Uneasy at these events.

[Black dog]

Originally Posted by 100K+

It may have escaped members attention that some 80+ drivers are to be fined and have points added to their licences for driving off the M11, after the road was closed and traffic halted following an accident, but driving the wrong way to do so.
Evidence for this offence being provided by dash cam footage from cars and drivers which were there at the time.

Is it just me or is anyone else uneasy at this situation.

I'd ask how soon it will be before such evidence be accepted for other motoring offences ie speeding, I can see a situation arising where, as dash cams become more common, we as drivers are going to be encourage to "Spy" on our fellow drivers and "shop" them when we think they are guilty of wrong doing all in the name of civic duty..

BTW I am not one of the 80+ drivers who are to be fined... just in case you were wondering..


Thank goodness my driving days are nearer ending than just starting....

Cheers
Bob

If the road was closed how could you be going the wrong way?? Brain dead!
People are not prisoners, and can not be kept against their will, it's illegal to be a pedestrian on a motorway so if they were not let through don't they have the right to leave?
The person who submitted the footage should have been beaten for being a potentious pri🤔K with no buisness having an opinion!

[john.wigley]

Firstly, I have the utmost deepest sympathy with those who have lost loved ones as the result of an accident. i can think of little in life that can be worse than that. Their stories alone should make even the most hardened of speeders think again.

My question is, do we really need cars routinely capable of achieving speeds that only a few years ago were unheard of other than on the race track?

Manufacturer 'A' produces one that can do 'X' MPH, so manufacturer 'B' immediately introduces one capable of 'Y' MPH simply to remain competitive. Thus the upward spiral begins and now even 'cooking' cars can cover the ground at two miles a minute or 176 feet every second!

Is it therefore any surprise that accidents happen when drivers, irrespective of experience, drive such cars without respect for others?

Regards. John.

[Spike56]

And yet some here still maintain that they are better than the law makers who apparently have personally insulted their ability to drive by restricting their right to drive in the same way as those very people who kill and maim. Now I know that people die every day through no fault of their own. And people do die in accidents even at slow speeds. Does that mean that limits are wrong? That my car with it's abs and city safe and all those other systems fitted is safer than my old Allegro with it's skinny tyres, bad brakes etc is a given. Has my ability changed with experience or age? Doesn't matter. It's all down to chance. You can drive like Hamilton but meet a drunk coming home from the pub! I also worked with a guy who regularly rolled into work (In Whitehall, close to Downing Street) every shift. He would often fall out of his car, blind drunk and request someone park for him. Only accident he ever had...he was sober and was hit by a drunk!!

The moral still remains. The law is in place. If you disobey the law, then you reap the consequences if you are caught!

As to whether we the public should be aiding the authorities in the job which we already pay them to do, is questionable. Except in dire circumstances I would not do so. If the situation was bad enough ( as mentioned life threatening, burglary etc ) I might.

As I already mentioned, the chance of mr average catching anything on camera is limited. But in the event of someone slamming on their brakes and you hitting them (crash for cash style) then your camera can save your bacon (and no claims bonus!). Bump in Tesco's car park? Proof it was someone else.

I watch youtube videos. Most of the clips include angry men (mostly) or lots of laughter towards innocent mistakes. I'm not sure if there is a way to find out the numbers, but I cannot imagine many people have been prosecuted for 'minor' infractions. Cameras are here. People pretending to be police checks, are here. We have all seen or heard of people driving white cars and wearing fluorescent jackets..... And don't start me off on those idiots on motorcycles with the yellow jacket with blue patch with the large word POLITE over the message to be aware!

We will never all agree on the rights or wrongs. I respect anyone's right to drive as fast as they want as long as it doesn't obstruct my right to drive within the statutory limits. I don't suffer stress or road rage. I rarely use my horn or flash 'in anger'. That is my choice.

Oh. And where the limit is 30, I often drift over because I find it difficult. Where it's 40 I might drive at 35. 50 maybe 45. 60 maybe 50 or more and on the motorway never above 70. That is also my choice and if you want to pass me on a quiet road, feel free! I won't publish my dash cam footage, promise!

[Spike56]

Originally Posted by Black dog

If the road was closed how could you be going the wrong way?? Brain dead!
People are not prisoners, and can not be kept against their will, it's illegal to be a pedestrian on a motorway so if they were not let through don't they have the right to leave?
The person who submitted the footage should have been beaten for being a potentious pri��K with no buisness having an opinion!

I would assume (in my brain dead opinion), that a one way street remains a one way street and the only way you could drive 'the wrong way' would be under the orders of an 'authority. It still remains, however, a one way street, it doesn't miraculously become a two way street or even a 'wrong direction' motorway.

How often do you drive along the 'hard shoulder' when there is a jam? Or do you simply tuck your tail between your legs and obey the law like all the other 'sheeple'? And if you don't use the hard shoulder, why not?

[Welton]

Sorry to hear of members sad stories of losing loved ones due to others poor driving/speeding it's completely understandable for there to be very differing opinions on this subject.

Used to work with a guy who's brother was killed in a car accident in the early 90's, it was a small french car and there was talk of him likely surviving if the car would have been 'stronger', my work friend bought Volvo's from that point on....

[canis]

Originally Posted by Welton

The footage could be incomplete or out of context, I chose to drive one of Volvo's high-performance models, occasionally on a quiet stretch of road I might want to open the taps a little and exceed 70mph (oh no send me to prison) I might greatly exceed the NSL whilst overtaking, is that dangerous or reckless? the footage might suggest so.....

Despite my fervant, often vociferous and in some cases expletive, dislike of habitual speeders I find myself broadly in agreement with you. It is the brutal nature of speed cameras which nobody likes, the cold machine logic of what is a transgression and what isn't, as if a machine can be allowed to judge because it's too stupid to be biased.

And don't people just love being told what to do by machinery.

[Dippydog]

If you watch the TV police shows from Australia or New Zealand[possibly both but I can't remember which]it seems to be a fairly regular occurrence for people to contact the police to report bad driving-speeding/unsafe overtaking and so on-and the police respond to such information and it's accepted as a fact of life that this happens.So are they more "enlightened" than we are or more draconian?

[The Thong]

I had a Volvo V60 courtesy car last week with an active limiter on it that slowed down the car and allowed you to speed up depending on the speed limit. I like the idea of this especially round towns and cities. It was a bit clunky though, I was approaching the 30mph warning markers and the motor started braking for me until it got down to the correct speed limit. With some fine tuning it has the potential to be a handy piece of kit.

TT

[Spike56]

But will it make you safer? How long does it take councils to change speed signs when road works are in place? How often do we drive along a motorway and the speed limit signs are on but there is no obvious cause? What happens if you needed to accelerate to avoid an emergency and you had no power?

Yes the brain is less than perfect but machine logic cannot yet beat human experience.

Come autonomous cars there will be no more speeding, at least that's the thought. No more decision making while distracted. Like taking your own private train...……….

[AndyJudge]

Surely with the event of so-called Smart motorway's they should look at increasing the motorway limit to 80 when appropriate & then reduce it when conditions make the upper limit unsafe.

Case 1 - Sitting in a Smart motorway zone in the early hours of the morning a few weeks ago on the M1 is a prime example. pretty much nothing else on the road, my car is easily able to stop from 80mph in less distance than the Highway code states that you can stop from 70 (Heck prob less than the distance for 50) yet the all seeing camera's are always on pulling in cash.

Case 2 - 2 Weeks later the same stretch of road the same time of day but in the pouring rain, the limit signs were still off but 70mph would have been a death wish.

Case 3 - Same stretch of road same timeframe but travelling south. Miles & Miles 50mph limit nothing to be seen anywhere

Another case in point M42 last week. Join M42 (again late at night) signs saying 40mph limit, very little traffic, Next set of signs showing NRL sign, next set nowhere near a junction 50mph then the next NRL

Are smart motorways really that smart ? wish I had a dashcam maybe I could've report it to the Highways Agency as an example of how crazy the system is.

But hey ho back on topic, are we now doomed to seeing more & more people focusing on what their dashcam captures rather than the roads, because I need to make my footage look good for social media & the police.