The Visit.
I was given the opportunity today, 17th September 1999,
to visit Aylesbury Police Station, and meet the officers behind
the wheel of those Police Traffic Cars and Bikes you either love
or hate.
The first thing I noticed was how welcoming they
all were. The tea was on the table before I arrived, very welcoming
after a 4am start to arrive for the shift on time.
The most concerning thing I noticed
as a tax payer is how understaffed and swamped in paperwork the
Traffic Team was. Half a dozen of them covered a large part of Thames
Valley, Not a bad thing I hear you say. Well if you are a speeder
then I guess so, but if you are a victim of an accident or want
the help of the police, it could be bad news.
After being introduced to the members
of the team and also the Accident Investigation department, I was
shown some of the equipment they use for speed enforcement.
The first item was the LTI 20-20 Laser
gun, this unit was well used showing signs of paint loss, Graham
was quite enthusiastic with this bit of kit. He showed me how they
do a pre-check before they take it out, next was the VASCAR 5000
unit.
We then headed off to a nice straight
stretch of road just outside Aylesbury, he planned to show me how
the equipment was best used.
The car being used to transport this
equipment was a Vauxhall Senator MV6, with big letters on it saying
'POLICE' and rather large orange stripes. Easy to spot you say,
well I would have thought so, it did not take long to see how blind
some drivers are.
10 minutes into the journey Graham
pulled his first punter, a moron that decided to overtake two cars
and a lorry before pulling up behind another car that was following
the Police Car. So what you think, well the two cars and the lorry
were all indicating to take a right turn.
When stopped the driver said, he neither saw the vehicles indicating,
nor did he see the big bright police car. Makes you wonder!
We pulled into a layby, we had at
least 1000m view of the road, a nice straight road with a 60mph
limit, in fact this road was a speeders top 10 road.
First was the laser gun. Standing
on the side of the road with his high visibility vest on, not behind
a bush or sign, but in plain view, Graham was targeting vehicles
in the sight of the Laser gun that I could not even see. A dot on
the horizon you could say. With the steady hand of a trained Marksman,
Blip went the gun, 59 mph, at over 750mtrs distance. I was impressed,
he smiled as he told me that they can do 1km, but that takes a bit
of doing he said. I got the impression there is a bit of competition
over who can do the best distance.
None of the car drivers knew, until
it was to late.
One of Grahams colleges joined us,
he was also in a Senator, he was here to do a test run, he traveled
at 60 mph according to the calibrated speedometer towards us, blip
went the gun, 59 mph was the speed. Now that's pretty good, I was
told that if he were doing 59.9 mph, the laser gun would report
59 mph, so its in favor of the driver, by a small amount
He passed the unit to me, the first
thing you notice is how heavy it is, looking through the sight you
get a very bright red dot. The rules are simple put that red dot
between the wheels on the oncoming car, target the numberplate,
pull the trigger and wait for the high pitched blip. In fact, you
don't wait at all, in 0.3 of a second you know what speed and the
distance the target vehicle is doing. It was frighteningly easy.
They don't even have to point the
gun at you to get a reading, by pointing the laser at two different
points, getting the distance between them, they can use it just
like a VASCAR.
How you say, well, once the unit knows
the distance between the two points, you use the trigger at the
starting point and the finish point as the vehicle crosses each,
the gun can be facing the ground at this point, it will calculate
the speed.
I asked a question at this point to
clear up a bit myth regarding what speed would be displayed if it
was pointed at a stationary object, this was due to the case in
the US, reported in my site.
Graham pointed it at a parked lorry,
car and a sign all over 150mts away all were stationary, and the
reading was zero in all cases, even when he took a reading when
walking towards the vehicles. So that puts the US case into doubt.
While demonstrating the system, one
driver stood out from the rest, he was pulled over, 85mph was the
speed, foreign driver, who thought he was immune to the UK courts.
The police can prosecute foreign driver, but the way they do it
is, they arrest the driver, bring him up in front of a magistrate
at the earliest possible time, who will deal with the offender accordingly.
He was given a caution.
Well after playing with the Laser
gun, I have no doubt that this system works and works well. A very
recent court case in the UK also proved without doubt the system
is accurate, in fact the defendant ended up paying court costs over
£15,000
The next item was VASCAR, now I thought
I knew all there was to know about this system, but all I knew was
how it worked. How to get the best out of this system was a new
ball game all together.
First was the run to check it and
give me the basics, Graham used fixed points such as a bridge, tyre
skid marks, signs and even a small stone on the road, yes a stone.
Any fixed point will do, he said with
another grin.
As we went under a bridge he set the
starting point for the distance, (the shadow moving over the dash
was the starting point), we carried on down the road into a layby,
and pulled up along side a drain, yep this was the end of the set
distance, the unit was set, he had set what distance he wanted,
but it had to be over the minimum distance for the unit.
Now watching in the rear view mirror
he waited for the first vehicle to come along, anticipating the
point where the vehicle went through the shadow, flick went switch,
and we waited, once again anticipating the point where the vehicle
went past the drain, flick went the switch. We had a speed. Easy
as that.
I watched as Graham timed a few vehicles
and often he would abort the timing because of obstructions.
"We never guess the point the
vehicle crosses the timing marks, if we can't be sure we don't bother
and that driver is lucky" he said. He showed me that now
he has a distance between two fixed points he could even get drivers
in the opposite direction.
Human error on VASCAR, well I thought
it could make quite a bit of difference to the speed reading, a
quick demonstration on how not to do it, showed a speed that was
not much higher.
Remember these guys are professionals,
highly trained and skilled in there jobs, they know how to use the
equipment to its best.
So what next, well I brought with me
some of the free stuff sent to me by manufactures of defensive equipment,
in this case a Laser Jammer, $480 worth of jammer 400mtrs to 10mtrs
cover they say. With a simple two minute installation.
We all wanted to see if it worked.
We fitted it to our test car, as per the instructions supplied and
off we went, four runs down the road later and I was sure glad I
never bought it.
Graham just smiled and said we have
not seen anything that works yet. He then went to tell me a story
about a driver with a £500 Detector, Radar and Laser. He complained
when he was stopped that it never went off, and to make matters
worse, when they pointed the Laser gun at it with only a few inches
between the units it still never went off.
Back to the station we went, a quick
snack, and another chat.
Now what did I think of the morning
with the police, well, it opened my eyes.
These guys are without doubt well-trained
and highly skilled drivers. They have to do many jobs within their
roll as a Traffic officer, with very few resources and little thanks.
Paperwork seems to swamp them at the best of times. But when most
would give up, they keep going. They show a large amount of leniency
towards drivers, so if they stop you its for a good solid reason.
If you think all they do is hide waiting
for the speeders, then think again, its not what I saw. They don't
need to hide, most drivers on the stretch of road we were on did
not even see us, looking no further than their bonnet, braking the
speed limit, overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic in fact
all sorts of stupid driving.
They are real human beings not a robot
wanting to nick every speeder in the land. They nearly all disagree
with some of the speed limits set around our country, and often
refuse to enforce them. I saw only cautions given rather than tickets
this morning, for offences that should have got a ticket in my eyes.
Instead they got a lecture, and most of the time going in one ear
and out the other.
Remember if you don't see a bright
well-marked police car, what hope do you have in seeing something
happening or obstructing the road in front of you that could kill
you.
Treat them with grace and the respect
they deserve, one day you may need them.
"We're here to make the roads a
safer and better place, we only want the drivers that drive badly,
showing no respect to other road users", one officer told me.
What made the most impact today was
listening to them talking about having to tell relatives of accident
victims that a member of there family has just been killed, you
could hear it in the voice and see it in their eyes.
Some spoke of sleepless nights, where
they could still hear the screams and crying of the mother, father,
daughter or son getting the news that a member of their family was
dead.
All we see most of the time is the
flowers on the road, what impact does that have? None.
No one wants that job, but they always
end up doing it. Don't give them a reason to have to tell your family.
Drive with common sense. They have
had one fatal accident a month in the last year which has been speed
related, not necessarily over the speed limit either and all the
victims have had a family to inform.
One very good point was put across
to me...
"You may be doing what you consider a safe speed,
a speed that could be over the limit, you may not be the one to
have that crash or cause that crash. But someone somewhere has your
name marked, and if you can't react in time because of his or her
mistake, you could become a killer or you could die".
Do you really want to pay that price?
What I saw and heard today has made
an impact, an impact that will make me think about my actions. I
like to thank the team at Aylesbury for giving me the time and opportunity
to have an insight to what goes on. To clear the myth up.
Keep up the good work lads.
And thank you.
On
Reading the above I got a reply from Graham the Traffic Officer
who showed me round....
I have read your report from
Friday, thanks for an honest view.
I have to admit that I was
moved to tears concerning the families that we so often have to
inform. The task never gets any easier, if anything it gets harder
every time.
There will always be a few
rotten apples in the barrel but we will have no time for them,
the officers that you met are all good guys and we work and play
hard together. We are, at the end of the day, family men who,
despite popular belief, actually care. My son was almost killed
in an accident a few years ago and because of my wife's excellent
police training he is alive today.
Thanks for a well balanced
and honest report. It does do you credit.
Regards and keep in touch,
Graham