Motorway Madness

rock-on_2

Kite2010 wrote: »

Just a quick moan about the idiots driving without lights on in torrential rain. Idiots.

Wholeheartedly agree, give them the same penalties as for driving without due care.

Would love to know when mobile phones will have an automatic switch off when used in the car by some cretin who thinks the law doesn't apply to them. For example

To the blond girl in a blue car who made a U turn at the end of a dual carriageway I wish there had been a traffic officer about. Holding your iPhone, a white one, in your left hand whilst turning your steering wheel with your right hand, and not making a very good job of it, what makes you think the law doesn't apply to blonds in blue cars? Nothing is that important that you have to endanger other peoples lives just because you have an iphone. Who cares what damned phone you have, DON'T USE IT WHEN YOU'RE DRIVING. Got it!!

Oh, before anybody starts saying I have some sort of vendetta, I'm blond, have a dark blue car and I DON'T USE MY PHONE WHEN DRIVING.

I hope all those who think the law doesn't apply to them and carry on using their phones, get stopped and fined. Better still how about a law similar to the one for seizing your car if you don't have tax,insurance and MOT. What about seize your mobile, or even better what about the power to seize your car if you are caught using your mobile phone. Maybe that would stop these selfish phone users.

System

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

It has always been illegal. .

Has it? Which act etc makes it illegal?
The police may consider it dangerous or careless driving depending on the situation but I do not believe that it is illegal

warehouse

How often do any of you see the Police on a Motorway when there hasn't been an accident?

Too busy waiting just past those 30mph signs with a speed gun.

comeandgo

I know some have disagreed with my earlier point but where does it say undertaking is illegal? Someone quoted the Highway Code but the Highway Code is not a legal document - you cant be charged with breaking the Highway Code.

System

If the Highway Code says 'Do not undertake' instead of 'you MUST NOT undertake' then that indicates that there is not a law prohibiting it.

Wherever there is a law in place the HC will always use MUST & MUST NOT

nickcc

Having driven extensively in the USA I personally find that allowing overtaking in any lane is far safer than the UK driving regulations where undertaking is a contravention of the rules of the Highway Code. Unfortunately when rules are changed, allowing traffic to merge for example, many UK driver seems to find this unacceptable and do everything in their power to obstruct other vehicles from following the revised procedure including many LGV drivers who believe that they are the upholders of the law. I havo no idea how you can change drivers attitudes but in a perfect world wouldn't it be nice if we could. It's also strange that as soon as I arrive back home my standard of driving and attitude to other drivers "mistakes" soon reverts to my usual style of UK driving which often leaves a lot to be desired.

Jamie_Carter

!!!!!! wrote: »

Has it? Which act etc makes it illegal?
The police may consider it dangerous or careless driving depending on the situation but I do not believe that it is illegal

Just because it isn't a specific offence, doesn't make it legal.

Driving without due care and attention is illegal. Dangerous driving is an offence. Careless driving is an offence.

Jamie_Carter

warehouse wrote: »

How often do any of you see the Police on a Motorway when there hasn't been an accident?

Too busy waiting just past those 30mph signs with a speed gun.

You can blame local authority cut backs for that.

antrobus

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Just because it isn't a specific offence, doesn't make it legal.

Driving without due care and attention is illegal. Dangerous driving is an offence. Careless driving is an offence.

Yes, but technically speaking !!!!!! is correct. There is no specific offence of 'overtaking on the inside', so it is not illegal per se. It is merely cited as an example what a court could interepret as being Driving without due care and attention. As always, it would be up to a court to decide whether any specific driver was indeed driving without due care and attention when they overtook on the inside.

And as cited earlier, the Highway Code states,

Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

Thus the Highway Code describes one set of circumstances when overtaking on the inside is perfectly OK, and therefore presumably does not constitute an offence. There might possibly be other circumstances when the same was true. It would all depend on the particular facts.

smashingyour...

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Not if you are stuck behind someone doing 50mph in the outside lane, waiting for them to pull over into an empty lane to their left.

You're just as bad as they are because you should be in the left lane too.