Just a friendly reminder that the dashcams we use In our cars to protect ourselves are also being used to dob in road offences as well.
It’s pretty obvious there are social benefits to this but it does make me cringe a little to think that someone might dob us in if we are seen to be having a little too much fun on our bikes!
Be careful!
https://twitter.com/surreyroadcops/status/1299367457400987648?s=21
Yes using cameras to cover yourself incase of insurance problems is a good idea. But lets be honest some of those people are just displaying cuntish behaviour. Going through a red light, welll that’s never a good idea.
Perhaps if the repeated governments of the last 20 years had not decided that policing by static camera was a great idea we’d have more traffic police who would actually police the roads properly.
Chaps, some of you know I am a solicitor. I can tell you I’ve seen a 300% increase in dashcam recorded offences…!
Before I overtake on the motorcycle now… I always check for a dashcam. Front or rear facing.
If you see one. Don’t bother. Police forces are prosecuting some of the most ridiculous, non issue offences I have seen. It is great to moan about it afterwards but it is not fun when you’re sat before the Magistrates answering such a charge.
As much as dash cams can be a pain, every one of those drivers in the clip deserved to he prosecuted fir the way they drove.
My biggest issue from that is the inconsistency of the prosecution, how come the first one who nearly hit the cyclist only gets a driver awareness course but others get six points and £800+ fines?
The inconsistency is shocking. The first incident is a plonker nearly wiping someone out. The plonker was completely in the wrong, no extenuating circumstances. Had the dice rolled one second earlier that would have been a human life snuffed out. He/she got an awareness course!
The second shows a bit of spirited filtering. Nothing you don’t see bike after bike on the Westway every morning. He got a £800 fine. I can only imagine they’ve never seen filtering in Devon and thought it was the devil.
I try and moderate my filtering when outside of London because most road uses aren’t expecting a biker to ride that way and filter at every opportunity.
There was a deliberate policy to use CCTV decades ago and ANPR was a natural extension of that. My opinion is that it has helped to reduce crime and assisted an overstretched police force. Many criminals don’t bother with tax and insurance so ANPR is a good way to either catch them or get them sentenced for smaller offences thereby saving society from their bigger crimes.
Dashcams are an inevitable evolution and are here to stay. More and more cars and helmets will have them built in at the factory.
Equally I think police forces and courts will evolve to use this evidence more consistently.
Personally I’ve got no problem with this. I think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, it’s going to happen anyway, society evolves, so we may as well accept it and adapt.
I think this would’ve happened regardless of which party had been in power.
It was they just clone the plates. ANPR doesn’t care about the car only the reg and whether it is insured/taxed, if not it pings it to the police. To actually catch the plate clones needs a trained and experience road traffic police officer.
True the crims have evolved as well. As police forces are stretched ANPR is the alternative.
Overall I agree. I think dash cam reporting is a technological evolution of how society for millennia has policed itself. Before we had the anonymity of big cities, we all lived in small communities and generally had to behave ourselves because everyone knew everyone else.
I agree with Rusty there! I think the filtering penalty was harsh, but I can say I would never have done what he did. Also, I suspect this was not his first offence either.
The one that shocked me was the “get off” for the Clio! £151 fine for a seriously stupid bit of driving.
20% cuts in police in the last ten years.
I read something on a car forum once, I wish I could find it again, about a guy in Oz who had just bought a car and was pee’ed off he couldn’t put petrol in it because the vehicle’s registration docs hadn’t been brought up to date yet and filling stations in his state are ANPR connected to their DVLA. No docs, no petrol.
Now that would be a system to cut down on the uninsured drivers.
Some estimates say as many as 10% of cars on the road are uninsured. Yes the crims will make cloned plates but I suspect the majority of those uninsured are people who are just chancing their arms.
I wonder if there are other offences not mentioned (no mot/insurance) as the fines seem very inconsistent!
The fines are means-tested. You earn more, you pay more. I don’t think there’s an issue with that.
I don’t think anyone would have an issue with the means tested fines but driver awareness course vs eight points is a hell of a difference!
From personal experience, the driver awareness courses are a waste of time. I did one a while ago and not a single person there could understand why they were there. The general consensus was that they were “only” 5mph over the limit etc so shouldn’t be there!
I’m not sure anyone there learned a thing that day.
Reading down, it appears that they were all initially sent either a fixed penalty notice for either 3 points or a course. The higher penalties were the result of the drivers declining or ignoring that option & going to court.
Just as fines are based on income, points and courses take into account previous offences. Some of those still seem lenient, but they seem so inconsistent only because we do not know the background to them,
As for ANPR, it shows make and colour of a vehicle as well as tax and insurance, so if they do not match you will be stopped by a traffic officer.
The one on the video I am confused by is the bike filtering in the bus lane in Bournemouth. Who was penalized for driving without due care and attention?
There is a car parked in the bus lane on double yellow lines, after which there is a car straddling the line inches before it ends because the second lane becomes a right turn filter one?
And surely that is just a bus lane contravention? Which means the rider is also infringing, as Bournemouth do not allow motorcycles int their bus lanes and it is a 24-hour one.
Surrey road police have helpfully replied to this.
https://twitter.com/SurreyRoadCops/status/1299483307135168513
https://twitter.com/SurreyRoadCops/status/1299483531954065411
Jesus, some of those clips… They all deserve the punishment they got. Complete idiots.
What’s annoying is that the fines don’t make much sense when compared. E.g. the bloke at 0:13 on the motorcycle got an £811 fine and 6 points yet the idiot who overtook everyone before the roundabout at 2:00 only got a £157 fine and 3 points. They’re both dangerous maneuvers but the guy in the car should’ve received at least the same punishment.
