On only one occasion did I interact in a negative way with an MoD Police Officer on public roads and telling him to get on with his day job and not play at being a traffic officer didn’t go down particularly well. I was later invited to have a conversation with his watch commander at my then place of work. Fortunately this was before the MoD were allowed responsibilities under PACE and the conversation ended there. I later learned the person concerned was not best pleased to have been called out but I never saw him again nor was I picked on afterwards. Sadly you get chancers in all walks of life. Andy
At 2.61 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants the UK compares well with both Italy's 5.35 per 100,000 and the EU average of 7.4. In Saudi Arabia where alcohol is forbidden the death rate is 18.5. Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan also ban alcohol but do not have safer roads than us.
The likelihood is that most MoD Police are ordinary blokes doing their job (though anyone who is a Policeman is always a bit -or a lot- suss imo). But any MoD Police who stops or questions a person offsite of a military installation needs very good grounds PACE or otherwise, imo. Now they can probably make things awkward for us temporarily I imagine, but it wouldn't take very long for me to run out of patience and take the risk. Possibly foolishly, but I'm not someone with any time for the overstepping of authority. Am I right in understanding the Watch Commander was apologising to you?
Italy has had this drink drive limit since 2008/2009, this really is not news! Novice drivers in Italy have been subject to zero alcohol in the body since 2010......
Ooops... sorry! I was told this by an Italian who was visiting yesterday! She said it's just been implemented in her region, and that a lot of drivers now carry these electronic breathalyser devices so they self test before getting behind the wheel. Well, I guess the point is that regardless of when the law came into affect, the the police now seem to be clamping down on it in a big way!
The Watch Commander was prepared to listen to my version of events and accepted his officer might have overstepped his authority. In my experience, in any role that carries authority, some people are good at it, many are no better than average but one or two are not suited and should have been weeded out. Probably the same in any business. Andy
What are you all on about, I can ride like Rossi after a drink or two . (obviously I’m joking and never drink and drive)
I also do not drink and drive , but feel the driving standards , cars with so much going on inside and the lack of road craft can cause problems. Every time I'm out my neck aches as I'm shaking it at all the idiots out there . So many sorry looks on pull outers , wanderers and junction pushers....
Yep I totally agree, the standard of driving is generally terrible now. Too many gadgets and too many distractions.
My favourite from a few years ago...... I was travelling to assist another Officer driving a fully marked Volvo V70 on blues and twos, along a straight stretch of single carriageway A road. Coming towards me was a coach, no other vehicles in front of me. Imagine my dismay when a car suddenly appears from behind the coach ( he was following that close I couldn't see him! ) and pulls out to overtake the coach - I'm travelling at over 100mph by the way. Luckily for both of us I manage to get right over to the nearside using the 2 feet of tarmac inside the white edge marking and knock off a hell of a lot of my speed ( Volvo ABS is quite good! ) as the coach did the same and miss him..... your life flashing in front of your eyes doesn't come close. Unfortunately for the other driver, my assistance call was cancelled about 30 seconds later so I was able to do a quick 180 and go and catch him up for a quick chat..... The driver of the car used the excuse that his satnav showed him that the road ahead was straight so he thought it would be ok to overtake the coach as it was going slowly. Sadly for him, the videos from both my car and the coach didn't help him when he went not guilty at Court! He actually used that excuse to the bench too as to why his driving was not dangerous.
Regarding drugs & driving. When I used to commute, a good 5 miles of the trip was filtering in a heavy traffic urban environment and it was an unusual day if I didn't smell dope smoke chimneying out of a car/van window. More often than not it was three of four instances and surprisingly often first thing in the morning. The same happened on the A roads & not only when there was a slow moving traffic queue, you could even smell it when overtaking at speed. Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against the old weed and have previously used, although ahem, only teensy weensy amounts & never inhaled of course. But this always smelt like high strength skunk/sensi to me (or what ever it's called nowadays). You know, the stuff that disconnects your increasingly wobbly legs from your brain & requires you to hold on to summat or perhaps lie down for a moment or two.
France is also doing a lot more road side checks this year after an increase last year in RTA fatalities and drivers involved failing either breathalyser tests or drug tests.
I used to notice the same commuting into London on the bike, very often builders vans. I never understood how they ever got any work done!
As you roll off the ferry at Hook of Holland, crossing from Harwich, customs are entitled to breathalyse you before allowing you on Dutch roads. And actually do sometimes. So don't overdo the duty frees on the crossing.
replying to my own post, and off topic, but just reminded of stories of cows getting drunk due to eating lots of wind fall apples which go on to ferment in their stomachs, must be quite a sight although acidosis can lead to lameness and even death apparently.
With so many drivers under the influence of booze and weed it's amazing how low the death rate is on the roads. I assume that the reason we have the limit we do is that below that level the degradation in the standard of driving is insignificant. Once cows start driving we are in a whole different world.
I watched a program years ago that did a study on drivers under the influence, they had people driving in a controlled environment some over the drink drive limit and some using mobile phones. The results were very similar. My pet hate is people using their phone while driving especially after I got hit by a twat making a phone call, slightly off topic but hey ho.
And also faffing about with either the sat nav and the ubiquitous centrally located touch screen control panel. I'll never know why the latter is deemed to be safe fitment.
