Guilt aint an emotion you'll need to worry about once you've been close enough to the consequences of PSV/HGV drivers using mobiles. After my closest friend was wiped out in 2005 by an HGV driver using a mobile whilst cycling in broad daylight I have been reporting drivers using a mobile to Northern Constabulary (Highlands), but with special emphasis on vocational drivers,a group that it is especially galling to see acting so recklessly. I have limited the complaints to those where I have got the vehicle registration. On the whole the police have done nothing useful but I have simultaneously emailed where possible the relevant companies, whom I believe now are far more responsible than a few years ago (when it was likely to be reqirement of the job to be taking work calls on the road.) I know one driver of an HGV was summarily dismissed and I can assure you I lost no sleep over that. The situation up here is ceratinly vastly improved and I do not often see vocational drivers using mobiles now.
The problem with the police is that their practices do tend to reflect public concern and the truth is a substantial proportion of the public, who are of course car drivers don't see mobile phone use as a particularly heinous crime and I can be pretty damn certain that ove rthe last 5 years from a population of 0.5million Northern Constabularly has probably only ever received complaints about mobile phone use by drivers from one citizen, me. So it isn't difficult to turn round and defend themselves by saying this isn't a major public concern like for instance drugs or knife crime is.
Police forces may vary but up here they tell us they "record and investigate every reported crime", which is fine because it has allowed me to heap embarassment (and I would say disgrace given that it was on their roads that a criminal act relating to phone use lead to the death of a young man) upon them as many reports I previously made it later emerged were simply binned, leading to complaints, lengthy investiagtions re operational practices and then humiliating apologies and promises that such failures to record and investigate (even without the prospect of prosectution as we accept is generally the case in the absence of corroborative evidence, but I am on the verge of geting a helmet cam) will not recur. However I am just about to follow up my last report to the police 3 weeks ago, which I heard nothing back regarding, and I dare say they have slipped back to their old ways.
I do think that we the public get the policing we deserve and if we cant be bothered complaining about stuff then we cant really be too surprised that the police find excuses to concentrate their efforts on other crime.
It is heartening though to see the high levels of disgust expressed here towards drivers using mobiles. Unfortunately however we are a very unrepresentative section of the population.
Off topic but if you're interested the driver who killed my friend was also speeding at 50%over the limit for the A road and had been for much of his journey. He was prosceuted under Section 3 careless driving, fined a grand, banned for a year and then went back to driving for his firm. The day before the fatal accident inquiry, over a year after the accident, I saw another of the firm's lorries with it's driver blethering on a mobile- the firm escaped any investigation or prosecution over the death.
The problem with the police is that their practices do tend to reflect public concern and the truth is a substantial proportion of the public, who are of course car drivers don't see mobile phone use as a particularly heinous crime and I can be pretty damn certain that ove rthe last 5 years from a population of 0.5million Northern Constabularly has probably only ever received complaints about mobile phone use by drivers from one citizen, me. So it isn't difficult to turn round and defend themselves by saying this isn't a major public concern like for instance drugs or knife crime is.
Police forces may vary but up here they tell us they "record and investigate every reported crime", which is fine because it has allowed me to heap embarassment (and I would say disgrace given that it was on their roads that a criminal act relating to phone use lead to the death of a young man) upon them as many reports I previously made it later emerged were simply binned, leading to complaints, lengthy investiagtions re operational practices and then humiliating apologies and promises that such failures to record and investigate (even without the prospect of prosectution as we accept is generally the case in the absence of corroborative evidence, but I am on the verge of geting a helmet cam) will not recur. However I am just about to follow up my last report to the police 3 weeks ago, which I heard nothing back regarding, and I dare say they have slipped back to their old ways.
I do think that we the public get the policing we deserve and if we cant be bothered complaining about stuff then we cant really be too surprised that the police find excuses to concentrate their efforts on other crime.
It is heartening though to see the high levels of disgust expressed here towards drivers using mobiles. Unfortunately however we are a very unrepresentative section of the population.
Off topic but if you're interested the driver who killed my friend was also speeding at 50%over the limit for the A road and had been for much of his journey. He was prosceuted under Section 3 careless driving, fined a grand, banned for a year and then went back to driving for his firm. The day before the fatal accident inquiry, over a year after the accident, I saw another of the firm's lorries with it's driver blethering on a mobile- the firm escaped any investigation or prosecution over the death.
..
.
.I felt sure one silly bint was going to crash as she was looking down for must have been at least 5-6 seconds without looking up. I hope they get flattened by a fully laden 44 tonner or crash into something hard and immovable without involving anyone else removing themselves from the planet permanently.
