Scottish Elises

The boys went skiing today to Cairngorm, left at 0530, and as there were three of them they went in Euan's car as opposed to Ian's TT. The washers were frozen up, so they were stopping every so often to clean the windscreen, but when they reached Aviemore they were pulled in, and Euan was given three points and a £60 fine for having a dirty windscreen. He was in a queue of traffic with most in the same condition, but he was in the car with three young drivers, albeit in a brand new Ibiza. Ian phoned me and I managed to calm him down before he did something silly whilst they were charging Euan.

The cop car then shot off to pull another car in, overtook the one in front and most of you know what the Aviemore main road is like, and almost put a car off the road coming in the opposite direction. Ian phoned again and said that he was going to stop and SPEAK to them, but again I persuaded him to just take the reg no, and Euan's father and I would deal with it.

Will call my number one son tomorrow who is a CDI in the Met and check the procedure for putting a formal complaint in. Looks as if they have reached a new low.

tut

ps posting on Luke's netbook so it came up with his sig.

tut

That is soo crappy - how the f#ck is anyone supposed to keep a windscreen clear when temps are into minus 5 and more
Despite having almost pure windscreen de-icer in the washers mine has still frozen several times and required a stop to clear the screen.

Good luck with your complaint Tut, its not often I would say it but 'have they got nothing better to do'

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck with appeal if possible

I heard that all the guff with excessive snow on windscreen and getting points was all nonsense and hype...

scottishselise wrote:I heard that all the guff with excessive snow on windscreen and getting points was all nonsense and hype...

It does sometimes happen but really only when someone hasn't made any effort and is viewing through a letterbox or has 6 inches of snow piled on the roof.
Most reasonable cops will come and go a bit given the extreme conditions of late.

I wouldn't hold out any hope on the complaint, keep at it though (get your stories straight and ask difficult questions, good if you can get the name of the guy he nearly ran off the road ) and the officer will get a bollocking behind closed doors

They won't be making any money from speeding fines just now, so will be pulling drivers over and giving them fines for what they prob would overlook normally.

OK. So even if we accept you are biased, and that we accept the cops have a job to do and need to stop folk driving round with a dirty screen.

WTF is wrong with saying "Oi young man clean your f*cking windscreen and be on your way. And if I see you again you are nicked."

3 points is a big deal to some. They have a job to do and that job is not handing out spot fines.

Wankers.

pete wrote:OK. So even if we accept you are biased, and that we accept the cops have a job to do and need to stop folk driving round with a dirty screen.

WTF is wrong with saying "Oi young man clean your f*cking windscreen and be on your way. And if I see you again you are nicked."

3 points is a big deal to some. They have a job to do and that job is not handing out spot fines.

Wankers.

Simple Answer - Targets they have to give out so many fines to keep their numbers up, no speeders in this weather so they will be looking at other avenue's If your young your an easy target more likely to find something (even as tenuios as a dirty windscreen) on a young driver than some old guy who gets his skoosher bottle filled by the main dealer.

If your windscreen was dirty then at worst he is a jobsworth

I didn't know it was endorsable.....shows you how much I know.....
Pity they chose not to use their discretion.
Did Euan say anything to wind them up? How dirty was the screen? Just being nosey!

Unlike Ian, Euan is a calm lad and would not have made a fuss. He is also a very steady driver.

As you say, as a policeman you did not know it was an endorsable offence, and I doubt if any of us did. It makes sense to clean your windscreen if you can not see, but windscreen washer only works down to a certain level and it was -12 there today. You can not stop every time the car in front kicks sludge up at you.

They also went right over the car to see if there was anything else they could get him on, but of course you would not expect them to recognise that the car was two months old. I think that Jen hit the spot, they can not get anybody for speeding in these conditions, so lets get them for anything that we can. What the hell happened to giving advice if they thought that it would be helpful, as used to be the case?

I am not generalising, most of our cops are straight up and do a good job, but there are still some at the other end of the spectrum out there.

tut

Apparently they can do you for having snow on your roof !

They can't. The police made an announcement two weeks ago on the radio after the scaremongering in emails and on Facebook saying that no-one will be fined or given points for having snow on their roof. However, they urge drivers to clear it off anyway in case they have to brake suddenly or if it blows off and hits a driver behind.

Jen

Tut,

Sounds a bit jobsworthy to me - a simple "Can you clean your windscreen please" should have been enough. I'm suspecting that the legislation used was

Section 41D of the Road Traffic Act 1988 - Breach of requirements as to control of vehicle.

A person who contravenes or fails to comply with a construction and use requirement—

(a)as to not driving a motor vehicle in a position which does not give proper control or a full view of the road and traffic ahead, or not causing or permitting the driving of a motor vehicle by another person in such a position, or

(b)as to not driving or supervising the driving of a motor vehicle while using a hand-held mobile telephone or other hand-held interactive communication device, or not causing or permitting the driving of a motor vehicle by another person using such a telephone or other device,

is guilty of an offence. - 3 points and £60.

As for complaints against the Police (Northern in this case) - just call their service centre and say you wish to make a complaint.

jen wrote:They can't. The police made an announcement two weeks ago on the radio after the scaremongering in emails and on Facebook saying that no-one will be fined or given points for having snow on their roof. However, they urge drivers to clear it off anyway in case they have to brake suddenly or if it blows off and hits a driver behind.

Jen

You can't be done for having snow on your roof alone but if the snow is blowing back to other cars, you can be done with careless driving (not showing consideration to other road users) - for snow on the windscreen, see above.

BiggestNizzy wrote:Simple Answer - Targets they have to give out so many fines to keep their numbers up, no speeders in this weather so they will be looking at other avenue's If your young your an easy target more likely to find something (even as tenuios as a dirty windscreen) on a young driver than some old guy who gets his skoosher bottle filled by the main dealer.

I don't know any cops who have "targets"


Chris

Thanks Chris, helpful to get yourselves and Campbell's professional opinion and the RTA that it applies to. It is not my son this time, and I doubt if appealing against the ticket will achieve anything, but I would if I was Euan's father. Most of the time of course you put your hands up for knowingly breaking the law, ie speeding, but I found out after the farcical charges that were laid against Luke that you need not take it lying down. The PF threw both of them out, and hopefully had words with them regarding wasting his time.

As regards the patrol car's driving I will wait until the boys get home, they staid overnight, and get the full story. They were fuming at the time so could be exaggerating.

tut