Random Irritations

[PJ87]

The guys at a Speed awareness course were going to kick me off the course when I insisted it was just a money raising racket ! ... I had to shut my gob.

Have to admit I think speeding fines and points are money making but the introduction of the courses have been really good

Did you find you learn much? What I found shocking was the lack of knowledge from everyone in the room

Some thought national speed was 40!

 

[Billysboots]

The guys at a Speed awareness course were going to kick me off the course when I insisted it was just a money raising racket ! ... I had to shut my gob.

Embarrassingly for the safety camera team in my old Force area, when I asked them about some of their chosen locations they tried to justify their camera placement on the basis of previous serious or fatal collisions, totally neglecting the fact that I knew they were talking cobblers, as I had been working in collision investigation long enough to know their sites, more often than not, were not collision hotspots!

 

[Billysboots]

Have to admit I think speeding fines and points are money making but the introduction of the courses have been really good

Did you find you learn much? What I found shocking was the lack of knowledge from everyone in the room

Some thought national speed was 40!

Mate of mine reckons the courses are really good. He should know. He’s been on three.

So in his case, they clearly don’t work!

 

[nickjdavis]

Getting endless requests for reviews every time I buy something on line. Just had one to provide feedback on a mug I just bought - it's a mug, it holds liquid. Does that justify 5 stars or just 3 as it does what I expected it to?
Also, had a request to review a wallet that hasn't even arrived yet!

I see loads of reviews that say stuff like..."arrived quickly, but haven't opened the box yet so only giving it 4 stars". You really don't have any excuses to not post your opinion.

 

[Fade and Die]

Mate of mine reckons the courses are really good. He should know. He’s been on three.

So in his case, they clearly don’t work!

I’ve had 3 myself and I think I am a pretty steady plodder!

1st and 3rd were going 26/7 MPH in 20 zones in London the other was average speed cameras on the A66 at 3 in the morning! 57 in a 50 stretch.

 

[PJ87]

Mate of mine reckons the courses are really good. He should know. He’s been on three.

So in his case, they clearly don’t work!

I've had 2 but between course 1 and 2 was 4 years with no tickets or anything like that so thought they worked lol

Course 1 I had been stuck in traffic, then when we got into 2 lanes (down country lanes) I booted up the right hand lane and top of hill they were waiting .. 58 think it was in a 50, silly of me

Second one I was just chilling driving home, following an ambulance (not overtaking just behind) cop with gun I looked down and was like oops lol

 

[Pin-seeker]

Whilst on the subject of road related random irritations, I’ve had a long day on the road so here are a couple of others.

The muppet National Highways Traffic Officer driving his marked vehicle at exactly 70mph on the M2 in Kent this morning, completely oblivious of the huge queue of traffic behind him, the drivers apparently wrongly assuming he was a cop and that they would get stopped for speeding if they overtook. There is a reason that police patrol cars travel at 50mph on the motorway. It’s so that drivers continue to pass.

And even more annoying, also on the M2 in Kent when travelling through a lengthy section of roadworks, I noticed four or five Transit style vans parked in the roadworks, the rear of the vans marked with reflective safety livery. When I looked closer, one of the vans, with almost identical livery to the road workers vehicles, was a speed camera van.

It used to boil my urine when I was still a serving cop when I saw some of the tactics employed by safety camera teams. They completely undermined any suggestion they were there to aid road safety when you saw some of their sneaky tactics. It’s all about the cash. It irks me even more now I’m retired.

Now. Where are my pills?

Blimey aren’t we a little ray of sunshine today

 

[Slime]

The double standards that some people, (inadvertently in this case), display.

 

[PaulMdj]

Spent over 20 years as a traffic cop and collision investigator and I never heard that one. Makes sense in some respects, but a full search of any vehicle involved in a serious collision is a minimum requirement anyway.

I believe this was/is another Americanism, was started over there with the best intentions, ie, alert other road users, but by the time it got here, it was a badge of honour.

Baby on board - where did it all start?

Baby on board signs, you see them everywhere nowadays but what many may not know is its true meaning and how the signs became a global phenomenon.

www.mynrma.com.au

 

[ColchesterFC]

Spent over 20 years as a traffic cop and collision investigator and I never heard that one. Makes sense in some respects, but a full search of any vehicle involved in a serious collision is a minimum requirement anyway.

I might have dreamed it or made it up but it popped up from somewhere in my brain when I saw the original post. Out of interest, if you turned up at a collision and there was a youngish couple in the front seats with signs of of child, toys, books, games etc, scattered in the back seats but no sign of a child, would you have a certain search radius around the car that would be checked in case a child had been thrown out of the vehicle?

 

[Billysboots]

I might have dreamed it or made it up but it popped up from somewhere in my brain when I saw the original post. Out of interest, if you turned up at a collision and there was a youngish couple in the front seats with signs of of child, toys, books, games etc, scattered in the back seats but no sign of a child, would you have a certain search radius around the car that would be checked in case a child had been thrown out of the vehicle?

Fortunately that rarely happened but any search parameters depended on the circumstances, primarily a likely speed at impact. If we thought we were missing any occupants of vehicles then we often deployed dog handlers, air support (because of the thermal imaging capacity), the fire service (for the same reason) or dedicated search trained officers.

Any radius for an ejection tended to be relatively small. Always a far bigger problem was searching for injured occupants who had wandered off into the night.

 

[cliveb]

Irritation for today: trying to get an appointment to see a doctor.
No wonder people just rock up to A&E and clog the system up.

 

[PJ87]

Irritation for today: trying to get an appointment to see a doctor.
No wonder people just rock up to A&E and clog the system up.

Have you tried 111? Normally can get telephone appointment or they make one for you

 

[cliveb]

Have you tried 111? Normally can get telephone appointment or they make one for you

I've used 111 in the past, and they were not helpful.
So this time I rang the GP surgery and was told (by recorded message) that I had to do an "online consultation" first.
Having filled in the form, I then got a text message telling me that someone would look at it in a week's time.
Perhaps after that they might actually agree to see me in person.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I've used 111 in the past, and they were not helpful.
So this time I rang the GP surgery and was told (by recorded message) that I had to do an "online consultation" first.
Having filled in the form, I then got a text message telling me that someone would look at it in a week's time.
Perhaps after that they might actually agree to see me in person.

I’ve found 111to be very dependant on the person on the other end reading off their preset formulaic questions.
If you’re lucky to have someone actually more interested in your health that’s their budget, you’re in with a shout.
Sadly the GP system is broken, especially with the spread of small practises being swallowed up by big groups.
Last time I wanted an appointment it was ring 8:30 only, and all appointments gone by 8:31 and no next day or advance bookings.
I’m seriously thinking about getting some sort of private health care, as even when you eventually get into the NHS system, there is no rush for anything as they seem to consider you trapped.

 

[GB72]

I’ve found 111to be very dependant on the person on the other end reading off their preset formulaic questions.
If you’re lucky to have someone actually more interested in your health that’s their budget, you’re in with a shout.
Sadly the GP system is broken, especially with the spread of small practises being swallowed up by big groups.
Last time I wanted an appointment it was ring 8:30 only, and all appointments gone by 8:31 and no next day or advance bookings.
I’m seriously thinking about getting some sort of private health care, as even when you eventually get into the NHS system, there is no rush for anything as they seem to consider you trapped.

I have similar issues. Have to book an online appointment first with limited numbers. I leave for work at 7.15, they go live before I get to work and are gone for the day by the time I get there and log on. Only time I get to see someone in my surgery is when they call me when I do an online repeat prescription order and they have to see me before they can sign it off.

 

[Orikoru]

Have you tried 111? Normally can get telephone appointment or they make one for you

111 is great if you enjoy answering a 20 question quiz and then being told to go and see a doctor anyway.

 

[GreiginFife]

111 is great if you enjoy answering a 20 question quiz and then being told to go and see a doctor anyway.

Or my experience on Sunday, wait 2 hours to be answered, 20 question quiz and then back on hold for 40 mins to be told someone would need to call back later.

Later being Monday afternoon…

All this for my elderly dad thats just been discharged from hospital and is ill again with the same issue.

And they wonder why 999 calls are through the roof and ambulance waits are incredible.

 

[Junior]

It’s just so inconsistent across GP practises.

My folks have experienced the same as the above but I’ve used the online service 3 times in the past few months and each time I’m infront of a doctor the same day.

 

[pendodave]

It’s just so inconsistent across GP practises.

My folks have experienced the same as the above but I’ve used the online service 3 times in the past few months and each time I’m infront of a doctor the same day.

This is also my experience. Bizarrely, getting an appointment from my GP was painful before covid, but the online triage they put in place has improved things no end.
I suspect there's some other improvement behind the scenes that I'm unaware of, but that's fine by me.