Welcome to Wales :o(

Originally Posted by Baph

I About the 'copter. It's such a bad state of affairs that I can catch a bird flying out of the corner of my eye & do a double take to see if it's the helicopter or not.

Wow, that's got to be a seriously expensive way of 'Roads Policing', who the heck is paying for that?

Originally Posted by Tiger 55

Wow, that's got to be a seriously expensive way of 'Roads Policing', who the heck is paying for that?

Erm, do you need to ask that?

£30 per fine. £1500 cost to take off. 500 tickets, lets call it 700 for arguments sake, and hey, you broke even!

Fudge packers!

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Tiger 55

Wow, that's got to be a seriously expensive way of 'Roads Policing', who the heck is paying for that?

Local council tax payers. N. Wales Police Precept (part of Council Tax) is one of highest in the land and had a massive rise this year. The rest of it comes from scamera vans (joke)

[mister c]

Originally Posted by Baph

I ride with a 7x5, and have a well rehersed conversation
Do you know why I've stopped you?
No idea officer, please, enlighten me.

If they say about my plate (7x5), sorry officer, the plate came with the bike, I've no idea about the law, can you please explain to me why it's illegal? (Just a little test to see if they know the law that they're enforcing)

Make life hard for them to pin anything on you, never admit to anything, unfortunately Mister_c, you were caught dozing.


As Mike said, that site is accurate, and actually, is a bookmark that pop's up on my office computer automagically every day at 5:20. Strange that.

About the 'copter. It's such a bad state of affairs that I can catch a bird flying out of the corner of my eye & do a double take to see if it's the helicopter or not.

Seen a couple of unmarked cars recently round these parts. Don't hold me to it, but an N reg Mondeo (silver), and a 52 plate people carrier in red are but two Oh yea, and lets not forget the nice guy driving the 4x4 (Warrior type) that I undertook over the speed limit

I did try the "I bought it with it already on", but, yes I was caught dozing (or being dozy, which isnt hard)
Lesson to self
Think before speaking

Originally Posted by Baph

Erm, do you need to ask that?

Yes, it's a pathological thing

I just can't make the arithmetic stack up that's all but obviously someone somewhere can

I was in Sussex a couple of years ago when the cops were doing Operation Ride. That was basically the helicopter loafing about looking for bikers breaking the law and then talking the Traffic guys onto them, but it was a publicised, short term thing designed to scare us straight not an ongoing costs a fortune ****es everybody off thing. Don't make no sense to me

I was out and about yesterday too and saw the same police cars lurking on and around the A5 and that blasted helicopter hovering above.

http://www.north-wales.police.uk/en/....asp?DID=39181

and,

http://www.north-wales.police.uk/en/....asp?DID=39180

If you look through some of the other entries in the heli-log, it seems that for the majority of time the only success the helicopter has catching anyone actually breaking the law it at the Ponderosa!!!

The local Plod's official line on bikes, take it as you like:

Originally Posted by Operation Focus

In North Wales we have witnessed over the past few years a responsible change in attitudes and behaviour of motor cycle riders resulting in casualty reduction.
Education and enforcement have been influential in this, but over the past week the unfortunate deaths of two motor cyclists have reiterated that we cannot relent on our intention to reduce collisions through all means possible.
Those that wish to take on board the safe riding message can do so through BikeSafe and other road safety organisations, those that chose to ride irresponsibly will be pursued by North Wales Police.
The fear is that further lives will be lost unless motorcyclists ride safely and lawfully.
To tackle the issue North Wales Police will continue to undertake a high visibly enforcement approach, as part of Operation Focus.
Superintendent Terry Stanton said: “The objective of Operation Focus is to reduce motorcyclist casualties and deaths.
We will continue to be actively involved in and engage with motorcyclists via the educationally based BikeSafe initiative. Indeed we are supporting a North Wales Motor Cycle Alliance event at the Ponderosa on the Horse Shoe Pass on Sunday April 30th, to raise awareness of motorcycling issues and safety in North Wales.”
The main intention of BikeSafe is to draw attention to the vulnerability of motor cyclists and how they can reduce the risk to themselves.
"In addition we will be targeting, with a view to prosecution, all those that ride or drive dangerously, at excess speed, overtake on solid white lines or commit any other road traffic offences,” said Supt Stanton.
North Wales Police Roads Policing will be in the area, both as a visible presence, and with less obvious enforcement technology. The helicopter, which is equipped with a powerful video camera, will be in the air monitoring riding/driving standards and measuring speed.
Superintendent Stanton added:
“Please take care, put simply, we don’t want to see any more people getting killed or injured on the roads in North Wales".

[Quiff Wichard]

Originally Posted by kwak zzr

when i had my off quiff the old bill were totally useless! no statement off the lieing git of a third party or nowt i think there shift was ending at 6am.

really?

mind u one of the lads on the staffordshire forum had an off and said similar.

was on April fools day !... (true) and the third party corsa driver that T boned him hasn even reported t0 to his insurance yet!

how can a copter catch you?? does it have speed detection kit in it proving the speed?? if not it is flawed and any challenge to it would surley lead to it being dropped in court?

[Bluepete]

Simple maths really, speed equals distance over time. Those white squares on the road are not decoration, they are a set distance apart. If you time the vehicle between those marks, you have an average speed over that distance. Cop cars are fitted with VASCAR; Vehicle Average Speed Calculator And Recorder. The parrafin pidgeon just uses a VASCAR with the distance set in the memory.
Just remember everyone, the average cost of a fatal road traffic collision is one million pounds. That money comes out of the budget for the force it occurs in. So, whilst the helicopter does cost a fortune to run, it doesn't take a braniac to work out that if it prevents one or two fatals just by being there, then it is a worthwhile means of policing.
And just to hammer it home, just imagine loosing a Dad or brother due to a speed related crash. Surely preventing that horror is worth whatever it costs? (after all, we all read the threads and add our RIP's don't we?)