March 2002
More than 30 vehicles have been towed away from Sandwell streets in a major crackdown on car tax dodgers. The move is the latest in a series of swoops by the council's highways department, the DVLA and police. The motorists were caught in kerbside checks and visits to their homes after tip-offs from neighbours and traffic wardens.
Highways enforcement officer Dave Roberts said 34 cars and vans were taken to the DVLA compound during the three-day blitz at the end of last week. The owners face a £200 bill to free their vehicles.
We have run operations like this before and more are planned for the future," said Mr Roberts. They are useful not only for picking up motorists who have not paid their tax but can highlight other offences as well."
The £200 fee includes a £120 surety which is refundable on production of a valid tax disc.
Motorists who have not paid vehicle excise duty for several months or longer face prosecution.
If owners fail to pay the outstanding tax as well as the £80 release fee -and the daily £15 charge for keeping vehicles after the first 24 hours -the vehicles will be crushed or auctioned off.
Councillor Keith Davies said: "These motorists have got to realise that their time of driving around Sandwell in untaxed vehicles is at an end. I, like other taxpayers, applaud what is being done by the authoritiesand this is just the start. We have a duty not only to those who do pay their tax to catch these
dodgers but also to those who may be injured by motorists without
insurance. (from tonights Express & Star) Read more
Just watched Fred Dibnah explaining the engineering skills and achievments of our ancestors. It makes one proud of this small island nation which could lead the world in feats of engineering and skills. Should be mandatory to teach this in our schools instead of alien cultures.
And today we don't even produce in any quantity motor vehicles which in todays world are fairly low tech products. And the ones we do produce the companies are owned elsewhere. Whats to blame?, unions' low investment' poor government, perhaps even the british public in preferring to buy foreign cars unlike the French who predominantly buy their own which on the whole are no better than ours. any ideas....?
alvin Read more
But I would buy a British car because of its quality: the Rover 75 typified the BMW perception and branding of Rover; now the MG ZT represents the dynamic heritage of Britishness, and I'm sure future generations of MG-Rover products will be a triumph of style and substance. Sadly, the 25 and 45 are dated and in need of replacement.
Even if they are foreign marques, let's also remember the Nissan Primera, Almera, and Micra from Sunderland, the Peugeot 206 in Coventry, the Honda Civic, Toyota in Derby(?), and the component suppliers feeding not only these companies, but mainland Europe operations, too.
Can anybody explain the logic behind the new system of registration numbers? Last year the new system started with XX51XXX. From 1st March they became XX01XXX, and on 1st September they will go up one digit to XX02XXX. I believe at some stage they will become XX61XXX. As starting at 01 and increasing by 1 every six months will give enough combinations to last forty five and a half years, why the hell didn't they do just that, or have I missed some important point? Read more
M is Aug 94 to july 95.
You're wrong about 51 being Sept 01, it's anytime between Sept 01 and March 02.
Has anybody got any first hand experience of the most suitable tyres for the above. I have been running on Goodyear Eagle NCT 5`s(205 50 17W), but have been most unhappy with the handling- above 90 m.p.h. the steering becomes very light,
vague and lacking grip, which has spoilt my enjoyment of the vehicle. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Read more
Thanks for your replys - the car was registered in Jan 2001, so would not have the latest suspension and steering mods introduced in the recent revamp from October 2001, which has transformed the handling - as endorsed by H.J`s report on the Compact 320d SE.
The Stella Awards
In 1994 a New Mexico jury awarded $2.9 million U.S. in damages to 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who suffered third-degree burns to her legs, groin and buttocks after spilling a cup of McDonald's coffee on herself. This case inspired an annual award?The "Stella" Award?for the most frivolous lawsuit in the U.S. Listed below are some recent nominees.
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running amok inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little kid was Ms. Robertson's son.
Nineteen-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up because the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation. Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. Mr. Dickson sued the homeowner's insurance, claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to award in his favor to the tune of half a million dollars.
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard, as was Mr. Williams (in the owner's fenced yard). The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog may have been provoked by Mr. Williams who, at the time, was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend a moment earlier during an argument.
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
And you wondered how O.J. got off? Read more
Fun/Distressing reading.
There is fortunately something called a duty of care in this country UK (all corrections welcome) where a defendant must show that all REASONABLE precautions were taken to avoid such mishaps and that the incident itself could not have been forseen within these parameters. 'Reasonable' gives discretion for sure and l think the whole process remains sane because there are a lot of 'reasonable' (perhaps even old school) members of the legal profession who have a genuine desire to see justice done.
The US system would appear IMHO to now be riddled with fresh out of college lunatic-lawyers with dollar signs for eyes who's primary motivation is money not justice. There isn't that basic motivation of doing the right thing for fellow man.
It only takes a concentration of these types to detach a court case from reality to a plane where even a seasoned judge cannot stop these ludicrous situations from arising. Controls on the amounts of money paid to the legal profession would perhaps remove this blindness, but l can guess this will not happen as the legal-poiltical connections tend to be very strong
dan
Times Online March 11 2002
March 11, 2002
Police 'leaving law on roads to speed cameras'
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent
DANGEROUS drivers are escaping punishment because police forces are increasingly relying on speed cameras to do the work of traffic officers. Police are catching fewer people for stealing cars, drink and drug-driving, and careless or dangerous driving, according to Home Office figures for forces in England and Wales.
The only type of motoring offence to have registered any increase is speeding, which leapt by 18 per cent in 2000 because of the huge rise in the number of speed cameras. Motoring groups said that police were leaving cameras to enforce the law on the roads. Drivers realised there was little risk of being caught for any offence as long as they slowed for speed cameras, most of which are being repainted yellow to give people time to notice them. The number of police devoted to traffic duties has fallen from 15 per cent of all officers in 1990 to less than 5 per cent, research by the RAC Foundation found.
In January the Metropolitan Police switched more than 300 traffic officers to tackling street crime. Edmund King, the RAC Foundation?s executive director, said: ?Speed cameras will not catch drivers who tailgate, overtake dangerously, talk on mobile phones and many other potentially fatal actions. In many areas the number of police on duty keeping the roads safe is almost zero.?
Stopping motorists helped to detect other crimes, Mr King said. More than 65 per cent of drivers committing serious traffic offences had criminal records. A total of 802,000 motorists were caught by cameras in 2000. The figure is believed to have passed one million last year as more forces joined a government scheme that allowed them to keep some of the proceeds of speeding fines to pay for more cameras.
The decline in detecting drinkdriving has been accompanied by a sharp rise in accidents caused by drivers over the limit, up 13 per cent between 1999 and 2000. Police are carrying out fewer breath tests, down from 815,000 in 1998 to 764,000 in 1999.
The number of people killed on Britain?s roads remained at the same level between 1998 and 2000, after falling sharply in the early Nineties. A total of 3,421 died in 1998, then 3,423 in 1999, and 3,409 in 2000.
The Association of Chief Police Officers has justified the concentration on policing by cameras by claiming that speed is a factor in one third of all serious accidents. Mr King said, however, that they had exaggerated the consequences of speeding. One of the few detailed reports on the subject found that speed caused 157 accidents in the West Midlands in 2000, compared with 262 caused by drink-driving.
Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from The Times, visit the Syndication website. Read more
I heard Blunkett say that Plod would be issued with Palm Pilots or similar, into which they would enter the information for later transfer at the station. I love my Palm, but I wouldn't want to use it to type on while trying to maintain eye-contact with a (possibly hostile) suspect!
My views about non-driving transport ministers can be extended to cover blind Home Secretaries, I think...
In an effort to be constructive, why not instead simply sound-record the incident on a small tape (or digital) recorder with time-stamping facilities?
I have had a Rover P reg Rover 600 for 4 years and still have the same rear tyres. I have heard that tyres have a shelf life and should be change after a fixed lenth of time. Any thoughts. Read more
I agree - tyres seem to like to stay where they are. On a ZX I had, swapping rears to front (and new ones on the back - at the BRMA recommends, though I suspect partly because this avoids having to re-balance the new pair once they've 'bedded in') made it handle like a pig on skates - and changing them back cured it.
I reckon 5 years is about it for a tyre thats ben on the car, maybe a bit longer for an unused spare, but then think how hot it can get in the boot?
Even if you get 5yrs (or 20k on drive wheels) they're not expensive compared with a failure to kep the thing shiny side up...
My good friend Alan was most grateful to all those who responded on towing weights and the choice of a used vehicle suitable for towing his 1.5 tonne vintage boat. However, he remsins confused and has asked me to post the following in case any more light emerges.
Thank you for the information on trailer weights. The Driving Manual (HMSO, from the Driving Standards Agency) is as near as you can get to Holy Writ, and it says "The lower the weight of the caravan or trailer the safer the combination will be. Ideally the actual weight of the loaded...trailer...should be no more than the empty weight of the towing vehicle (kerbside weight)... As a general guide, the laden weight of the ... trailer should never exceed the kerbside weight of the towing vehicle. Take care not to exceed the limits set out in the vehicle owner's handbook."
Which is all very well, but the kerbside weight of my VW camper, in its basic high roof configuration, is 1620 kg. Yet the maximum permissible trailer weight(with brakes)is 2000 kg, and the gross train weight is 4500 kg.
Enough of the theory. The camper tows the boat safely, stops it and, with care, recovers it on a steep slipway. The trailer weight (boat, trailer, anchors and coal) is an estimated one and a half tons in old money, or around 1600kg - so I'm well within the manufacturer's guidelines, but marginal within DSA guidelines.
All this would seem to rule out an MB300 and suggest a Range Rover. However, I would welcome enlightenment on the whole rather confused issue, which I'd sooner not debate with a traffic policeman one hot Saturday afternoon. Read more
I'm grateful for several informed comments on towing weights. Yes. my VW camper would be better at pulling the steamboat up a slipway if it had rw (or better 4w) drive but I counter this by putting some large people in the passenger seat to improve traction and (of course) keeping nose weight of the trailer to within ounces of perfection.
I'd be further grateful for comments on the two/four wheel trailer implications (harder to turn and manoeuvre, easier to tow). And as to gross train weights, is it possible that the camper (being van based) expects to be able to tow a heavier trailer because it expects to be loaded more heavily than a passenger vehicle and so has more robust brakes to match?
Finally, anyone who uses a boat trailer which is used for launching (and so gets wet) must check brakes and bearings at least twice every season - especially if the trailer doesn't have a chance to dry out properly between launchings and recoveries, even in fresh water.
My 1999 156 Selespeed has a recurring problem of totalloss of gears usually when hitting second gear, but can be at "motorway" speeds - which is interesting. As the car requires me to be in neutral to re-start I am often left with no transport. The loss of gears occurs at any time, warm or cold, stationary,pulling away or cruising
I calculate the dealer (under warranty) has received the car around 15 times - 6 of which were tow ins.
I have had a new gearbox, lower ECU, higher ECU, gear box oil pump, numerous diagnostics.
Apart from training the children to operate the hazard warning lights has anybody had and cured a similar problem.
P.S. Am I the only one having major problems with "service" at Reg Vardy's - and can anyone explain to them what a courtesy cars is ?? Read more
You are lucky! not only has my new 147 Sillyspeed failed many times. The dealer wont accept that there is a problem.....EVEN though I have an AA report and video.
Lucky also because I have over 20 problems with the car.
The Alfa dealer is useless, and Alfa themselves dont even care that they are selling dangerous cars. I would never buy another Alfa and never let any friends of family buy one either....I have wasted nearly £20,000 on a car that is so dangerous and irritating that I have not been able to drive it, sell it, in fact the dealer wouldnt even take it back........
Snapped accelerator cable, got a scrap carb due to wear on original, car is fine now (better than it was actually) HOWEVER the garage cocked up the first carb I bought, they upt it on wrong and had the car more or less all week. I lost 2 nights work. The garage charged me £40 total in labour; the scrapyard had sympathy and replaced for free the carb the garage broke. Can I get any money back from the garage? Read more
David, this might be difficult as you would have to prove that they didn't exercise proper care and skill.In the unlikely event of them admitting liability you could try and ask for a refund but the matter wouldn't really be worth your while persuing if they didn't agree.This is just an opinion. Mike
Browse
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As far as i know, in France you can only get your insurance once you have shown the valid MOT (control Technique) and paid the relevant department tax (although i think some of the road taxes may have recently been abolished), you take these documents along when you by your car tax, but significantly, you have to place an Insurance sticker beneath your tax disc, this has to correspond to the car reg and the details in the tax disc too. Cross referenced in this way, it seems harder to Fraud both tax and insurance. In many departments the police simply scan your tax and insurance stickers to check their validity, this depeds on the local police budget and equipment of course.
Importantly though, there are many more checks made by French police at the road side, i have been pulled over three times in 4 yrs driving both French and Englsih cars, you cannot sweet talk these guys! You also have to present your V5 form, otherwise pay a hefty fine.