Different Sort of Speed

[MisterD]

Of course it hadn't occurred to him that the reasonable and courteous thing to do was to pull over and let us pass.

That's what really winds me up about this whole speed campaign thing. It's not about speed (fast or slow), it's about awareness of you and your machine's capabilities, the road, the weather and other road users.

[Indoo]

Regardless of the possible advantages of this "dob in" initiative (and I can see that in some special cases it could help prevent a tragedy), it is another nail in the coffin of human dignity, self-respect and justice. When I was a kid the accusation of "snitching" on someone was about the worst you could make.
Are the police so desperate that they are willing to turn us into a nation of informers?

Theres no human dignity, self-respect or justice dying on the side of the road to a drunk or dangerous driver because people didn't want to be 'snitches' and turned a blind eye instead.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectID=10363054

[Ixion]

I'm opposed to the whole dobbing in thing. In my experience the most self-righteous drivers (and riders ?) are the most incompetant.The validity of a complaint must surely be directly determined by the competance and experience of the complainant? How do the police assess that. Or do they just take Mr Doddery Plonker's opinion of speed, safety etc as gospel?

And the drink driver issue is a red herring. "Dobbing in" a drunk driver is pointless. The written/web site dob in takes days to action, and in my experience (and I have tried it) the *555 is a complete waste of time. I have been told (on what i believe to be reliable authority) that it is pure window dressing, nothing is ever done about the calls.

One could try calling 111 , but what use is a taxi going to be to deal with a drunk driver ? And it hardly qualifies as an emergency , and anyway, how is the complainant to know whether the driver is drunk or not ?

[WRT]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectID=10363054

I notice there was no mention of the driver having sped in that article - I'm not intending to make light of a serious situation, but would he have been pulled over by an officer if he had been speeding for 360k's?

I would hazard a speculation that it would be difficult to travel more than 300k's at excessive speeds without getting pulled over, but apparently you can travel 300k's driving excessively badly, and not get noticed by the law, only by other motorists.

[madboy]

WRT, it's luck that allows you to speed for 300k without getting pinged... some days it's on your side, other days it's not. Ah... the good ole days of Wgtn-Auck midnight runs.

Ixion, from what I've heard listening to the scanner over the years, *555 calls if deemed appropriate are passed on to the troops. Unfortunately mostly the cops either don't have time to react, are in the wrong place to react, or the informant provides too little information or doesn't follow the car, meaning it's location is unknown by the time the cops catch up.

I've been pulled years ago as a result of some slow-moving prat in a Rav4 taking exception to the fact that I passed him in my bright red sportscar. When he called it in, it was a car full of hoons passing on a blind corner. How two guys with a girl in the back fill a car I'm not sure, and I am not the sort of car driver who passes on blind corners. Needless to say the cops waiting down the road were dead keen to have a chat. My passenger, no shrinking violet, was about ready to punch out the middle-aged guy in the Rav4 by the time he pulled up for the horseshit he told. Cops saw it for what it was and no further action was taken. I'm just glad he wasn't more forceful on checking my ID at the time

[Indoo]

And the drink driver issue is a red herring. "Dobbing in" a drunk driver is pointless. The written/web site dob in takes days to action, and in my experience (and I have tried it) the *555 is a complete waste of time. I have been told (on what i believe to be reliable authority) that it is pure window dressing, nothing is ever done about the calls.

One could try calling 111 , but what use is a taxi going to be to deal with a drunk driver ? And it hardly qualifies as an emergency , and anyway, how is the complainant to know whether the driver is drunk or not ?

Its funny that if dobbing in a drunk driver is so pointless that so many drunk drivers actually get caught as a direct result of someone reporting them or following them until a patrol car can catch up. All reports of drunk drivers get dispatched over the main radio channel and when the caller is following the driver a patrol car will be dispatched to try and catch the idiot, whether they are reported via 555 or 111.

Might wanna check your sources in future.

[Swoop]

Of course it hadn't occurred to him that the reasonable and courteous thing to do was to pull over and let us pass.

That's what really winds me up about this whole speed campaign thing. It's not about speed (fast or slow), it's about awareness of you and your machine's capabilities, the road, the weather and other road users.

Exactly!!! Spot on!!! SOMEONE HERE GETS IT!!!
The common (99,99%) fuckwit kiwi driver, does NOT think of anyone else on the road but him/her...

Doing 70kmh on the open road IS FINE!!! So long as that person is AWARE of others on the road...

OK. Rant over. Bling on its way!

[cowboyz]

I saw an awesome display of driving. I passed a POS 80s somthing mitz just out of town and that must have upset him. I was cruising at 110 and all of a sudden he came past me like a bat outta hell. Then he carried on passing everything he could. It wasn't like he was going fast because I stayed at 110 and never lost sight of him but he would come up behind cars very quickly and slam on the brakes. Then when there was a gap in the trafficc (which there was a bit of) he would pull out in such a fashion that the body roll on the car was incredibly obvious. I think he was using the full lock to full lock passing technique. Then you could hear him "gunning" it although his car didn't seem to want to go as fast as he wanted it to go. Double yellow lines didn't mean much to this guy either.

[ManDownUnder]

Just thank God they're not the Army... they'd be allowed to play with guns...

[Pixie]

Driving along the road between Waiuku and Drury in my cage, well hardly a cage its really a "looser Cruiser" 8 seater, (Yeah I know). Anyway its a 100K speed limit with few passing lanes on a nice sunny day and some fucken moron has decided that 75-80 KPH is the order of the day and he also believes that moving over towards the shoulder is out of the question. Very shortly me an looser Cruiser are in the middle of a conger line behind Mr "the rest of the world doesnt exist" afore mentioned moron.. I am musing over this guys attitude and realise Im there for the duration (looser cruiser is a diesel) when in the mirror, overtaking into on coming traffiic, is Mr "I need to extend my penis with this HSV" followed by Mr "My patience has run out and I'm gonna take risks with everyone elses lives as well" and not too far behind is Miss "I think I'll just tag along" in my boyfriends skyline. They are overtaking in areas that I wouldnt do on beloved Bandit. The remainder of my journey is spent thinking about me, coming the other way, facing one of these dicks on a motorcycle or even worse my family coming the other way in the looser cruiser. So who are the biggest villains here?
I am sure the Rozzers will pick up on the dangerous passing but do they have the lateral thought (doesn't take much) to see that the guy holding up the traffic, whilst far from speeding, is travelling at an inappropriate speed.

You think that's bad.Last week I looked out of my lounge window to see a cop passing a line of a dozen cars doing 80 kmh.
Highway 16,in the wet, poor visiblity,on a blind corner with a blind crest and potential fast oncoming traffic he couldn't see.
If he did have a head on,I wonder how they would white wash that one?