high-speed chases

thelawnet
thelawnet Posts: 719
edited April 2011 in Commuting chat
Just wondering what you think of this footage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13094294

ANPR triggers the fact that the car in front is stolen, they put their lights on, the car in front gives way allowing the stolen car to flee through the red light at speeds of up to 90mph along residential roads. The car eventually bursts through a level crossing seconds before a train comes through, which the police abandon as too dangerous, but can't help feeling that the whole chase was too dangerous and wasn't worth the very likely loss of life chasing a maniac through busy streets.

I'm sure the cops enjoy it though.

Comments

  • sketchley
    sketchley Posts: 4,238
    :shock:
    --
    Chris

    Genesis Equilibrium - FCN 3/4/5
  • nation
    nation Posts: 609
    Not sure how I feel about this.

    From my own perspective emergency vehicle sirens are the one thing on the roads that make me super-paranoid. I tend to get off the road and stop until I'm damn sure I know where it is and what it's doing.

    Obviously the ideal is that this never happens, but I don't think that's practically achievable.
  • phy2sll2
    phy2sll2 Posts: 680
    Terence Fowler, 20, has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for a variety of offences including dangerous driving.

    Really not long enough.
  • thelawnet
    thelawnet Posts: 719
    phy2sll2 wrote:
    Terence Fowler, 20, has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for a variety of offences including dangerous driving.

    Really not long enough.

    Well no. The Selby rail crash driver got five years, but there seems to me far more culpability in this driver's actions than that one, even if nobody died.
  • Hairybuddha
    Hairybuddha Posts: 59
    That's just mental. I'm with nation I tend to just get the hell out of the way when I hear sirens. Can only imagine the kind of carnage if he had come across any cyclists.

    Very very lucky no-one was injured or worse when the train came through.
  • andyrm
    andyrm Posts: 550
    I’m pretty much 100% against high speed chases – with CCTV/ANPR and helicopter facilities, there’s no excuse for not tracking, plotting potential route and interception with Stinger use.

    Police drivers may be pursuit trained, but what about the person they are pursuing?
  • Robstar24
    Robstar24 Posts: 173
    the person they are pursuing should pull over as soon as they hear the sirens, no excuse!
  • thelawnet
    thelawnet Posts: 719
    Just watching it again, the presence of the police car is clearly the cause of likely-to-be-lethal driving. I was quite amused at 0:57 where the car drives on the wrong side of the road at 97mph in a 40mph zone to avoid the speed camera.
  • il_principe
    il_principe Posts: 9,155
    Fooking hell. Any risk that the destroyed barriers could've derailed the train as well? Not nearly enough jail time, anyone mental enough to drive like that, esp in a built up area, deserves a lengthier spell in jail.
  • mudcow007
    mudcow007 Posts: 3,861
    i dunno how true this is but im told a "normal" police panda car cant can not chase another car in case of an accident by either car. only traffic coppers can chase the bad guys?


    bit of useless infomation for you there...
    Keeping it classy since '83
  • andyrm
    andyrm Posts: 550
    mudcow007 wrote:
    i dunno how true this is but im told a "normal" police panda car cant can not chase another car in case of an accident by either car. only traffic coppers can chase the bad guys?


    bit of useless infomation for you there...

    Even if it is a pursuit approved vehicle and driver, it's only the police car that is pursuit set up, not the person being chased, so in effect the police are escalating it into a potentially lethal chain of events.

    As per my post, it should be all about mapping routes and interception.
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    andyrm wrote:
    mudcow007 wrote:
    i dunno how true this is but im told a "normal" police panda car cant can not chase another car in case of an accident by either car. only traffic coppers can chase the bad guys?


    bit of useless infomation for you there...

    Even if it is a pursuit approved vehicle and driver, it's only the police car that is pursuit set up, not the person being chased, so in effect the police are escalating it into a potentially lethal chain of events.

    As per my post, it should be all about mapping routes and interception.

    The think is, if you're chasing joyriders in a stolen car there's going to be a wait for the helicopter to get up/on scene. There also isn't a comprehensive network of CCTV/ANPR, certainly not enough to totally negate the need to follow a car. That means the police car tries to pull them over, the driver floors it, the police back off and call in a helicopter. Then if they find the car it'll be burnt out somewhere and the joyriders will be long gone.
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • thelawnet
    thelawnet Posts: 719
    bails87 wrote:
    The think is, if you're chasing joyriders in a stolen car there's going to be a wait for the helicopter to get up/on scene. There also isn't a comprehensive network of CCTV/ANPR, certainly not enough to totally negate the need to follow a car. That means the police car tries to pull them over, the driver floors it, the police back off and call in a helicopter. Then if they find the car it'll be burnt out somewhere and the joyriders will be long gone.

    Better a burnt out lump of metal than dead road users, no?
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    thelawnet wrote:
    bails87 wrote:
    The think is, if you're chasing joyriders in a stolen car there's going to be a wait for the helicopter to get up/on scene. There also isn't a comprehensive network of CCTV/ANPR, certainly not enough to totally negate the need to follow a car. That means the police car tries to pull them over, the driver floors it, the police back off and call in a helicopter. Then if they find the car it'll be burnt out somewhere and the joyriders will be long gone.

    Better a burnt out lump of metal than dead road users, no?

    Obviously. But then the joyriders (who proabably aren't particularly sensible drivers) are free to go out the next night and nick another car. And the same thing happens night after night. And if they hit a pedestrian do you think they're going to hang around?
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • stardude
    stardude Posts: 255
    'he was lucky to not be killed himself'

    i think they made a mistake here, what they meant to say was,

    'unfortunatly the little scrote survived'




    also i bet he is the kind of person that called the police 'po-po' :evil:
    2006 Giant TCR Team

    2006 Giant XTC SE & 2009 Exodus Blade
  • kurako
    kurako Posts: 1,098
    Pure scumbag. Although it was interesting he took the trouble to put on his hazard warning lights.
    Univega 700
    Univega Via Strato
  • rf6
    rf6 Posts: 323
    bails87 wrote:
    thelawnet wrote:
    bails87 wrote:
    The think is, if you're chasing joyriders in a stolen car there's going to be a wait for the helicopter to get up/on scene. There also isn't a comprehensive network of CCTV/ANPR, certainly not enough to totally negate the need to follow a car. That means the police car tries to pull them over, the driver floors it, the police back off and call in a helicopter. Then if they find the car it'll be burnt out somewhere and the joyriders will be long gone.

    Better a burnt out lump of metal than dead road users, no?

    Obviously. But then the joyriders (who proabably aren't particularly sensible drivers) are free to go out the next night and nick another car. And the same thing happens night after night. And if they hit a pedestrian do you think they're going to hang around?

    +1 on this. The driver of the stolen car is responsible for his actions, not the Police chasing him. He made the decision to endanger people, the Police did nothing to "force" or "encourage" him to do so. The fact they stop the chase shows that they were aware of balancing the benefits of the chase against risk to the public. The sentence is also a disgrace, far too low.
  • merkin
    merkin Posts: 452
    If the police never engage in a pursuit there will very quickly be a lot more lawlessness on the streets as there will be no way of catching them unless the police were lucky enough to have a helicopter up in the area anyway. On balance I suspected this chase should have been stood down slightly earlier as the driver was clearly very reckless but the police driver is presumably far more experienced than me and didn't have the benefit of hindsight.
    Very good point made on the sentence re Selby train crash driver getting longer sentence.

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