Coronavirus: Speeding drivers treating empty roads like racetracks

Engineer Andy    on 16 April 2020

Indeed - especially all the 'modded' cars.

DLDLDL    on 20 April 2020

Whenever the police find a "modded" car do they check that the mods have been reported to the insurance company?

I bet in the vast majority of cases they have not been - so the vehicle could be confiscated for driving without valid insurance.

Takes a bit of time - but word would soon get round.

glidermania    on 17 April 2020

why does it seem to be AUDI,BMW and MERC drivers in the majority

The report mentioned a mercedes and audi once out of all the examples of speeding yet you fall back on your stupidity.

Edited by glidermania on 17/04/2020 at 19:40

Husbandofstinky    on 20 April 2020

Well all I can say is that I have (on paper) a very quick A6 and drive like an old f*** despite being a very long way off state retirement age. A comfort wagon.

It is (allegedly) the first premium badge vehicle I have owned, although I just see it as a V6 Passat. Your take on that is entirely up to you0

Anecdotally, I find that idiots drive anything and everything on the road. Sorry no stereo types.

They get caught, simples, they lose their licence. End of.

All I hope is that no one else is involved in that process on the road.

Live long and prosper

John of Gloster    on 23 April 2020

Why mainly German cars... simples ...Have a look at any supermarket car park ... Us Brits excel at importing foreign built cars which is good for the economy. Unfortunately, not the UK economy. Thus exporting jobs and careers from what was once the indigenous UK Car Industry. Now no longer an endangered species largely extinct and when it suits all the foreign controlled remnants of UK Industry, when it suits them, just like Honda and all the rest warned for many years, they will up sticks and leave.

They will still want to sell their stuff here to take advantage of wider UK margins. Ask BMW about that which Former EU nation provided their best returns. Finally, my twenty-one year old Rover is still capable of exceeding TWICE the NSL.. The last car I bought was an MG.. Made in the Peoples Republic of China!

Only in the UK! Land of choice... choosing .... Industrial decline... Plus UK LAST!

Nothing new...Orwell's argument was that as a result of cultivated stupidity amongst the ruling classes the country had little need for these "intellectuals" and so they "lived in a state of chronic discontent with the existing order". Those ruling classes now? The MSM and Westminster Class. Along with all the ex=spurts they pull up from their ever on standby pool to substantiate their poor decisions.... Clearly still demonstrating that every pandemic day. Such experts wisdom AFTER the event!! Note how when a "new" and wiser expert is pulled up and does not follow the MSM's agenda, never used again. The BBC in the spearhead of all that harmful to the Nation agenda stuff.

It's what we allow to happen.

So there. Meantime, I'm off to dance on the rubble at Longbridge...

Austin of ENGLAND.. How very UN-PC ..!!!!

NEIL SCARLETT    on 20 April 2020

WOW

Husbandofstinky    on 20 April 2020

NICE

Hiwayuser    on 20 April 2020

John Fairbairn    on 24 April 2020

" I vote all convicted speeders must drive a Piccanto hereon in. ( A Piccanto 1 as well"

Or a Mitsubishi Mirage. With a 3-cyl engine, 100+ mph is a dream. And you sure won't outrun the police. Here in the US, we are seeing the same sort of idiocy. I live on a posted 30 mph residential street in Minnesota. Yesterday we had a guy in a pick-em-up truck stop at the stop sign half a block North of us, then floor it. By the time he passed my driveway he was doing an estimated 60, and over 75 before he ran the stop sign a block and a half South of us. A little Honda on the cross street there reached the intersection about 2 seconds later. If he had been 4 seconds earlier, he would have been dead.

Our police force got 13 urgent requests to find this idiot as he laced our city's residential streets, but sadly couldn't catch him even when he doubled back onto streets he already had traversed. Oh, and he was driving a truck that had a gutted muffler, so you could hear him accelerating for blocks. This was a very deliberate effort to disturb the peace and to flout the speed laws. I hope someone catches him before he kills someone other than himself.

BTW, this is only a personally-observed recounting. On the Web, there now are idiots who are bragging about having driven coast to coast on the freeways in as little as 29 hours, and several of these speed demons have been clocked and apprehended doing more than 160 mph.

As for those who smugly inquire what harm it does, consider this. One of these jerks doing an estimated 170 mph piled up his car. His car blew a left-front tire and he lost control, crossed the drainage median, and launched upward over 15 feet into the air. Coming down, he hit the windshield of an 80-foot, capacity-loaded semi going the other direction at 70 mph, for a combined impact of well more than 200 mph. The semi slewed toward the median, jackknifed, and the trailer flipped over eight times over a distance of about 900 feet while shedding its entire load of machinery parts and hardware all over the Eastbound lanes. The tractor and the car went back through the median and tumbled several times over about 500 feet before coming to a rest, shedding scrap all over the place in the Westbound lanes. Fourteen other vehicles became involved in hitting either the tractor, the trailer, or various stuff on the highway. Several of these went off the road and were thus involved in secondary accidents. Four people beside the original driver and the semi driver died, and nine more were hospitalized in severe or critical condition.

The resulting mess closed the freeway for two days (with huge economic losses for truckers and business vehicles going both directions. In addition, this jackass tied up huge amounts of critically-needed emergency equipment, first-response personnel, and hospital space, to say nothing of the wasted County and State funds.

Now tell me, where in this was there anyone "suddenly appearing" from a side road? This was a Midwestern US state, clear straight road, and clear weather in mid-morning. THAT'S why it's not a good idea. That's why breaking the law is stupid. And that's why I have no patience whatsoever with people who say, "What's the harm?"

steadyeddie    on 21 April 2020

There has been so many cutbacks of traffic police, certainly in Lancashire, that speed enforcement is virtually NIL. I was a traffic officer for 20 years and there were 60 PC’s under me, same place has 12, but sickness etc. Not very many. Vehicles kill more people than guns, knives, etc but people just regard them as an ‘accident’. We need a separate Road Policing Unit as politicians call it now. Driving standards are at there lowest I have ever seen. Something needs to be done as a matter of urgency or ??????

I very much applaud and support your suggestion of a 'Road Policing Unit'. Maybe we could encourage like-minded folk to lobby their MP's to prompt a govt debate or start a petition to get the matter aired in Parliament.

DLDLDL    on 21 April 2020

There are I believe a couple of such units already:

Central Motorway Police Group - originally covering the motorways in Warwickshire, West Mercia, West Midlands and Staffordshire - although Warwickshire and West Mercia have pulled out - it looks like for political reasons.

North West Motorway Police Group - originally Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester Police - although Lancashire have announced that they are pulling out - for "operational" reasons.

They seem like a good idea, the police are specialist motorway drivers and there is focus on motoring offences, motorway safety and "transiting crime".

Are there published figures to show that such groups have the impact that we would hope they would?

John Fairbairn    on 24 April 2020

Before you happily go out and speed, please see my post above.

You may 'get away with opening it up a little'. On the other hand, you may not. The consequences to others may be far more severe than you even begin to imagine, while frankly I don't give a drat what happens to you or your car.

Consider this: Most passenger car tires are rated for safe use up to about 90 mph. Beyond that, they tend to begin shedding pieces and blowing out. Your mileage may vary, but sooner or later you will blow a tire at high speed. Good luck avoiding a crash. Again, I don't care a crap about you or your car, but I pity the other people you involve in your accident.

I was a Nationally Registered EMT Advanced for six years. Tell us, have you ever had to look at someone who was decapitated by sliding an inverted car 200 or more feet on a concrete highway? Or who had been punched through by a steering column? Or whose face had been flayed away to the bone or who had been blinded by flying exploding glass? What sort of psychologic shock do you think that would cause you? What kind of trauma do you think others will have while trying to render aid at your accident?

Oh. I forgot. You are special. That could never happen to you.

John Fairbairn    on 24 April 2020

Just to emphasize the statement I made about tire ratings, here is a chart of the most popular speed ratings for passenger car tires. Most sold are the ones in the S category, but yours may be rated lower. The character that determines the manufacturer's speed rating is the last character in the tire size designation on the sidewall of the tire. And that designation is for travel on the tire at that speed for only ten minutes.

For instance, for an 'S'-rated tire, that would be112 mph, but that rating should be discounted substantially for prolonged travel - as much as 25% in very hot or humid weather, or in slippery conditions that can lead to tire heating from slippage. At a 25% de-rating, that would mean the 'S'-rated tire is safe for long-term travel only up to the speed of 84 mph. At a 20% de-rating for normal conditions, it would be a maximum safe long-term speed of just 89.6 mph, or just about the 90 mph I stated in my post above.

L: 120 kph 75 mph
M: 130 kph 81 mph
N: 140 kph 87 mph
P: 150 kph 93 mph
Q: 160 kph 99 mph
R: 170 kph 106 mph
S: 180 kph 112 mph
T: 190 kph 118 mph
U: 200 kph 124 mph
H: 210 kph 130 mph
V: 240 kph 149 mph

And be aware that 'peeling out' from a stop sign (or at any time) builds heat extremely rapidly. It can cause an 'S'-rated tire to fail in less than 10 seconds. If you have reached 60 to 70 mph when it fails, good luck.

Edited by John Fairbairn on 24/04/2020 at 07:25

John Fairbairn    on 24 April 2020

it really does not matter a bit why the limit that is there is so. What matters is that that is the legal speed limit and you are not entitled to 'adjust' it upward because you don't like to be limited.

See my posts above for why I feel so strongly about this.

Contrary to your assertion that speed limits are placed because because of "alarming politicians by travelling (SIC) "too fast" for their comfort", most countries require requests to set limits to be adjudged for both reasonableness and factual basis. Generally this is done by observing traffic flows, determining the high and low speeds, and setting a speed limit based upon some very large percentage of the mean. For instance, where I live the state criteria is the speed at which 80% of the traffic travels unless there are specific conditions that warrant a lower speed.

I suggest that you stop considering only your own selfish and sophomoric desires to goose the gas so you can brag about it - or even so you can pat yourself on the back about doing so and surviving the experience - and consider seriously the harm you can do in so many ways by doing so.

Edited by John Fairbairn on 24/04/2020 at 07:29