Fiesta BT57 NPE Tailgating

Fiesta BT57 NPE repeatedly tailgating - at around 4 metres at 40mph by the Cottage (2 second rule is 1 metre pre 1mph so *should* be 40 metres space). Later in the clip the same driver is a metre behind at 30mph. If we needed to stop for any reason - a child or animal stepping in to the road, or a mechanical failure, he'd have no chance of avoiding a collision...

Peugeot Y56 AOA pulls out regardless...

This time it is our turn for some excitement with a near-miss...

Somebody nearly needed a new car for Christmas

Oh - that looked close!

More terrorism and intimidation on the commute

This morning was icy. Cars were frosty. Tyres cold and braking distances likely to be longer than usual. But we had Mr Idiot approach us at speed, tailgating and flashing for no obvious reason... Terrified we were gone to be rammed we stopped assuming that if he was in that much of a rush in dangerous conditions he could go off and kill somebody else. Instead the driver stopped behind us. We didn't wait for a confrontation. Incident was reported to the police but feedback is that they don't know who it was and can't identify the vehicle. This is despite reporting multiple instances of the similar problems on this stretch of road at the same time of day and promises that road policing does happen. This looks like things can only continue until this driver causes the death of himself, us and others. I am frustrated that having raised this issue to the highest level I am still suffering this terrorism on my commute to work and am being left to do all of my own policing. I failed to identify this driver so nothing happens. Until we have dead. Maybe. What am I supposed to do? Just not leave the house???

T-Junction Russian Roulette?

Thursday Morning's commute - in the dark now with autumn coming on - was a little more exciting than normal. Again, a near miss that wasn't our problem but nicely captured anyway.

Just what you don't want on a driving lesson...

For a change it wasn't us getting harrassed by the tailgater - I'm not quite sure why this guy wanted past the learner quite so badly, but trying to force an overtake on the Swarkestone Causeway seems to be a bad plan, as does trying to climb into the back seats!

Carjacking? On drugs? Drunk?

This was a strange one... cut across at the roundabout then stop in the exit lane with the 'yoof' in the passenger seat hanging out of the window and jesticulating...



If the driver hadn't started up driving alongside us as we passed, the passenger jumped out and run towards us at the next lights and the driver then chased us into Derby I might have just thought it was odd behaviour, but I was left with a feeling it was an attempted carjacking or that the pair were out of their heads on drink or drugs.
During the chase I called 999 and was advised to 'pull over and wait' - given the behaviour so far no way were we stopping to find out if the pair were stoned or armed. Details were given to the police on 15th August at 07:00. The full video was given to them on the afternoon of the same day. Typically Derbyshire Constabulary have made no contact since.

Honey Badger driving - just doesn't give a shit...

I thought the pull out on to the roundabout was a little racy...
Then the driver clearly wants to be inside the hatchback he is following... or he doesn't know the way and is just navigating by holding on to the car in front.
THEN he overtakes on a white line giving the driver of the mini coming the other way a 'need clean underwear' moment.
And we still have no traffic policing... because we haven't met the quota of fatalities. Watching driving like this it can only be a matter of time!

Deejaycnc.com Tailgating at last week's crash site

A week after encountering this between Stanton by Bridge and Melbourne:



I am left wondering how could that possibly happen?

A clue perhaps, at around 4pm on Monday 15th August - this driver for DeejayCNC.COM who obviously things the correct tolerance at 40mph is about 6ft...

KM57 FPK reversing into Rush Hour traffic

Not content with creating a need for an emergency stop by reversing out into moving rush hour traffic, the driver of KM57 FPK pulls back into the driveway. Just as we're starting to pull away he bumps back out into the road ahead of us.
But not only do we have the illegal manoeuvre of reversing into an A Road - we have a beautiful example of how it turns out that 50% of motor vehicle journeys are less than 2 miles...

The writing says 'SLOW'...

... not because the corner is tight, but because some knobber is coming the other way astride the white line!

YP52 YBE Tailgating

Tailgater of the day goes to YP52 YBE for this poor example of stopping distances... At times he is that close that his number plate isn't even visible through the rear window!



So what does he think he'll achieve by driving this close? The natural reaction is to slow down to allow for longer stopping gaps because you're having to drive with sufficient care and attention for both of you...

What is a safe braking distance on the motorway?

Why do some lorry drivers think that driving 6ft off the bumper of a vehicle is going to make you go any faster when you are sitting where you are because you are speed matching at a safe distance the next vehicle down the road?

Bus Overtake-and-Turn-Left across cyclist.

This morning the drive in was relatively event free, but this looked like a close near-miss for the poor guy on the bike. Long vehicle drivers often blame cyclists for passing them on the inside. In this case the bus driver clearly overtakes and turns across the bike, closing the door on him. It could have ended up so much more badly...

The bus was displaying an 'X' instead of a number.

0705hrs, 14th April 2011, Merrell Way, Derby.

Tailgater of the day

Today's footage shows the driver of FJ02 UBV tailgating rediculously closely coming into the Stanton-by-Bridge 30mph zone where, rather than slowing to the speed limit, he gets closer before overtaking...

13th April 2011, 0650hrs

Police excuses for not policing...

Following a conversation with Sergent Sutherland of Derbyshire Constabulary I am left with the following key points and conclusions:

1: Resource - "7 officers shared between Melbourne and Repton"
Melbourne is paying approx £150 per household x 4000 households = £600,000 for 'Policing', Repton is a similar size and presumably paying a similar amount. Why are we only getting 7 officers between us for £1.2 million? At an estimate of £50,000 per officer we should have 24! And that is assuming policing is only paid for by council tax. Where is the money going?

2: Priority - "Accident rates are low compared to elsewhere."
From experience it is next to impossible to get any road incident recorded when telephoning the police 0345 1233333 number. The receptionists usually refuse to take details if no car registration number was taken and placing any report is like taking an exam on car identification. If no injury occurs they say they are not interested. Whilst the official stats say this is a low accident area, this is only because Derbyshire Constabulary are deliberately making getting any indecent recorded. I find that it is a very high hit-and-run incident stretch.
The refusal to police an area until there is a high injury/death rate is clearly not the approach used for other crime, such as alcohol, knife or gun crime. It is unacceptable that this approach is take to policing the most common cause of violent death.
By contrast, The Met have http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/ demonstrating a commitment to road safety.

3: Rules for a reason - "We have a low accident rate so we don't police."
Refusing to police speeding and tailgating is like playing Russian Roulette. Whilst they are not actively the cause of incidents, they increase both the likelihood and the severity of the consequences should a collision occur. We had a road death on this stretch of road only last year. The number of incidents I am recording clearly indicate there is a problem on this stretch of road, we are paying for policing, we should be receiving the service that money is being taken from us to pay for.

5 miles of being tailgated... then the driver complains of being filmed!

This one happened back on the 18th March but I've been waiting following it being reported to Derbyshire Constabulary in the vague hope they might take an interest.
The footage runs for around 8 minutes showing us travelling at up to 50mph with the driver of AV57 WUX remaining immediately behind as we travelled at the posted speed limit. He even flashes his lights on the run up to the A50 roundabout but makes no attempt to overtake there even though the lane is clear.
The driver followed us all the way to our destination, pulls up behind us and has the nerve to open my door and complain about being filmed! If he wasn't driving so obnoxiously he would not have been of any interest.
This was logged as Crime Number 105/180311 with Derbyshire Constabulary. This was after trying to report this incident to the nearest police station (Cotton Road) which was still closed at 0715. An appointment was made to report the incident at Swadlincote station on Saturday but before that we received a phone call and details were taken over the phone. We have heard nothing since. The police have not contacted us to get a copy of the video, which has been sat on a DVD waiting for them.

How close is 'Too Close'?

This morning's commute through Stanton-by-Bridge gave us the usual tailgating when slowing from the 40 to the 30mph limit.

5th April 2011, 0650hrs.

Cockshutt Lane Russian Roulette

Cockshut Lane used to be a 60mph limit. The only objection to reducing this to a 40mph limit was Derbyshire Constabulary. There is a sign reading 'Police Speed Check Area' but I have never seen any sign of any road policing taking place. Much of the traffic coming into Melbourne comes down Cockshut Lane at much more than the limit. This makes turning out of the residential side roads very much a game of Russian Roulette.

This clip was taken whilst travelling at 40mph in the 40 zone. Watch how hard the driver hits the brakes for the corner. It is regular to experience oncoming traffic coming around that corner towards the hill astride the white line. It is also fairly common to see traffic pulling out from Melbourne without giving way to approaching vehicles. It can only be a matter of time...

1st April 2011, 0650hrs.

Give way? What give way?

This junction (Kings Newton turn off Derby Road, Melbourne) has been reworked recently, presumably with the intention of deterring the behaviour seen in this clip, but the road designers don't seem to have taken into account that the local drivers will simply straighten the new kink by driving on the wrong side of the road and pulling out without checking for oncoming traffic on the main road...

4th April 2011, 0650hrs.

Speeding Oversized Pickup

With a pickup truck driving on our right taillight and trying to overtake at oncoming traffic at every opportunity between Melbourne and Stantion my driver signalled to tuck in to get out of the way of the dangerous driver. This is in a 30mph limit - watch the speed at which the truck drives off. A check of the speedometer shows we're at the limit and he is gone. Unfortunately the murky weather means there isn't a clear shot of the plate.

DE10 PXK Tailgating, 24th March 2011, 7am

This happened as we were travelling at 30mph in a 30 limit through Shelton Lock. Speed was confirmed by the one of the new light up speed signs. Tailgating seems to be strangely common along this stretch approaching the Merrill Way traffic lights.

What numbers on sticks?

This one was shot a few weeks back when it was still dark on the morning commute. The location is just coming into Stanton-by-bridge. At around 14 seconds the headlights catch the 30mph signs and the vehicle I was travelling in slows to that speed. The car following us takes no notice and just hurtles on past and disappears up the hill.
This is a regular problem at this speed limit change both in a motor vehicle and when cycling. The problem is made worse as traffic from the Ticknell junction is not always as well behaved as it should be, sometimes pulling out and forcing traffic on the major road to back off or hit them.
I've not seen a major pileup at this junction for quite some time but the last one was a spectacular mess and with behaviour like this driver is showing it is only a matter of time.
I have tried asking for help here but Derbyshire Constabulary apparently find the request for speed monitoring at this location to be high humour.

WX56 YJP tailgating Francis Burdett to Stanton

Around 06:45, 08/03/2011, Audi reg WX56 YJP tailgating and gesticulating travelling at the 40mph limit between Melbourne and Stanton-by-Bridge.