Bugatti

Never had a problem with the idea of Community Support Officers walking around town but after my experience today I feel they are being used as substitute for proper police officers and now my cars damaged because of it.

Driving in Leicester for those of you who know the A46 from the Hobbyhorse roundabout towards Nottingham. I went into the overtaking lane, round the first right hand bend just before the A607 turning and to my horror I see my lane coned off !! Anyway tried slamming the anchors on but with it being on a bend the car started to feel unstable so had to momentarily release brakes and then reapply. But with a row of cars to my left and the barrier to my right I chose to go into the cones .

Here's the reason for my anger.

This incident happened at approx 10 pm. The road is either poorly lit or unlit but thats not the issue, I'm assuming the road was closed off due to an incident further down the road:

1)The cones used were not the red ones you normally see with a reflective strip on, but the poxy little yellow ones used at events to stop people parking on roads (very difficult to see at in the dark),
2)The road was coned of immediately round a bend so impossible to see cones until your right on top of them.
3)No warning signs before the cones the police normally put out which are usually blue displaying 'POLICE SLOW' and sometimes have a blue flashy light on too.

Anyway after hitting the cones i crawled upto the officer (CSO) stood in front of a white van directing cars off the A46, told him I had just hit two of the cones and that they needed putting back in place but more importantly a warning sign needs to go up or anything equivalent to stop some one else getting the same surprise. I was lucky in that the scooby handled very well under hard braking on a corner but other cars may come off and take others with them.
" Don't worry about the cones sir, just continue off this road" was all I got in response, "we'll put the cone back". So being very concerned about this danger I rang the local police number and got through to a real PC and he saw my point straight away and said he will get it sorted immediately.

When I got home I had a closer look at my front bumper and found scratches and damaged paint work. Got back on the phone and reported it and got a reference number, now I have to go and speak to my local police station tomorrow. Has anyone been in a similar situation and what chance do I have of getting them to pay for the damage as it was the CSO's incompetence, and/or poor training and/or wrong equipment for the job that caused the incident.

CSOs should not be used as substitute police officers, I am absolutely certain that had a PC carried out the job the sign would have been placed some distance before the cones, the cones would have been reflective and placed placed on the straight part of the road before the bend and the police car would have been visible at some point falshing away.

Any/all advice welcome as visiting cop shop with some knowledge could prove to be advantageous.

Thanks for spending time reading this.

Naz.

[Davey]

I agree...

*BUT* the big question is, would you be prepared to pay more council tax to recruit more police officers?

Its a sticky situation... and remember these guys generally work for free, so they really dont give a **** about your's or anyone elses car.

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

So you were going too fast & crashed into cones ?
Golden rule of driving, only go as fast round a corner as visibility allows you to stop if the unexpected happens.
If you couldn't see the cones then you couldn't see round the corner,so you were going to fast for the corner.

R.

Dracoro

Have to agree. What if it were a kid who'd fallen off his bike. You'd have run him over or would it be the kids fault for falling off at a blind bend?

You must've been going something for your car to feel unstable under braking.

Certainly the CSO's need lessons in traffic and cone placing and you possibly need driving lessons as things always happen 'round the corner'.

[Davey]

Not really a fair comment if its dark.. If an object isnt very reflective you wont see it until your virtually on top of it.. You cant really condone driving at a crawling pace just because a road is dark, you'll be causing more of a danger by winding people up and forcing them to over take.

[Davey]

1 the kid should be wearing reflective clothing/had lights if its dark.
2 he would have been on the side of the road NOT in the middle of the carriage way.

pslewis

Driving like a **** and nearly crashed .... and it's someone ELSES fault!?

I don't know where this 'I'm not to blame' culture will end!

SLOW DOWN and LEARN HOW TO DRIVE!!

JEEEEEEEEEEZ

Pete

Dracoro

AFAIK the road has street lights as many A roads do. And again, I state, what if it had been someone lying on the ground....

LiamWR1(2)

Interesting one, but I disagree with your post...

You were unable to brake in time and tw*ted a couple of cones, you felt like a right tit (as everybody queing was probably thinking what a dozy tw*t!) and attempted to blame a special for the poor quality cones being used?!?!? and the fact that he didn't immediately run back up the road to put your cones back up?!?!? with a "Yes sir!, sorry sir...."

Maybe you could request that on your stretch of road they ensure that no cars crash just after a bend, all temporary traffic control systems installed consist of 10 ft flashing cones, neon warning signs and 'slow down' signs starting from 3 miles away?

or then again you could just pay more attention

Dracoro

How on earth can you say that? As you know many kids don't wear reflective clothing, lights broken as he'd just fallen off, anywhere on the road and so on.

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

As mentioned above,the very fact that your car was unstable under braking suggests a high speed, too high for night driving round blind bends.

R.

LiamWR1(2)

Infact it may be interesting if you do go to the police station to tell them this sorry tale, but don't be surprised if they charge you with careless driving (and get you to pay for the damaged cones!)

[Davey]

So your all saying if someone was stopped on the other side of the bend in the dark with no lights and you hit them it would be your fault?

I can see you all accepting that fate... hmmm..

LiamWR1(2)

Yep, it would be our fault, unless there was a CSO near by

ESH

Whether he was going too fast or not rather than hit another / other cars he chose to drive into the cones.

Thankfully we're not dealing with a child though I hasten to add some are as thick as cones.

If it was a case of driving too fast down a stretch of road he knew then shame on him and don't pursue this any further.

CSO's are a cost effective solution to policing and I'd rather they were dealing with traffic accidents freeing up the police to tackle more serious crime. Their training does need to reflect this too.

Esh

stilover

God, I wondered how long it would be for someone to come on here, and straight away blame him for driving to fast.
He clearly said the cones were immediately around the corner. I got slated the other day when I said I nearly hit a horse that was walking in the middle of the road round a corner.
If we all took each corner as fast as we could possibly see, or assumed a Horse, cones, Elephant etc, etc was going to be in the middle of the road, then there would be far more accidents than ever, as people would slam on the brakes to take every corner at 20mph JUST IN CASE !!!!!!! So the next car that goes around the corner slams into the car doing 20mph, as that driver should have done 20mph JUST IN CASE another car was doing the same.

Why not just accept THINGS HAPPEN, and not all incidents on the road are due to traveling to fast. I would say you are a governments perfect voter. You believe all they say, especially when they say SPEED causes accidents. No doubt your one of the MAJORITY OF BRITISH MOTORISTS WHO SUPPORT SPEED CAMERAS, as the government keeps on telling us !!!!

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

scoob didnt handle very well at all round the corner then? otherwise you wouldnt have had to reapply the brakes because it was savagely understeering.

LiamWR1(2)

Why are you talking to God and....

It's strange that the one person condoning this original post is also ranting about nearly hitting a horse in the middle of the road, just around a corner!

And I right in assuming that you are saying that if the speed limit is 30mph and there is a blind corner just before a school (and its just turned chucking out time) you will actually drive around that blind corner at 30mph?....

Don't think so boff... you will slow down as there may be little ******* all over the road.... Same principle with all other bends, SLOW down just in case!

And maybe if people like you slowed down in the first place we wouldn't need speed cameras!

stilover

Thankyou for your comments. I've now learnt my lesson. Every back road I drive on, and every corner I approach that I can not see 100% both the entrance & exit of the corner, I will now SLAM on the brakes and do 20MPH, Just in case !!!!!!! Hopefully You will come around the corner and Slam into me. I'll then claim off you insurance, as it will clearly be your fault, as you should have been doing 20mph JUST IN CASE I was.

As for your school comment. Get a life. I don't speed near schools, or any 30mph zone for that matter, and certainly don't do 30, just cos I can. Using exessive speed when the road/conditions allow, is how I drive, just like most people on here.

The original thread was not about speeding. He has probably driven that road a million times, yet this once someone has stuck cones in the road without the proper warning signs in place. But according to you, if the road is quite safe to do 60mph, what he should have done, is slowed down to say 40mph on the dual carrageway JUST IN CASE someone put some cones down ???

As for the horse ??? Everyday vertually every car takes that corner at 60mph or more, it's a sweeping corner, that just happens to have a large bush in the middle of the corner technically making it blind (as you can't see both entrance & exit 100%) If every car drove around every corner JUST IN CASE our road system would slow down dramaticaly. I dare bet you have been stuck behind a train of traffic asking yourself "Why are we driving soo slow?" The lead car is driving around every corner JUST IN CASE.

Using appropriate speed is the key, but it is impossible to take every corner with the thought JUST IN CASE.

thedon

[QUOTE='[Davey]']I agree...

*BUT* the big question is, would you be prepared to pay more council tax to recruit more police officers?

Its a sticky situation... [B]and remember these guys generally work for free, so they really dont give a **** about your's or anyone elses car[B].[/QUOTE

your joking aren't you these pcso's are earning over 24k a year. not bad for being an under trained gibbon in a costume.

chiark

I have sympathy with the original poster, it's less than ideal as the police agreed, but ultimately my view is it's down to you, not the CSO. It's tough, for sure, but life is.

This isn't a flame, it's an opinon. It's not an attack or anything like that, so no need for CAPS! Anyhow...

No it's not. It's perfectly possible. You don't need to slam on your brakes to 20mph, you don't need to see entry and exit, you just need to be continually evaulating your speed and drive so you can stop in the distance that you can see clearly, day or night.

As I come to something that means I can't see as much as I need to to stop at the current speed, be it a corner or brow of a hill or bush or whatever, I slow down. When the road opens up again, I speed up. "Making progress"

This sounds like it's patronising, but just obvious. I had a wakeup call (thankfully not an accident, just a lot of a surprise) which made me realise punting around corners as fast as the car would go wasn't clever, sensible or appropriate on a road. Being frank, I daresay that I'd still be doing it if I hadn't had the "who put that there" moment. What I personally find worrying is that you've had that "ohpoo" moment and blame someone else, choosing to say "THINGS HAPPEN". No they don't, you caused an accident.

There is a flip side of this, like the news articles about gangs driving around with cars full and no brake lights suddenly stopping to try and get rear ended, but IMHO this is not one of those situations. It's basic observational skills.

Sorry if this sounds like preaching, it just really worries me when people say "accidents just happen". They don't.

DCI Gene Hunt

Are you on some sort of medication? It's all about SLOWING DOWN to allow time to react to a possible emergency situation not SLAMMING your brakes on , no seriously are you a complete retard or have you managed to miss the whole point?

He never said you did speed near schools but I'm guessing you may be in one

No, what he shouldn't of done is become complacent, and he should of noticed that the traffic on the inside lane had slowed, possibly started queing and slowed down

Well... do you think slowing to 40-45 on a BLIND bend is too much to ask?!? you carry on taking it at 60, and I'm sure one day I will be sitting in traffic slowly filing past a car with a horse sicking out of it thinking "Hey, that's that tw*t STilover !!!"

No it's not....... you are a feckin danger to society

Nimbus

I know this stretch well as I come home along the A46 western bypass, then turn left at the Hobby Horse towards Nottingham. All I can say is that it's an excellent bit of road as the grippy tarmac on the left hand filter means you can keep the speed up, then power into the outside lane passing the slower cars as soon as it's joins the A46 to Notts.

No other comments to make, just thought I'd post as I don't normally see any one mention a bit if road I normaly drive on

stilover

Is there any need to start name calling ?????

Dick, Cu*t, Idiot

DCI Gene Hunt

That's how your parents make you

[Davey]

[QUOTE=thedon]The special community officers in our local constabulary get sweet FA..

Foot_Tapper

Have to agree with Chiark's post here.
On a positive note Bugatti, all you got was a couple of scratches on the car.
You may have learnt a valuable lesson , who knows.

Just to say the very obvious.
The longer you drive, the more driving experience is gained, the odd "wake-up" call , without resulting in an accident, is invaluable experience.
If I was you matey I would heed what you have learnt.

Occasionally, driving defensively can save you a lot of heartache. Even if an accident however minor, and is not your fault. Its your car that will be in for repair ( and you are the one suffering).

stilover

It's your name Dumb-*** !! Plus didn't you mean "Made you"

It might have been funny, if it made sense !

Back to school for you DCI Gene Cu*t

DCI Gene Hunt

Later loooooooooosserrrrrrrrr

chiark

Folks, could I please point you at the FAQ and moderation guidelines?
http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/faq.php?f...n#faq_swearing

Keep it civil, please, including the asterisks etc?