GaryC

Do 'Meat Wagons' (the marked Transit vans that patrol our cities) have VASCAR
or a calibrated speedo in them?

Last night I was stopped by such, and told I was doing 52 in a 40. Unless the speedo AND cruise control of my 7 months old car are reading 25% over, I wasn't. I was (according to my speedo) doing 1 or 2 mph over 40mph if that, but the {polite mode} Policeman was insistant that I was doing 52. Given I was overtaking him at the time and spending more of my time looking at the speedo than the road (as the police/govt. are now encouraging us to do) I know what my car speedo said, and what level I had set the cruise control at. He was all prepared to 'fixed penalty' me, and I had to literally plead for leniency to reduce that to 'A very serious warning' and a producer.

{major rant mode on}
Furthermore, he claimed I was 'dangerous driving' as I has had to brake to let a car in from the outside lane into the inside lane before it ended?? and that I had gone from outside lane of a dual carriageway to the inside without indicating (with no other cars around for 100yds) and then straddled the two lanes whilst giving a broken down car pulled up on the verge a wide berth,
again without indicating, and again with no other cars for 100yds. What is that all about?? Apart from the fact it is nice to see he didn't stop to help a broken down motorist strnded at the side of a d/c at 9pm at night have the police nothing better to do? Is this proof that all police are power crazy, egomatic ******, rather than just 'traffic'? or is crime now so low in this country, they have nothing better to do???

Having alienated majority of the population at one time or another, are the police now seeking to **** off the one body that (at times) have some respect for them?

Robertio

iTrader: (1)

Gary, I do remember on one of those TV programs on accident investigators the driver of one of the police vans pulled someone over for speeding, so I guess they must be calibrated before each shift. (don't honestly know though)

I normally creep by them on the motorway, rather than sit in the queue of 50 cars doing 60-65mph behind them. So far I have never had any problems, but I know what you mean, you sit there studying the speedo, and then hope that they don't decide to pull you over, just because you over took them.

Mike Tuckwood

I would be AMAZED to find out that ANY Police transits have calibrated speedo's.

None have in Nott's as far as I am aware, even the section marked Cars (Panda's) do not have calibrated speedo's.

Just sounds like a bit of an **** to be honest, I doubt he had any valid grounds if what you say is true to issue a FPN either, perhaps just needed to feel superior by making you plead with him?

(I know a few like that personally).

Mike.

JasonHook

Sounds like a complete bluff/getting on his high horse moment to me. There are no facilities for calibrating a speedo available on a per shift/turn basis that I've ever seen. Drivers are not required to calibrate the speedo but are supposed to check oil, water, mileage blah blah.

Every now and again you're going to meet an arsew**nker whatever job they do. Don't let it upset you. I don't think StuartH would behave like that do you?

Jason

Dream Weaver

Why are all coppers complete tossers.

I agree with everything Gary has said - why can coppers not spend their time helping people or dealing with real criminals as opposed to stopping us for not indicating on an empty motorway at 71mph

What can we do about it? Lets get some sort of committee together and have a word with Blair. We need to re-educate and tell him what we think - whats happened to our democracy

DW

Chris L

I'll think you'll find and I'm sure Stu will correct me if I'm wrong, that the police car/van doesn't need a calibrated speedo etc. If they 'think' you are speeding etc they can report you and it would basically be your word against his (this is how it was explained to me when I was stopped a little while back).

However all things considered, I would agree with most of what Gary has posted.

Chris

boomer

GaryC,

i passed a Cheshire Constabulary "white van man" on Sunday heading South on the M6.

The prat was doing _just_ over an indicated 70mph in lane 2. Lane 1 was empty, but he didn't bother to pull over. Behind, all three lanes were full of drivers barely daring to attempt to pass. When those in lane 3 did eventually pass (taking tens of seconds each) they immediately pulls back in, thus plod was then tailgating them (as in one or two car length away). The moron didn't have the sense to either reduce his speed, or pull into lane 1.

OK, he probably wasn't traffic, but he certainly didn't set a good example and thus tarred the whole force.

Me, i just held back until lane 3 cleared, then overtook at an indicated 80mph just to get out of the way. I reckon that was safer that tailgating, obstructing, and driving without due care!!

mb

Chip

I wonder why they call them meat wagons.

Is it because of the drunken animals that are sometimes thrown into the back or because of the pigs that sit in the front.

Chip

scooby nutter

Thought they needed 2 coppers or a Vascar to do you for speeding in this situation??

pumpers

it depends what part of the country your in. I believe Derbyshire calibrate panda's and vans so they can report for speeding but know for a fact that Greater Manchester don't. That said, if they really wanted to do you they could do a following check, record the speed on their speedo then get a certified vascar operator to check the speedo accuracy of their panda/van over a measured mile, submit a statement and this may stand up in court - but with a good brief I wouldn't bet on it. sounds to me like an excuse to pull you and check you and your motor out whilst exercising his "Authority". pumpers.

BOB.T

The meat wagons in Skipton clearly have inacurate speedos, whenever I get stuck behind one in town, without word of a lie the fastest they do is fifteen miles an hour! They actually get serviced where I work so I'll have a word next time ones in!

I had one follow me once, he came belting up behind me so I sat at 29mph tops. He followed me down the high steet, up newmarket st, round the incredibly small mini roundabout back down Newmarket st and back round the rounabout by woolies onto newmarket st again, without blue lights and then as we passed on the rounabout he was hanging out of the window waving and trying to get me to stop!! He jumped out and had the cheek to say "next time we follow just pull over, do you know how hard it is for us to get round the rounabout!" I thought, what a ****er!

a2jcy

Well all I can say is glad all these vans are down south (below the wall) I hope they
stay there I don't think its that bad up here
but we do have our share of *ick heads

MrData

Well guys, this is one of those moments you are glad you live in Milton Keynes.

We have some of the safest roads in the country (by design) and therefore the local police tend to concentrate on catching villains than hassling motorists.

It also tends to make you extra vigilant when driving anywhere else though - somehow

Regards
KurtW

robski

Strange, but dont 17 year olds with estate cars call theirs "meat wagons" dont know why, but Im sure its got something to do with their girlfriends

robski

GaryC

Thanks for the replies.

- It wasn't an Accident Investigation vehicle
- There were two of them, but how could they 'work out' I was doing 52 mph, rather than just 'more than 40?
- 'every now and then' is becoming simply 'every time'

{Thinking out loud} with Foot and Mouth affecting Pigs, and movement of affected animals outlawed...... I say throw sheep dip over them all whenever you see one


Jumped up little Hitlers the lot of them

jsh

Interesting on the old dangerous driving line. I had some Advanced Driving lessons a few years ago which are based on the police driving manual. I was told that there was no need to indicate to move to an inside lane as there is an assumption that you will pull in - the highway code says you should. I was also told not to indicate when moving around stationary cars as this could be a misunderstood signal, i.e other drivers thinking that you are turning right

Jason

JasonHook

This thread is mirroring this one:

RichS

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by a2jcy:
<B>Well all I can say is glad all these vans are down south (below the wall) I hope they
stay there I don't think its that bad up here
but we do have our share of *ick heads[/quote]


We sure do...