Another court gets it right but why put drivers through this?

Again a court sees through the attempt to incarcerate drivers for a dangerous scenario that society allows and encourages See the story here. 

 'Mr Searle had fallen off his bike on the B4368 between Craven Arms and Bridgnorth after clipping the wing mirror of Mrs Willocks’ red Kia,' 

Says the report. So a cyclist clips your wing mirror, falls off, gets killed and you are now looking at jail time?

'Constable Ian Edwards, a collision expert for West Mercia Police, said sunlight would have been shining directly into the eyes of drivers travelling eastbound on the road on the day cyclist Mr Searle was killed.'

The cyclist had been hit by a further two vehicles whilst laying in the road. But why? Clearly there was a common problem existing at the site, and that may well be the sun light exacerbated by glare from a wet road.

But look at the picture of the road. Anyone walking, cycling or riding a horse on the driving side of that road would be risking a serious accident. 

We must review what roads are primarily for and I suspect that is exactly what the courts and juries are doing already. See another such case

It's about time our politicians addressed this reality too. Scapegoats don't bring back the dead.

Local Transport Today: Yours truly on speed cameras.

Speed cameras are still used as revenue-raising devices

Keith Peat, Drivers’ Union

As an ex-police officer who has prosecuted many drivers and completed many STATS19 forms, I am sorry that Iain Reeve finds the unnecessary prosecution of hundreds of thousands of perfectly safe drivers “boring” (ibid).

I certainly don’t think it’s boring, especially when most of these are then coerced into handing cash over to private companies in lieu of judicial process.

For me, if a camera is generating thousands of offenders, as they do, that means they are failing. If they are doing so without the attendant accidents to go with it, it tells me that either the limit is flawed or the layout is enticing inadvertent speeding. Incidentally, it is also evidence that speeding actually causes nothing to happen. It is therefore obvious to me that the speeding is being allowed to continue at these sites because money is being made and for no other reason.

Iain demonstrates the mistakes and simplistic lack of understanding of the subject on which a flawed policy is based when he says that “speed is a contributory factor in the majority of crashes”. Speed is a factor in all road crashes just as it is for someone walking into a lamppost. Without speed there would be no accidents at all, and without speed there would be little else either.

When we are discussing speed cameras we are discussing ‘speeding’ as opposed to ‘speed’. The fact is that ‘speeding’ to exceed an arbitrary number on a pole cannot affect or cause anything – STATS 19 is wrong about that – so let’s be clear speed is not speeding. One contributes to accidents and one doesn’t.

Iain belongs to the school that basically says ‘The slower everything goes, the less chance of an accident and the bigger survival rate’. So let’s have zero speed and a road safety Nirvana then. No death on the roads but the death of all of us from lack of essentials instead. There is an economic cost to slowing down road travel.

Yes of course we must have speed cameras, but not cameras that are focusing on perfectly safe drivers, who are not about to have an accident, at the expense of better road safety measures that would save lives and an expenditure that would save even more if used in other services. 

Speed. BRAKE does it again

In this Sun story, 
 about the predictable result of their FOI request that men get more speeding tickets than women, The Sun call in, those amateurs with an agenda, BRAKE for a comment.  The result is a crass observation from BRAKE that 'Speed is a factor in all road deaths'. Err well yes it is BRAKE as it is a factor in everything, including walking into a lamp post. See understand speed here

Without speed there would be no road accidents at all, but without speed there would be nothing else either.

This story wasn't about 'speed' it is about 'speeding'. Doesn't it worry The Sun that the Speeding Industry needs to mingle the two because 'speeding' actually causes nothing at all and that cannot be confessed. The 2346367 2.3 million speeders who didn't crash tend to make the point.

Road safety is about life and death with the added dimension of the prosecution of millions of drivers so why does the media persist in calling upon amateurs like BRAKE for their view especially when it is palpable nonsense?  See time to shut these amateurs up Sun

See how to help us campaign for UK's drivers by registering free and making a contribution to a fighting fund. www.driversunion.co

Yellow Lines are like speed limits

Yellow lines have much in common with local speed limits.

1. We don't query their presence or validity.
2. They are arbitrarily set by local officials
3. They make money
4. They curtail and impede driving.

For the history and purpose of yellow lines see Parking fine explosion. How its done.

The point is that yellow lines are not about obstruction of traffic flow or danger-that's what kerb stripes are for- but merely to stop parking on roads and make it more difficult for drivers to get to towns and cities without being forced out of their vehicles onto public transport or into expensive car parks.

There are far too many yellow lines; it's as simple as that.

There are thousands of square miles of parking space available around our towns and cities that could be turned into parking spaces. 

What is worse, councils are favouring selected drivers by letting them have permitted parking within yellow line zones at a peppercorn rent, simply because they chose not to live in houses with private parking space. Why be so selective? We could turn thousands of miles of yellow lines into parking permit bays at the same yearly rate for all drivers or for a higher pay and display hourly and daily rate bringing in massive income for local authorities as well as bringing more commerce into our cities.

If ever there were any need for evidence that the anti driver anti car ideology prevails in our local authorities, then here it is. 

So why not lobby your local councillors for less yellow lines and more parking bays?

A breakthrough for road safety and drivers?

It is with delight that Drivers' Union and I can announce that we now have the commitment of one MP to form a dedicated all party parliamentary drivers' group.

The Hon. Ian Paisley MP BA (Hons) MSSC has clearly seen the need for such a group and has written to me pledging his intent to form one. If you need to know why drivers need such a group, then See the reasons and his letter here in PDF. 

Until now, I could never fathom why that there was so much anti driver draconian action and policy being so readily adopted in Parliament and the ministries- certainly over the last ten years- given that we all depend on drivers and that there are 35 million of us.

It transpires that, although among the 627 All Party Groups there are several with aims and policies against the interests of drivers, there isn't one single group dedicated to drivers at all!

This is very important because good genuine, not for profit, or anti driver ideology road safety, is really good for drivers too. The two go very much hand in hand.

Why shouldn't drivers, one of the single biggest taxpaying groups of voters who are affected by road safety have by far the biggest say in it?

Well with their own APG, drivers can begin to do exactly that and cause to be re-visited some of the recent profit based legislation and policy that has been adopted against their interests and that of true road safety too.

Let's take the amateur profiteers out of road safety.

If this all makes sense to you, why not register support for our work and even donate to our fighting fund to make it happen at Drivers' Union

BRAKE miss the obvious to blame a driver

The amateur anti driver, well paid BRAKE

Charity are missing the wood for the trees to blame elderly drivers and demand yet more driver regulation after yet another cycle death. See the story.

Oh yes a very old driver, who may have passed out at the wheel, killed a cyclist who was totally exposed to all sorts of drivers; including ones that may pass out at any time irrespective of age.

Again the bitter cycle lobby will accuse me of victim blaming when I point out the obvious: Human flesh and big machines on the move don't mix very well and ask 'why do we do it?'.

BRAKE'S response? Ignore that after 300 billion driver miles per year, death on the road, from all causes is lower than from accidents in the home - begging the question 'why so many big earning road safety charities then?- so what does BRAKE predictably demand? More driver regulation that's what.  

How about focusing on the concept of road cycling itself? No chance whilst road safety, driver regulation and road use priority is currently totally being run by a left of centre liberal elite against the interests of the majority who use and depend on UK's motor transport and its drivers. A liberal elite who have just earmarked £650,000,000 a year, £10 a head, from all of us to support someones favourite hobby to the disadvantage of essential and important infrastructure.

The well paid amateur ladies of BRAKE have been busy this week. Now lauded by Sky TV for talking nonsense about drink driving and demanding even more action against drivers who drink and drive.

I don't recommend drinking and driving as the two don't mix in my opinion and anyone caught over the limit deserves all they get. But again let's get UK's road death in perspective. There are more fatals by accident in the home and how much was that down to a penchant  for downing a bottle of Shiraz whilst at the stove or climbing a ladder on several pints of Bishop's Finger? Where are BRAKE and the breath testers then? See fat cats of UK road safety

They cite about 300 deaths a year from 'drink driving'. Let's be careful here. How many road fatals are really caused because and only because, of a drunk driver?  Is this another callous manipulation of statistics of fatal accidents? If we are talking about fatals where a driver was simply over the limit, then BRAKE should say so because that is entirely different from accidents being caused solely by drink driving. The danger of this is that, if we focus on a failed drink drive test, we are likely to ignore the real causes of the accidents and deal with them.

Unlike the charities, I and Drivers' Union, want to focus on accident reality and nothing else.

This is why we must get an All Party Parliamentary Driver's Group for genuine, profitless road safety.

For BRAKE See Follow the money
 

MPs Scream for longer driver jail again

Alok Sharma

Can you believe the naivety of some MPs when it comes to jail for drivers?

Maybe it's not naivety at all but Reading West MP Alok Sharma is repeating the same call for driver's jail sentences for death by dangerous driving, Story here 14 years, to be increased for every victim in a multi fatal accident as Caroline Dinenage did back in March. See my comments then.

Are these MPs really so foolish or do they hate drivers this much?

Drivers should be sentenced for their actions and not the outcome of their actions.

The reason is very simple. For a start dangerous driving is a matter of opinion and not fact. It is usually based on the subjective opinion of non expert and hostile witnesses who would never be allowed for any other case involving long jail terms. This is very important because in all other trials witnesses are restricted to fact and not their opinion. For drivers, the law is written to provide an entirely lower burden of proof for jailing them. This cannot be right. Why aren't MPs like Sharma and Dinenage not concerned about that?

Dinenage actually belongs to an All Party Parliamentary Group, with other anti drivers, Why Not Jail Drivers More Group (Justice On Our Roads Group)

But it isn't like a mass murderer who has deliberately aimed at each victim with a separated and deliberate attempt to kill them all. With drivers, their intent wasn't deliberate and the outcome of their action is purely terrible luck and coincidence. How can you ask for a jail term for exactly the same action simply because  the outcome was a lot more than just bent metal? Or because instead of one person dying, two did or three did?

Do these MPs not realise that if something is unintended and unforeseen, jail will simply not work as a deterrent. Jail is only a deterrent for the deliberate act and that doesn't mean road accidents.

This story shows more than anything why UK's 35 million drivers must have their own dedicated Parliamentary Group because until they do, Parliament is decidedly anti driver.