Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:26 pm
The bus pulls up and pedestrians cross in front of it. They can't see the tailgater as he's hidden behind the bus, and he pulls out without looking and promptly runs them over.
This isn't theoretical - I've seen pretty much the same on the pelican crossing around here (in that case the tailgater also ran a red light, but that seems to be par for the course for these kinds of drivers..). Luckily at that time nobody was killed.
Heck, pedestrians crossing in front of buses is one of the things that a good driver should be looking out for, because it's not uncommon at all... and in a pedestrianised area (where you can reasonably expect that the traffic will be slow moving buses and taxis who will be *expecting* pedestrians, not suicidal chelsea tractor owners) it's all the more likely.
A 10 year old isn't responsible for their actions (and at 10 I probably did a few stupid things as well). A 4x4 driver is very responsible and it's better to stop them now than clean up afterwards. Fines don't stop them.. after all what's £60 when they paid 200 times that for the car? Points might, eventually. Queue lots of angry letters to the daily mail complaining that the police should be going after 'real criminals' and the old 'i need the car to do my job' gambit.
Notice that in one of the videos one woman had a child in the back. She seemed concerned *after* failing to outrun the barrier, but curiously not before wilfully putting the child in danger. I'm not sure there *is* a punishment too extreme for such behaviour (well OK maybe bringing back the death penalty for traffic offences might be a *bit* extreme).
This isn't theoretical - I've seen pretty much the same on the pelican crossing around here (in that case the tailgater also ran a red light, but that seems to be par for the course for these kinds of drivers..). Luckily at that time nobody was killed.
Heck, pedestrians crossing in front of buses is one of the things that a good driver should be looking out for, because it's not uncommon at all... and in a pedestrianised area (where you can reasonably expect that the traffic will be slow moving buses and taxis who will be *expecting* pedestrians, not suicidal chelsea tractor owners) it's all the more likely.
A 10 year old isn't responsible for their actions (and at 10 I probably did a few stupid things as well). A 4x4 driver is very responsible and it's better to stop them now than clean up afterwards. Fines don't stop them.. after all what's £60 when they paid 200 times that for the car? Points might, eventually. Queue lots of angry letters to the daily mail complaining that the police should be going after 'real criminals' and the old 'i need the car to do my job' gambit.
Notice that in one of the videos one woman had a child in the back. She seemed concerned *after* failing to outrun the barrier, but curiously not before wilfully putting the child in danger. I'm not sure there *is* a punishment too extreme for such behaviour (well OK maybe bringing back the death penalty for traffic offences might be a *bit* extreme).