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Originally Posted by pgarner  i thought the idea of the highway ageny was to shut the moterway when a hedgehog of somehting else got run over. |
The Highways Agency undoubtedly has a role to play in maintaining swift and safe traffic flow. Detaining drivers at the roadside is not part of this in my opinion.
I don't think that the power to caution or report drivers for speeding is going to be achieved without a complete change to traffic law, the criminal evidence act and the criminal justice act.
Only a police officer currently has the right to pursue and stop a car. If this is extended to civilians (which is what HA employees are) then where will we go from there? Well, firstly PACE will have to be completely rewritten to cover any case that is challenged and subsequently goes beyond a magistrate's court.
You need to keep in mind that the police, the government and the courts are not the law in themselves.
And, do we truly have a problem with speed on motorways. If you look at the statistics then yes, we do. If you look at the gathered data from which the statistics are compiled then we can prove that we have lots of vehicles exceeding the speed limit.
But is that actually a problem in terms of overall safety?
I suspect not. So why spend f''' knows how much trying the change the shape of a series of numbers to achieve almost nothing?
Sadly' the current government will ignore such simple rationales and force things through to suit their next election campaign.
So. You should watch out. But you shouldn't have to.