Just a quick warning to anyone driving in Cumbria from today, 1st June 2007:
The 'safety' camera vans will be able to operate in ANY location from today and their locations will NOT be fixed or advertised.
It is likely that cameras may operate in pairs or threes in a short stretch of road, so watch out!
Yet another money making scam from the Safety Scamera Partnership.
Don't forget to flash your headlights to oncoming vehicles if you pass one - just to indicate your presence in accordance with the Highway Code of course.
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Just to add, if you spot one of these vans parked illegally or causing an obstruction and you have a camera with you, don't forget to take a photo of the offence and send it in to Safespeed.org.uk and Cumbria's Chief Constable.
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Just to add if you spot one of these vans parked illegally or causing an obstruction and you have a camera with you don't forget to take a photo of the offence and send it in to Safespeed.org.uk and Cumbria's Chief Constable.
A good idea. I live in Cumbria and the Scamera vans DO park illegally and cause obstructions - would that be enough to invalidate a ticket ? or would it be enough to get one of the camera operating parasite prosecuted ?
Thankfully, Cumbria is very large, and the Scamera crews are few --- and we are very good at letting carrs coming the other way know that we are there, as per the Highway Code.
But surely by doing this Mr Big Boss Scamera in Cumbria is admitting that their Scamera campaign has been a complete failure in Cumbria, and that they're having to do thios to justify their existence.
MTC
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Beware of serial camera vans as if you flash oncoming trafic when you past the first van and a second van up to 1000 metrs up the road identifies you as flashing oncoming traffic you may be prosecuted as happened to a lorry driver some weeks ago, I think it was on Pepipoo.com. Regards Peter
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Beware of serial camera vans as if you flash oncoming trafic when you past the first van and a second van up to 1000 metrs up the road identifies you as flashing oncoming traffic you may be prosecuted as happened to a lorry driver some weeks ago I think it was on Pepipoo.com. Regards Peter
What is the legal position of a "Police - Road Camera Safety Partnership" van with logo's and yellow high vis stripes operated by a civilian employee which parks completely on the pavement of a roundabout overbridge which is over the top of a busy A road. If I had been on foot I would have been forced to go into the road to walk round the obstruction.
It didn't have any rotating beacon or put out cones and I would have said unlike a water or gas van it's need was discreationary rather than attending to public service.
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The lorry driver was found "Not Guilty" on appeal. The reasoning was that while he may have been warning people of the presence of a scamera there was no evidence that anybody had slowed down as a result of his action ie they may have been speeding but it wasn't possible to tell.
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I would welcome the good citizens of Cumbria to my Ghandi like campaign against speed cameras, drive so the they can't do you. If everybody was really determined we would bankrupt the system in no time. Obvoiusly I need my sanity checking if I really thought drivers would give this a try.
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b
what is it that "Catch 22" says? You can't be mad if you question your sanity? Something like that.
JH
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You're on the right lines...:-)
Catch 22: A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions; the rules or conditions that create such a situation; a situation or predicament characterised by absurdity or senselessness; a contradictory or self-defeating course of action.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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In Joseph Heller's novel, the starting point for the whole concept of "Catch-22" is the specific (fictitious?) WWII American Airforce regulation which is set forth in the book thus:
'There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he [Yossarian] observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.'
As the novel unfolds, the Catch-22 idea expands and becomes ever more complex.
Sorry about this - I'll switch pedant/pedagogue mode off and maybe try to think of some motoring connection.... or even get a life... :-)
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Hi - I'm another Cumbria resident (would never claim to be a Cumbrian though).
I don't like speed cameras either. Cumbria is an odd county as the roads go. Very high casualty rate per mile and per population. So plod is under pressure to improve things.
Not much by way of motorways and few dual carriageways. Lots of single carriageway 60 mph stuff though + lots of narrow twisty roads.
Truth is, speed isn't the major problem. Sure it's contributary factor, but the real problem is poor roads and poor driving standards - and spead cameras aren't going to deal those, are they?
Les
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Most fatals and serious accident in Cumbria are head-ons below the speed limit on single carriageway roads like the A590 and the A595. ie locations where the crap road standards lead to driver impatience. Not on 30mph urban roads in Ulverston, Carlisle and other similar locations.
Yet the scammer vans are often located in 'jackpot' zones such as the 30mph sections of the coast road in Ulverston and London Road in Carlisle and long, clear, accident-free sections of the M6...
Many of the fatals in Cumbria are on the M6 and involve L O R R I E S - yes, those pink fluffy dice that overtake each other over several miles on hills and drive 3 inches behind the LORRY in front, or fall asleep/use the phone/CB/etc.
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Read an interesting letter on teletext today making the point that hiding speed cameras is like making all police officers walk around in plain clothes. OK you might catch people more people in the act, but less crime will be prevented in the first place!
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EXACTLY Ravenger - Spot On! Policing is no longer about crime prevention = Stop it before it happens but Catch people when it has happened, if you have the manpower to do so, and deal with the consequences. If we had more visible deterrent policing to prevent crime we wouldn't need finger tip searches, sealed crime scenes and van loads of forensic bods to investigate what has happened.
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