[Santa]

The mother of one of four teenagers who drowned after a crash is calling for tighter rules for new drivers.

If introduced, the changes would include safety measures such as a minimum number of driving lessons covering 40 hours and all road conditions, not carrying passengers up to the age of 25 and restrictions on night driving.

[Beelzebub]

@SantaThere's a long way from "a mother calling" to an actual change in the law. It just won't happen.

[Santa]

@Beelzebub I am well aware of that, but it may spark a debate on whether young drivers need more restrictions. The tragedy her son was involved in is pretty rare, so no basis for legislation.

[Rolebama]

I have no problem with people calling for legislation, but who is going to monitor it? We are already running with a lack of Police.

[Beelzebub]

A lot of this has been examined in previous consultations, and never implemented.

[snarlingdote]

I agree, tightening regulations and monitoring new drivers helps reduce accidents but we are having difficulty enforcing and monitoring it when the number of police is not enough. enough response.

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by snarlingdote

I agree, tightening regulations and monitoring new drivers helps reduce accidents but we are having difficulty enforcing and monitoring it when the number of police is not enough. enough response.

happy wheels

And the primary reason we have with enforcement in this country is that many (as in the majority) of chief officers do not regard traffic policing as being important or even front line policing, despite more traffic cops being killed than other departments, only traffic cops deal with fatalities and the aftermath, traffic cops make more arrests for serious crime than your average CID superstar.

Once it goes back to the way it was (unlikely) when traffic is regarded and treated as the professional department it used to be, things won't change.

[Mark07]

@TC1474 In your opinion, why is that?

Are the public directing the police to prioritise other types of crime, or are the police indecently making that decision?

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by Mark07

@TC1474 In your opinion, why is that?

Are the public directing the police to prioritise other types of crime, or are the police indecently making that decision?

Number of reasons.

Most chief officers are ex Detectives, so to them the only real policing is done by the so called superstars of CID. It was pointed out to one chief officer once that your average traffic cop deals with far more death and carnage in one year than your average DC deals with in their whole career. Most pursuits of criminals can only be dealt with by Traffic, most criminals are mobile so travel in and out of a Police area by vehicle, but again it falls on deaf ears.

It does not help that the Motorway fleet used to be funded by the Government, hence why SD1 Rovers, XJ Jags, Range Rovers and the like were used a lot as they had to be UK vehicles, but that all stopped and forces had to fund 100% of their fleet which hit budgets.

A DC does a 10 week Detective course at Wakefield and that is it. Traffic cops used to do an intermediate advanced driving course of 4 weeks allowing them to drive the bigger cars. On posting to a traffic base, you then completed your speed enforcement courses, a 12 week traffic law course, vehicle examiners course, basic crash investigation course (before doing more advanced city & guilds level), 12 months working full time on the Motorway and then your 4 week full advanced course to get your class 1 or class 2 advanced qualification.

If you were chosen to go onto bikes, you started all over again.

Now, it is a 4 week driving course with a pass or fail. A 5 day traffic law/local procedure course and that is about it. There is not the same level of professionalism, pride or knowledge and this has been reflected in standards and senor officers given their biased views have noted this.

It is only because having a traffic division is a requirement that many forces maintain a minimum level of staffing.

Reduced number of cops has not helped of course, and the woke behaviour has really screwed the job up.

On top of this many of the university graduates who joined on the fast track scheme and went through the accelerated promotion route are now serving at the top table and making the decisions, most have never done a proper days policing for an extended period of time in their life.

So nothing to do with the public, its all about politics and internal rubbish within the job.

Its not the same Police force I joined in the 70's and that I was proud to do for all my service

[Rolebama]

With the AA I came into contact with quite a few Traffic Police, and visited a few of their base stations. What TC1474 says above reflects the opinion I developed during this time.
To me, there is nothing worse than having a job where you know more than your boss.

[NMNeil]

the UK is undoubtedly different to here in the US, but both country's have a real problem with drunk driving, DUI, DWI, they all mean the same.
My very first DUI arrest was an absolute disaster and ended up being thrown out of court because we have attorneys/lawyers who dedicate themselves to fighting DUI. Such as;
https://www.granolaw.com/blog/stages...-dui-dwi-case/
My suspect had crashed into a parked car, had empty beer cans and a half empty bottle of vodka rolling around the floorwell of the passenger side. He could barely stand and refused the field sobriety tests.
Arrested, back to PD, breathalyzed, fingerprinted and photographed then off to the County jail.
The paperwork, and they have a dedicated portfolio of forms, took me 3 hours.
In court they wanted a copy of my certification to operate the breathalyzer machine, the calibration records of the machine, a copy of the video showing the suspects refusal to take the field sobriety tests, a copy of my certification as a police officer.
It went on and on because the attorney/lawyer ignores the case itself and looks solely for procedural errors to have the case dismissed.
But worse of all was the attorneys openly bribing police officers not to show up to court hearings so the case was dismissed. Yes we do, or rather did, have corrupt cops in New Mexico.
https://www.koat.com/article/albuque...court/46511546
But with so much paperwork and the unscrupulous attorneys/lawyers, there was little incentive to actively look for drunk drivers.