No traffic police U-turn despite road death toll

“A PATROL PLAN???!!! DOHOOOO!!! GRRRRRRRR!!!

Sounds like politically correct speak for doing the square root of of naffall useful, with some jobsworth senior plod bod wheeled out to make soothing noises to cover up the awful sound of twisted metal and the cries of maimed people who are victims of the significant surge in road traffic accidents.

The Devon & Cornwall Police Traffic Section was the scourge of motoring idiots but aimed to educate rather than persecute, the officers were generally of a high calibre tasked with an often awful job when people were involved in fatalities, if the traffic unit prevented just one fatal accident it was justified... BRING IT BACK.”

“Angry Monkey, If your going to do comparisons then they should be like for like. You conveniently chose the final salary of a Police Inspector or above. This I assume would be about a rank of Captain or above in the British Army. Anybody aged 40 or over who has served the Army for at least 18yrs gets the right to an immediate pension And tax free lump sum, and a second lump sum when they turn 65. (Example an Army Sgt retiring after 22yrs service would get £47,000 commutation, with a £700 month pension)Let's not also forget the Police Pension scheme is contributory, in fact members pay over 11% of their salary. In comparison Service personnel pay 'NIL' into their pension pot with the government paying 30% contributions. The vast majority of serving Police officers do not attain the rank of Inspector, and 32 yrs service is not the norm. I do not under value the role of our armed forces nor Police Officers, it's more a matter of you make your career choices.”

“No wonder they don't have any money, here is an example of a police person's pension with 32 years service and final pay of 46,000/year. Without a lump sum they would receive £30,000/year pension. With the maximum tax free lump sum taken they would get a reduced amount of £23,000/year and a one off payment of £153,000! Not bad eh? An Armed Forces person retiring after the same length of time and on the same pay will get £18,000/year and a lump sum of £55,000. I challenge any policeman or politician to look a military guy in the face and say, when he has come back from Afghanistan with limbs missing and his mind well and truly trashed, "sorry matey boy but you just aren't worth the same money as PC Plod". Go on,dare you!”

“D&CC can't afford to run, period. It's no wonder they claim any small loophole they can, because thr Government give them, and other Manors, no other choice.”

“thetalkmon in too many cases bad driving and speeding go hand in hand and when that happens we get multiple crashes with far too many lives ruined. Over 2,500 deaths a year on our roads is appalling and yet no-one seems to care indeed some idiots are even suggesting raising the limit on motorways. Some years ago in the states one state raised the limit from 55 to 65 and when the accident rate went up accordingly they had the sense to bring it back down again. I was not advocating hogging the middle lane but only suggesting that for a trial period an unmarked police car could patrol and control, to a degree, the speed of motorway traffic. Even allowing for the tolerance far too many drive in excess of that and should be brought to book. There is a stretch on the M5 where they have chevrons marked and advise staying two chevrons apart. For most of it the traffic abides by that but once the chevrons go everyone is driving too fast and too close.”

“@thetalkmon - very true!”

“Josdave - What a silly idea staying in the middle lane is illegal you should keep left unless overtaking, I hope your not one of those people who are in the middle lane all the way because they are such a nusuance. Also the police cars speedo is not calibrated so they couldn't use that as proof of how fast a car is going. Lastly as everyone knows there is a tolerance of 10% +2 of the speed limit to allow for error in cars speedos this means they can travel at up to 79mph legally so all those cars going past the 70mph police car wouldn't be neccesarily be breaking the law. Anyway as motorways are the safest roads and speeding doesn't cause accidents bad driving does we want police to catch dangerous drivers not people who safely speed.”

“Road Death is THE BIGGEST KILLER in this country! to say it is not important is sheer stupidy. I agree that a police traffic unit cannot be everywhere at all times to prevent bad driving and bad drivers, but these cuts mean the FEAR of being caught by one of these units is gone and without that fear, drivers are taking more risks and gambles than they would have previously.

In my opinion it is this lack of fear that has increased the 'Killed or Serious Injury' on our roads. 'While the cats away...'”

“Sanders1 most accidents, fatalities and injuries are the result of driver error and there is no way to prevent that as they are random and not possible to predict. I am amazed there are not more accidents judging by the shocking examples I see every time I go out. I do think dangerous driving should carry a higher penalty which might act as some sort of deterrent but more traffic police would not solve the problem.
An unmarked police car in the middle lane of a motorway doing a constant 70mph and taking the number of every car that passed lit would collect a fortune in fines and pay for more officers. These lunatics who think it acceptable to ignore traffic laws should be stamped on as they are a danger to the general public.”

“IT's not departments that should be cut, it's the way the Force is run. Too much paperwork, too much having to explain yourself, too many civilian staff, too many tiers of p**s week middle management.”