A couple of nights ago my girlfriend heard a loud bang outside our third floor flat. She looked out of the window and saw a car that had been driven (at slow speed) into the wall of a small industrial estate opposite us. With the engine still running 4 kids got out laughing and proceeded to throw bricks at the car. My girlfriend called the police whilst looking out of the window, gave a description etc etc. She waited and waited for the police to turn up....But none did. The kids hung around the car for a good hour until they got board and walked away.
Well the next day when I returned from work I called the police to complain. They explained that because the vehicle was classified as 'abandoned' they offered no response to calls of this nature (???). However because I had called, if the kids returned to ring them and they would come out 'no problem'.
Well a couple of hours later the kids came back.This time they tried to set fire to the car. I called the police, told them what was happening but because I didn't want to see the car explode I went out to deal with them. I 'explained' to them how they wouldn't be coming around here again to a point where if the Police had turned up I think it's possible they would have arrested me. But no worries there.....because they didn't.

Isn't GRRRREEEEAAAATT!! That the Police have got their priorities right!

I don't think I have to explain my point!

[Edited by andrewdelvard - 4/2/2002 8:28:30 PM]

I think it was VERY WRONG for you to get singled out. The police normally pull the whole convoy over. I think they must have been playing "Car Snooker" again!

Please correct me if I'm wrong but the charges must be dropped if:-

1. You can prove that the officer does not hold a full certificate for operating the device (ie. still in training).

2. You can prove that the detector had not been calibrated that day.

If you feel strongly enough, then write a letter of complaint.

Check out http://www.speed-trap.co.uk/index.html

Skid.


[Edited by scoobyskid - 4/2/2002 10:04:03 PM]

Annoying copper stories that have happened to me (literally over the last year)-

1)I've been pulled over for (his words) "Accelerating a bit fast" -although not breaking the speed limit on a dual carridgeway at 11.40pm doing 40 in a 40. And I noticed that this one's way of pulling someone over was to tryto drive into the side of my scoob x( . Then come up alongside me and point me in..

2)At work a few of us stopped a loada thieves - that was 3 months ago and the line-up still hasn't been arranged (cancelled once). How the hell are we meant to remember these geezers after looking at them for a minute in the dark??

3)My father was mugged behind my house - only for the culprits (2 teenagers) to be given a telling off by their parents!! - He had a black eye, and loadsa bruises and cuts. All this with the police saying they couldnt do anything about it. (Although for some reason they kept ignoring the fact that these kiddies had a getaway car and driver waiting for them - which in my mind makes it a planned attack).

4)Typical scene on a night out. Next to the big police station in Bristol - Scene: Massive queue outside. Fight starts (by someone smashing in a moving car window- driver got out started fighting). Copper came out (about 5 meters from the fight) to open a gate to let a fellow copper drive home. We tell copper theres a fight going one (e.g. "Over there is 5 guys kicking in 1 guy - you want to do something?") at which point he closes the gate and runs back into the station. 5 mins later a few cops appear (fight ended and a few pissed off/injured people remain plus about 150 people waiting to get into the club)- they dont do anything go back inside. Then the car driver returns with an axe to get "revenge"...
At this point I(/we) decide to leave the area...

Put it this way - whatever faith I had in the police went a long time ago...

[Edited by snowcrash - 4/3/2002 9:39:31 AM]

Just cruising along down by the coast yesterday nice and easy , me in the centre of five cars. When up pops a Lady police officer with a gun :( points it straight at me ! why ? cos im driving the scoob thats why :mad. So after being promply shown the speed i was doing she starts to take an interest in the car :eek: so after being nicked for doing 39 mph !! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] i ask her why she did not pull the cars infront and behind? To which she replyed you were going the fastest :rolleyes: What utter rubbish i told her !! its because im driving an imprezza :p So after getting a ticket to produce docs etc she said i hope i havent ruined your day!!!! Understatement or what !! with three points to go on my licience and a sixty pound fine to go with it [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] Gutted . G.

Dont let the buggers get you down,damm coppers.

JIM

G there b*rstards..... got done for 34 in a 30 before. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

thats going to get you let off :rolleyes:

bad luck though :(

Tough!

If you were doing 30mph in your Scoob you wouldn't have got nicked....

You reap what you sow and all that :rolleyes:

So petty and trivial.But they see it as a solved crime!And as for being selected out of the group of cars says it all doesnt it.Wot you will find soon,is that there will be people replying defending the police and there actions and how you should be travelling to the limit,etc,etc.You watch,youll be amazed.

don't mean to be rude but how many of you no here really keep to the speend limit 100% of the time? Probably not many!! Also there is the debate about newer cars not wanting to sit on the 30mph speed limit they are either below or above (usually above due to gearing)

Bad luck and all but have to say if you did reply with why me? you might not have got a ticket sometimes if you make them feel like a king and you like a piece of boop then they might let you of with a warning.

Have to say 3 points is a little OTT considering that you were following traffic

Anyway I'll shut up now before people start moaning at me :p

MikeD

Can you not claim dscrimination mate?
5 cars and you get pulled from the middle sounds like it to me.
Did you get her PC number?
When i get hassle from the Bill (which isnt that often cos I'm a good astraboy ;)) I always take it and the name of their insepector
If I feel aggreived the next day (after I've calmed down a bit) I put a complaint in.
astraboy.

First off...i read it takes a full 3 seconds to get an accurate speed from a vehicle travelling 40mph. Did missus Plod have this amount of time before you braked? If not, maybe you should fight it.
Second...you were going with the flow of the traffic, shouldn't this be taken into consideration? Not sure how it would stand up in court.
If you've got the time and inclination, perhaps you should have a chat with someone in the legal profession. I know i would.
Paul

MikeD,
I agree with you entirely, 100% of us exceed the speed limits at times.

However, I ALWAYS strictly observe the 30/40/50 limits as they're there for the safety of others, mainly pedestrians. Personally, I feel that other limits almost seem to have been arrived at in a rather random fashion, and can see nothing wrong with doing 80-90 on a clear dual carriagway or motorway. Although the law thinks differently.

What people seem to have overlooked is the percentage by which the limit was exceeded. That's the eqivalent of 80 in a 60 or 90+ in a 70, and whether you like it or not, you couldn't really complain if you were done at those speeds.

A friend was in the middle of three cars, and only his triggered the gatso they all passed. These things happen. You might have been unlucky, but you were in the wrong. Take it like a man.

Josh

Obviously all Coppers, Rozzers, Fuzz are ar5eholes :rolleyes:

Isnt it just at times like those that, instead of eating humble pie, you just wish you had told the coppa to shove the ticket right up his/hers 4rsehole.

In the 70's a mate of mine got stopped as we were returning home from a nightclub, the coppa started giving him a lecture on safe driving and how he really wasnt a very good driver, blah, blah, blah - I was in the back. My mate simply said the immortal words I have never forgotten, they were, simply, "Quit the crap and give me the ticket"!!!!!

Beautiful!! wish I had the balls to just say something like that - but you always think, by eating humble, you may - just may - get let off ;)

Pete

Dave T-S 30 in a 30 ? yeah right ! and who does it unless your going past a Gatso :eek:

Graham

Gotta say that of all the people that do - Dave T-S does 100%

RELIGIOUSLY :eek:

:)

And I do.

Quite frankly, I have no respect for people who don't. There is a frightening amount of people with that attitude who drive past my Son's village school, some of which are parents.

The slower limits are there for a bloody good reason (mostly) and I'm sorry, but if you can't obey these, then you shouldn't be driving.

And before you say anything, yes I have been done for speeding (78 in a 60), and no I wasn't happy about it. Particularly as I felt the van hiding in the bush was part of Northants revenue machine. However, it didn't take me long to realise that the reason I was angry was simply because I was caught!

You were in the wrong, big deal. The points are unlikely to effect your insurance, and the fine is a tank of petrol.

Is it realy worth all this complaining. We're a long time dead!

Josh

Josh, why!. wrong side of the bed maybe

Probably obey them 85% of the time.

I think the point of the post though was that this was discrimination against one car in a queue.

I guess the moto is the higher your profile, the more likely you are to get picked on. Had there have been a maxed up nova in the queue he may have got the tug instead.

Another reason I like the new shape. A little less in your face.

Dave

Couple of things Graham - I've been with Dave T-S many times in his Impreza(s) - he does always stick exactly to the 30/40 limit.

Secondly it's tough, but that's the price you pay for driving an 'performance car' - especially one that stands out as much as a Scoob. The same thing happened to me last year in Northampton. I was caught doing 70 in 60 (on a dual carrigeway - the only bloody one I've seen set to 60 BTW) by a laser pointed from a bridge. I was the middle car in a convoy all travelling at the same speed - AFAIK I was the only one who got done. Not very fair, but that's life.

Chris

Thanks PTMW! and Chris. Graham - you can see I do actually practice what I preach. We live in a rural 30 limit, and people go flying through it (normally people that live close by - "I live here, so the limit doesn't apply to me" etc :rolleyes: ) without a thought to children, walkers, horses, cyclists, tractors etc round the next blind bend.

Life's too short, and this is the real one, not a rehearsal. Just pay the fine, stop comlaining about how hard done by you were, and get on with your life. Whichever way you look at it, you were nearly 30% over the most important speed limit.

I'm afraid I'm with Dave on this one. I'm sick of people driving past my house and my Son's school at ludicrous speeds because they either think it doesn't apply to them, or because they think they're such stunning drivers. In the case of my Son's school, the worst offenders are quite often village residents or parents!

I'm sure there's not one of us who at some time has not felt hard done by, with regard to the Police. However, that's not really the point here. My friend being the only car in a line to be caught by a gatso pretty much shows that one car can be going faster than others in a 'convoy'.

If the post had been along the line of 'am I unlucky, or what' most of us would have offered sympathy, but that's not the case. At 30% over the limit, you shouldn't complain if you're nicked. Whatever the speed/circumstances.

Josh

Ok ok enough ;) :D

We don't know the circumstances and the road in question.
What am I getting at?

For example: The A322 in Guildford which sort of bypasses Bellfields estate just after Slyfield on the way into Guildford, this road is a 30mph speed limit. There are no houses, driveways absolutely nothing to warrant it being a 30, there is one pelican crossing right next to a roundabout. The is one road that pulls on to this stretch with has VERY clear visability to get onto the road.
I would say 90% of people speed alomg this road, even though it is a 30 - even the police have campaigned the council to raise the limit to a 40 to no success - instead, now they just catch people speeding along it.......

What I'm getting at is that fair enough a 30 limit is one of the main ones to be obeyed but even then there are some circumstances where even that limit is a joke.......

Also, IMHO you can't say one limit over another is anymore important. They are all to be obeyed or they wouldn't be there, regardless of what the limit is, there are risks involved in speeding in any posted limit. Either stick to them all or don't be a hypocrite, if you speed, you take the gamble, it doesn't always pay off.

We don't know the full ins and outs so lets just round this one off now. Unlucky Graham, end of story.

Sorry to hear about this. Can sympathise as I don't always stick to the limit. Not all coppers are arseholes, theres a few I can think of that are ok (not mentioning any names though ;))

Suffice to say I was being very naughty on roads over the weekend, well, driving rather quick, no donuts or silly stuff like that, if I'd got nicked I'd have been pished off but would have deserved it.

I know that in the eyes of the law, the coppers were bang to rights, but that's not what you need to hear, you're venting, which is fine.

Come on people lighten up.

We all go over the limit sometimes, even if it is by a quarter or half a mile an hour, so technically we all brake the law, so we're all guilty ;)

other drivers attitudes change towards you when driving a scooby i.e want to race you. and the police attitude changes i.e they take more interest in your car, i get stopped at least once a month now days just for routine checks although have had one caution.

Agree with Jawa here.

I got done - 56 in a 30. If I posted that up, I'd get flamed beyond belief (and probably still will).

Extenuating circumstances? The road was a 3 lane A road that dropped from National Speed Limit to 50, and then to 30 for the purpose of a camera, then back to 50 again.

I got done slowing down to the limit, and had to attend court where I was facing a ban.

After people began complaing about the camera's fragrant illegality (entrapment), it disappeared.

Now you lot will still say I'm in the wrong..... but if there was no camera, and no change of limit, I wouldn't have been speeding!

Hmmmm.....

Two words sum this up "Tax collecting". If yours was the only car in a moving queue to be targeted they must have it in for your car or be playing snooker. Either way its a sad situation.

I never knew so many hipocritical people came on here. Why did most of you buy an Impreza if the speed limit in the UK in 70 MPH? Why not buy a Fiesta 1.1 and save yourself some money.

Everyone speeds from time to time, and everyone knows it, thats why the police are giving out tickets left right and centre.

30% over the limit... and you're complaining... get real...

Can't do the time don't do the crime...

Being singled out is a pain in the ass.. agreed but just because everyone else is speeding makes no excuse...

Personally I TRY and stick to 30/40 limits but if I get nicked for going faster I'm big enough to take what's coming to me..

It's called taking responsibility for your actions..

I will say that I condemn anybody who speeds in 30’s and 40’s. You want a damn good smacking!!

But I’ve gotta say that even though the limit was exceeded and Grahamstocker did deserve the ticket HE DID NOT deserve to be picked out from the middle of a convoy. That is grossly unfair & unjust and if I was him I would go down to the station and damn well make a stink, admit to speeding but stir up a whirl wind against that 8itch of a copper.

What happened is not correct and shouldn’t be tolerated.


M