Caught on Camera - Social Death?

[RobBrady]

Caught on Camera - Social Death?

There was a steep decline in road fatalities achieved in the 1980s.

A number of reasons have been associated with this success, not least the major reductions in drink driving fatalities following sustained Government campaigns and more stringent enforcement.

For those that aren't old enough to remember, many motorists of the last generation found it acceptable to drink and drive, often freely admitting to friends and family about how much they had to drink before they drove home from the pub. It seems unbelievable now, but what was acceptable then (to some, not all) seems appalling now.

Do you remember when people asked you if you wanted 'One for the road'? Also, it was often a cursory decision between couples about who had less to drink and therefore drive home at the end of the night. The conversation would typically be about getting caught - not getting killed or killing.

Clearly attitudes concerning the law can change; it will be interesting how attitudes to being 'flashed' by a speed camera change over the coming years. Nowadays, it seems that most people freely admit to being caught speeding by cameras, yet many admit to agreeing with the premise that speed kills.

Would admitting to being caught speeding by a camera embarrass you? Please answer in the poll above and use the post reply button below to comment.

Do you think that speeding will go the same way as drink-driving?

[ZenithUK]

There is a massive uphill struggle to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink-driving. As long as a majority of society consider speeding acceptable, it isn't going to change any day soon.

I personally have no qualms about telling people I've been snapped because it is unusual if you *haven't* been snapped in my neck of the woods (North Wales).

[nej]

Zenith is right - I know more people with points than without, it's become so common due to the ludicrous number of cameras. Nowhere near so many people have been caught drink-driving.

This raises a couple of points:

1 - People see speeding as Ok, as long as they are not driving dangerously
2 - People don't drink and drive as much as they used to, as they realise they will not be able to adequatly control the vehicle.
3 - Speed cameras are only good at catching people speeding, regardless of how safely they are doing it, they are no good at catching drunks. Even if there were as many drunk-drivers as speeders, they still would escape detection unless they were also speeding. Yet a drunk-driver is far more likely to kill than a speeder.

I happily admit to having 3 points on my licence, and happily admit to having had 6 more in the past that have been gone for several years. But was I driving at all dangerously when doing it? Lets see:
Fine1 - 45mph in a 30 zone at about half-past midnight. Very few cars on the (straight, wide) road, caught by a policeman hiding in a hedge.
Fine2 - 95mph on the M23 at about 1am. Again, sod-all traffic around and perfectly in control of the car. Pulled over by a police car. Fair cop, perhaps it was a bit fast.
Fine3 - 84mph on the A11 at about 11am. More traffic, but dual-carriageway and again, not causing a danger to anyone. I believe a policeman with a gun would have let that one pass, but the fixed camera did not.

I firmly believe that in all of these situations I was not driving dangerously. Speeding isn't the issue, which is why it isn't a social stigma, but reckless driving is.

[Ste2]

Admitting it wouldn bother me, id just be id got caught after having the dual protection of the PGPSW database on my pda, and the cheetah radar detector!

Ste

[iankb]

I don't see being known as a speeder is necessarily a social stigma, although having nine points on your licence is likely to raise a question on your intelligence.

I was a university student before drink-driving laws and national speed limits were brought in and, as a student, drink-driving seemed perfectly natural and permissable. However, cars were much slower, roads were a lot less crowded (especially at night), and there was no macho element in driving fast. Boy racers and hot hatchbacks just didn't exist. People drove slowly when they had been drinking and, in my memory, accidents were far fewer, and relatively minor.
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[neil01]

While most people accept that driving while unfit to do so is unacceptable (and I don't just mean drink), speeding will always be a more difficult problem.

While to most, driving too fast is unacceptable, the speed limits as set are at best inconsistent, and while this situation remains, strict enforcement of 'inapropriate' limits is unlikely to be universally accepted.

We are currently lumbered with (in the most cases) fixed speed limits which result in many anomalies I give an example:

Most areas around schools have a 30mph speed limit, but, where this has been implemented for no other reason than the fact of the school entrance, it is not required for the vast majority of the time. Schools are closed for 13 weeks of the year (a quarter), 2 days a week during term time, and in most cases pupils are only at risk for probably less than 3 hours in the school day.

Yet a driver doing 40mph at 4am on a clear summer morning is supposedly committing a heneous offence in some peoples eyes, but a driver doing 29mph while the pavements are overflowing with children is driving responsibly - I think not!

[dunk]

How about the idiot the other day, overtook two cyclists and a traffic island on the wrong side just because he or she could't wait a few seconds for the cyclists to get passed the island. But must have been going at the correct speed limit as the camera sitting next to all this didn't flash.
Shame they wern't going at 3miles over the limit!
dunk

[neil01]

Couldn't agree more. These days, it seems that you can drive as dangerously as you like, but so long as you keep within the speed limit you are OK.

[jazzyj]

its like anything, penalise the honest, and the dodgy 1's go free.
they r more concerned about people going a bit over the limit than the illegle imagrants that come over here and drive a car with no insurance , tax or mot. these are the real danger to the roads, as they proberly dont even know how to drive!!

as i past along the a13 the other week, there was 2 great big car transporters full of cars that the police had took because of no insurance etc.....

thats the right direction in my opinion, not doing people for speeding on a motor way at 1am .



j

[jazzyj]

[rjbsec]

[iankb]

[jazzyj]

[Johnny_D]

[Aitch2]

As someone once said: "They can't catch the criminals - so they criminalise those they can catch!"

Aitch
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