Fall in road offences due to reduction in traffic police says Transport Committee

wknight wrote:

As someone who knows the court system this is rubbish. The reduction is due to COURSES. No one is prosecuted these days they are sent on a Course If you add in courses the numbers will be up. 

If they are so short of numbers, why did 4 cars turn up for an accident on the A31 the other day involving 3 cars. 

To point out the obvious:

They're discussing offenses, not convictions. An offense can be recorded without a corresponding conviction, for a number of reasons.

However, to record offenses you need either traffic police, or automated tracking such as speed or red light* cameras.

*There's one at the intersection right outside my house. It is, of course, aimed at the road which has fewer vehicles actually running the light...

guyrwood wrote:

They ought to have red light cameras on EVERY set of lights. Driving in big cities is scary with the number of morons who think red lights are optional.

I'd say we passed the point a decade ago where that become a purely political choice rather than a cost issue. If they were installed as standard, the incremental costs of a traffic light with camera would be tiny.

UK politiicans still believe they have to fear the motor voter.

racyrich wrote:

You'd think they'd have asked the ABI for motor claim statistics. I'm pretty sure accident claims are not falling, even if theft from autos has done massively.

The number of Claims is rising faster than the number of cars on the road, despite as you say theft without keys becoming almost non existant.

This in itself doesn't indicate more undetected offences, and other factors are involved (greater conjestion etc), but as driver error is to blame 99% of the time, you can't help thinking a few of those would be considered "dangerous" and many "Careless" by the legal standard and often police are not involved. 

However, part of the increase in claims will be driven by claims farming and ambulance chasing laywers as well as people having a higher tendency to claim as cars become more expensive to fix whilst what would previously have been a minor to medium repair is now a write off (e.g. an airbag deployment nearly always writes off a car for financial reasons)

balmybaldwin wrote:

racyrich wrote:

You'd think they'd have asked the ABI for motor claim statistics. I'm pretty sure accident claims are not falling, even if theft from autos has done massively.

 

The number of Claims is rising faster than the number of cars on the road, despite as you say theft without keys becoming almost non existant.

This in itself doesn't indicate more undetected offences, and other factors are involved (greater conjestion etc), but as driver error is to blame 99% of the time, you can't help thinking a few of those would be considered "dangerous" and many "Careless" by the legal standard and often police are not involved. 

However, part of the increase in claims will be driven by claims farming and ambulance chasing laywers as well as people having a higher tendency to claim as cars become more expensive to fix whilst what would previously have been a minor to medium repair is now a write off (e.g. an airbag deployment nearly always writes off a car for financial reasons)

Of course all of that is true. But by the same token claims are depressed by people not reporting them and opting to settle privately and thus protect their NCB.  

And that is certainly true for virtually every instance I know of a cyclist being hit and there being no injury, just equipment/clothing damage. As we know there is no requirement to report a non-injury collision.

davel wrote:

- no. of  driver 'tuts' generated by cyclists filtering.

Lol, this made me smile.

I had an altercation with a bloke in a Volvo 4x4 last week because "the way I was riding could have got me killed and he was worried about the child he had in the back of his vehicle"