Evening all. I'd like to share an incident which happened on my way home last night. Approaching a signal-controlled Y-junction I positioned myself in the right-hand lane to take the diverging road. On nearing the junction I saw that the diverging road was blocked by a 'Police - Accident' sign and a police officer was in attendance, directing traffic in the right-hand lane to rejoin the left lane and continue straight on. As I got to the stop line, the light controlling my lane was red, that controlling the left lane was green. The officer indicated for me to rejoin the left lane. A motorist in this lane stopped and signalled for me to pull in front of him, which I did, at this point triggering the red light camera covering my lane. Clearly I am now concerned that I may receive points and a fine for jumping the red light, although I was doing so under direction from a uniformed officer. Incidentally, I believe both the officer and the sign should have been clearly captured by the camera when it was activated.

With hindsight I can see that the sensible thing to do would have been to find a safe place to stop, return to the junction, explain the situation to the officer, and make a note of his number. Unfortunately I didn't do this, mainly due to the heavy traffic and lack of thought on my part. By the time I got home a few minutes later I had recovered my wits sufficiently to call the police enquiry line and ask their advice. They duly noted the details and issued me with a reference number, though were fairly noncommittal as to what might happen further down the line.

Today I have received a voicemail message along the lines of "If any automated follow-up is received, please contact PC Bloggs 123 at Anytown police station, quoting your reference number, and it will be dealt with."

In the opinion of fellow backroomers, what is likely to happen now?

1. The people who process the fines will apply common sense and nothing further will happen
2. I'll receive a NIP, contact PC Bloggs and he will make the whole thing go away
3. I'll receive a NIP, then have to embark upon a lengthy and time-consuming procedure (court etc) to try to get it overturned.

Is there a possibility I may end up having to take the points / fine after all?

Thanks in advance for all comments and advice.

Jon
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The thread on motorway lane discipline brought to mind a phenomenon that I experience on the rare occasions that I venture on the network.

I am invariably in my motorhome which is based on a 2.5TD, so easily capable of the legal limit, however as I am usually on holiday and rarely in a hurry I am quite content to sit in the inside lane rather than mix it in the overtaking lanes.

Naturally and inevitably I will come up behind a convoy of lorries and am quite happy to stay behind this for the above reasons, and in the interests of safety and the absence of stress I allow a safety zone of one and a half to two lorry lengths gap. Equally inevitably the occasional slowing of the preceding convoy means that I will be caught up by a following lorry which then attempts to overtake me and eventually pulls into my safety zone. My slight speed reduction to restoring this zone encourages the next lorry to overtake me and so on, ad infinitum. I have no hang-ups about being overtaken but it is disconcerting to constantly have a juggernaut alongside with a speed differential of only one or two miles an hour, also there is the consequent road block in lane 2.

The puzzlement is that the overtaking lorry is then following the lorry that I was following at the same speed that I was travelling at so I fail to see the gain. I could of course prevent these manoeuvres by reducing my safety zone to less than a lorry length or travelling in lane 2 but am naturally reluctant to take either of these steps.

This isn't meant to be a trucker bashing thread, and if I am annoying anyone I would like to know, but it just seems that the truckers resent me travelling in 'their' inside lane.

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One mans junk is another mans treasure Read more

Hello,

If coolant is ok in specific gravity terms, i.e. is proving the required protection from freezing should it still be changed on an age basis? I am getting differing views on this.

To put it another way can it's corrosion resistance and lubricity diminished even if it's anti freeze properties are intact?


Thanks.

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A quick search on the Forum shows this has not been discussed before.

There was a piece on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 today of an urban myth that the chips fitted to the Ford 5000 car radio can be adapted and fitted to a Freeview box so it can unscramble the Sky tv signals.

This is causing large number of Ford cars, mainly Focus models, to be broken into. Smashing the window and removing the radio takes about 10 seconds. Usually it does not set off the alarm as they only have door sensors fitted. In an evening as many as 15 Focus cars are damaged, and AutoGlass are having difficulty finding and fitting enough replacement windows - some having to wait several days before they can be repaired.

To set the record straight: It is impossible to change the purpose of the chips in any way.


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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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tinyurl.com/yxs9hh {Shortened link to icsurreyonline.icnetwork.co.uk/ - DD} Read more