New speeding penalty

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Sp!ke

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Outside my workplace this afternoon the police were hiding armed with a radar gun as they do on occasion.

However this time there was a new twist to the proceedings.

Since such a high number of cars were doing over 38mph on this particular 30mph zone, the police were giving drivers two choices.

1. Accept 3 points and a fine

or

2. Spend 15 minutes being lectured to by a bunch of primary school children about the dangers of speed.

The children were waiting in a safe spot round the corner, split into small groups with Police and teachers in attendance. They had obviously been primed as to the dangers of speed and were saying to drivers things like "If you drive at 38 you might one day kill me".

This seems to be a particularly thought provoking new strategy - what does the collective make of it?
 
Could work very well with some drivers , but might be an easy option and 'water off a ducks back' to others ?
 
Could work very well with some drivers , but might be an easy option and 'water off a ducks back' to others ?

I supect that the police are doing their best to "filter out" the water off a ducks back kind of driver and not giving them this option.
 
Kidz shud b in class lurning to spell proper and not speeking to strange adultz who mite want to tuch kidz and stuff.
 
It would be a lot cheaper to change the signs to 40 mph surely, somebody needs to do costings on this one.

Tcchh, local government.
 
I'm not sure I'd be entirely happy with my primary aged child spending time doing this.

Not only due to the kind of characters he/she might get exposed to but also due to the fact that he'd become a clockwatching back seat driver from there on in.

You are right about the 40 zone. It was a 40 limit for many years. It is a rural road which is straight for 2-3 miles with particularly good visibility and very little pedestrian traffic. Having worked here for 11 years I cant recall any major accidents when the limit was higher.
 
In all seriousness, it's a fair enough idea. I hope the time outside the classroom was caught up at another time :)
 
Bad idea in my opinion. Puts the children in a position which cannot be predicted, and really seems abit desperate. If it was my daughter I'd rather she be learning something rather than educating drivers.

She's already a bit too back seat for me. "Daddy why does that sign always look sad when you go past. It smile for mummy when she goes slower, so why don't you just slow down..."
 
You are right about the 40 zone. It was a 40 limit for many years. It is a rural road which is straight for 2-3 miles with particularly good visibility and very little pedestrian traffic.

So is there actually a primary school in the vicinity?
 
gimmicky and an abuse of children
 
So is there actually a primary school in the vicinity?

There is a primary school about a mile away down a side road. I dont see kids walking to or from school though, they probably walk through the park.
 
I don't like the idea. Either 38mph in a 30mph zone is an offence or it is not. I agree with franey... either change the limit to 40mph (with the concomitant that the limit is enforced) or do the drivers who exceed the 30mph limit. Variable justice, depending on the circumstances as perceived by a police officer is hardly justice.

I subscribe to the notion that police officers should have discretion but how different from 30mph is 38mph? It is 23% more and I would think that shows an intent to exceed the limit rather than accidentally straying over it. Intent is a part of the offence and together with the act, I would prefer to see the drivers done for it.

It may give them pause for thought the next time they see a 30mph speed limit sign, which may not be on such an isolated road. How hard is it to stick within the limit? If the road needs to be re-classified, there is probably some sort of procedure in place for dealing with the issue. Speeding being used as a means of changing the classification and use of a road is never going to be accepted because local people will not necessarily know about the change.
 
For some people it would depend if any of the kids were fit :D
 
South Yorkshire been doing it over 5 years as part of the Drivealive programme that educates school children on the dangers of the incorrect or inappropriate use of speed. SOuth Yorkshire fire service run a similar programme where they do the aftermath of an accident and cut someone out of the car with the ambulance service in attendance,

In my book any education is good and you can't start too young
 
They had obviously been primed as to the dangers of speed and were saying to drivers things like "If you drive at 38 you might one day kill me".
This is part of a strategy to influence the behaviour future drivers (i.e. the primary school kids that are doing the "lecturing"). The trouble is, kids are trusting souls and at that age do not posess the reasoning capacity to identify that the "problem" may just as well be with an inappropriate limit as it is with people exceeding what is posted.

Personally, I feel slightly uncomfortable about recruiting kids to the task of applying emotional blackmail to adults. Hitler fully understood the power that could be harnessed in the future by investing a particular message in children and look where that ended up.
 

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