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.
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
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
13th April 2011, 0650hrs
Sunday, 10 April 2011
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
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.
5th April 2011, 0650hrs.
Monday, 4 April 2011
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.
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.
4th April 2011, 0650hrs.
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