Uncle Joe would have been proud.
Drivers caught speeding outside a Birmingham school were shamed by a ‘kids’ court’ of pupils – who asked: “Do you realise you could have killed us?”
Motorists clocked breaking the 20mph limit agreed to face a panel of Montgomery Primary youngsters instead of being hit with a £100 fine and three penalty points.
But the 16 drivers soon realised it was no soft option as they were grilled by nine and ten-year-olds from the Sparkbrook school on Tuesday.
Who the flying fuck thought that this was a remotely good idea? This has all the hallmarks of a communist show trial – a trial conducted by the ignorant. Let’s be clear here, ten year olds do not hold driving licences, so are incompetent. They are not fit to pass judgement and they are not capable of assessing a safe speed – hint; it ain’t the same thing as a speed limit.
As is usual from the hard-of-thinking-speed-kills fuckwits we get the trite slogans about slower being safer. Yeah, try that on the M1. Okay, maybe not on the M1… but you get my point. Going slowly is not necessarily safe. A good driver is assessing the overall conditions and adjusting their speed to the conditions. The question they should be asking themselves is; “can I stop in what I can see to be clear?” Simply slowing to 20mph may well minimise the outcome of an accident, but paying attention to the road rather than the speedometer is more likely to reduce the likelihood of it occurring in the first place.
I wonder how they would have responded if, instead of being contrite, a driver told them straight – they were travelling at a speed such that they could stop in what they could see to be clear, that a speed limit and a safe speed are not the same thing at all and as they were paying attention to the road and traffic conditions, the likelihood of them running one of the obnoxious little brats over was low, due to their paying attention to the road and not the speedometer… Just a thought… But, then, if they had been, they wouldn’t have got caught, so, er, catch 22. Even so, though, why does everyone have to grovel and apologise to these vile people?
So, if I was sufficiently unaware as to get caught in such circumstances, I’d take the £100 fine and points sooner than be ritually humiliated by a bunch of fucking kids and their idiotic handlers.
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Although the link seems to be from an older story, the BBC were showing it this evening.
My reply would have been to point out that I have been driving for over forty years without a single accident. OK, technically three very minor accidents all involving my vehicle being shunted from behind. After the first time, I started taking a lot more notice of what was going on behind me and have probably avoided about twenty similar incidents as a result.
I have gone through amber lights: maybe I could have stopped but the car behind me would have hit me. I have even stopped only to have a following car swerve round me and go through the lights. Has the driver/car behind, following too closely, the same reactions or brake and tyre quality.
On occasion, I have done likewise. On a bike, jumping the lights may be a preferable risk to being shunted. But these cretins cannot comprehend the principles of defensive riding and using hazard awareness to stay alive.
Yea, give me the fine every time. Being berated by a load of snot nosed kids leaves me cold, I know rhe area and school in question and the pupils would be well advised to attend to their studies as the ‘academic quotient’ ‘ in said establishment is exceedingly low.
BTW what’s happening at roundabouts these days? When I learned to drive I was told that if you were taking an exit more than half way round (after 12 o’clock imagining the roundabout as a clock face :)) you took the right hand lane. Nowadays I see people cutting in front or behind me to exit before I do or following me round in the left hand lane.
(I’d have taken the fine, too, as I did when fined for the one and only time for doing 36mph on a rural road, dry with good visibility but with wide bends – I didn’t need their speed awareness course and I wouldn’t be lectured to by 10 year olds).
Multi-lane roundabouts controlled by traffic lights have tended to undermine the correct approach.
Someone elsewhere once remarked that those multi lane jobs are like driving on a sewing pattern. Trouble is when you treat people like idiots who need to have it literally spelt out which lane they should be in, they behave like idiots when they get to the roundabout that The Authorities haven’t yet done.
They’ve also slowed the traffic to a crawl.
There are far too many people who seem to think that the inner lane on the smaller roundabouts is some sort of overtaking lane when going straight ahead. As the exits on these roundabouts are only one lane wide it makes for many near misses.
I guess these are the same people that assume that they can overtake a line of traffic that will magically produce a gap for them when required.
Unfortunately attending the session and telling the righteous little sods to f**k themselves and thier pompous brain-washed “court” is not actually an option.
So it’s not a kids court, it’s a “morality” court manufactured by meddling adults who are manipulating children for thier own purposes. Surely there should be a law against that…
Talking of roundabouts, while using them it seems to be the norm to either not signal at all or to signal in the opposite direction to the one you are going to turn.
…with a cigarette on their lips, a porn mag sticking out of their pocket and a hip flask to hand? Then sneered at them and said ‘You’ll grow up one day, kids!’.
Well, that’s what I’d have done!
That would be one approach. Another would be to give them a lecture on the difference between an arbitrary speed limit and a safe speed along with an explanation of the importance of defensive driving; observing the road and traffic conditions instead of having one’s eyes glued to the speedometer in order to comply with an arbitrary speed limit. I doubt they would have liked that too much, either.
…and ignoring the fact that some of these little shits deserve killing – especially the ones who walk out straight in front of your car which playing with their fucking phones!
As usual, this approach is fine for the hard of thinking.
So, a child is indoctrinated with the lefty premise that it is always someone else’s fault. If you step out into the road without looking it’s someone else’s fault if their speedometer shows 21mph (they’re actually then doing 18mph).
Kids round here will deliberately walk out in front of you if you’ve made eye contact and they’re sure you can stop, regardless of your speed. It’s called “chicken” and is promulgated by this sort of lefty crap.