GMP to target motorists with Smart Car CCTV Fleet

culzean · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 04, 2006 Posts: 54

I actually welcome this move as I am fed up with sharing the roads with drivers who are smoking, eating, texting, talking on mobiles, messing with their sat-nav settings etc. etc. while they are supposed to be controlling a lethal object travelling at speed. The worst offenders are commercial vehicle and white van drivers - I was almost flattened on an island by a HGV driver on his mobile but luckily I realised he wasn't going to stop and opted to swerve and go round the island again rather than tangle with him - incidents like that make you realise how much you rely on other road users 'doing the right thing' - the majority of 'accidents' are probably caused by the driver of a vehicle being distracted and should not be 'careless driving' but manslaughter.

And by the way, just to reasure the poster who 'hoped the same person wasn't driving and controlling the camera' - these cars will be parked up (stationary, off the road, not moving) when mast is up and camera being used.

DennisN · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:05 pm Post subject:

Snudge · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 8:42 pm Post subject:

When I started driving over 40 years ago I had a Vauxhall Victor which had a front bench seat and a 3 speed column change. I used to regularly drive with a girlfriend snuggled up with my left arm around her and steering with the other. To change gear meant reaching across with my right hand to the column change as it was on the left side of the wheel.
Obviously there were no sat navs but navigating was done by balancing the map on the steering wheel and turning the pages by hand whilst steering by the knees under the wheel.
You could drive by cops and nobody batted an eyelid – and the reason why was because in those days we had REAL cops solving REAL crimes like catching violent armed bank robbers and the like.
Those were the days eh?

culzean · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 04, 2006 Posts: 54

DennisN · Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:14 pm Post subject:

nuttynurse · Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:28 pm Post subject:

Going back to the origin of this thread. I think we should be concerned with the growing use of cameras to fine motorists for anything and everything they do inside their cars whilst travelling from a to b. Equally I object to surveillence cameras anywhere where their primary use has turned into a means of raising revenue rather than the apparent purpose of reducing death in accident blackspots or in making areas safe where crime is abound.

We should be asking where our police officers are today, why aren't they out on the roads and motorways more and in our town centres and villages as they once were. Yes, Darren, it was a PCSO in that video clip. But why, what was wrong with the special constable to aid our officers? I would like to know why we need these people when we have a police force. Why do we need cctv cameras on every lamp post and a threat of a mobile or static camera on every road when we have a police force. Their presence on the road and on the street has a much greater inpact on motorists and people behaviour generally and earns far greater respect from people both because people feel generally safer in their communities and on our roads when we have a police presence. Little respect is given to these support officers. Get them into the police stations doing paper work if need be and get the police earning their wages again! We don't need a two tier police service, do we?

Every road, or so it seems, has now been turned into an accident blackspot by the presence of cameras of all sorts. Specs no longer it seems confined to the motorway but also now in our inner cities. Will we ever see accident black spots made safer whilst there is so much revenue to be made from cameras. Dare we even sneeze in our cars anymore?

As I have said elsewhere we are being forced to use our vehicle more to get to our out of town supermarkets and to work etc. We have travel on deteriorating, crumbling roads and on roads with ever decreasing speed limits and with increasingly complex road layouts etc, etc. We continue to be provided with cars capable of ever greater speeds and technology i.e. mobile phones to use whilst driving them. Do we need satnavs which show family pics? Motorists are just lambs to the slaughter these days. You seem to get a better deal if you steal a car and drive it dangerously rather than dare go a few mph over the limit

Motorists and the public generally should not be made to feel the villians of our society. The drug pusher, the burglar, the thug and the likes should be receiving the attention more. But of course they don't bring in the revenue do they, they cost revenue!

Darren · Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:04 pm Post subject:

nuttynurse · Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 12:59 am Post subject:

Not suggesting "special constables" should be used to shore up the shortage of police, but as an ancillary of volunteers who work along side the police in their own free time has got to be more commendable than a pseudo police force parading around our streets, hasn't it? And no, we should not be paying for them to cover up shortages or anything else, we should be demanding that our police force should be back on the streets doing its job.

Darren · Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:53 am Post subject:

I'm in total agreement with you on that!
_________________
Darren Griffin

XioNN · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 23, 2011 Posts: 1

The CCTV trial of smart car cameras by UK police is indeed a worrying development. As a disabled person with restricted reach. I purchased a new CD slot mount before Christmas and although in no way would I condone anyone operating a Android mobile or sat nav while driving. This was the best option for me getting the sucker off the windscreen.

Now my passenger can safely programme my new TomTom of which I am still raving about.

This is a link I found to the video.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7994362.stm

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