected with the M5. It is actually junction 6 of the M6. What a noodle! - all those times I've driven through Spaghetti Junction and thought I hadn't got there yet.

The BBC covered the anniversary quite thoroughly here and here.

Spaghetti Junction was useful for linking bits of Birmingham but not of much interest to New Yorkers who would be more interested about this day in 1883 when...

...The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City was opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. Can't really comment on it but I have driven over The Queens Bridge or, as it should be more correctly named, the Queensboro Bridge or the 59th Street Bridge. Groovy. (Some kudos for anyone who can see what I've done there)Not that anyone crossing Brooklyn Bridge would be too concerned that it was opened on the 53rd anniversary of...

...the publication of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale.

OK, I've officially run out of ways to end this now.