Last night whilst walking my dog a car came hurtling down my road, speeding and swerving in a zig zag fashion (on the wrong side of the road due to parked cars), narrowly missing the the pavement that i was stood on, the car then continued to crash in to the pavement at the end of my street. It is lucky that there was no on coming traffic, and also lucky no one was stood on the pavement where the car ended up.

I quickly ran home, got my boyfriend and went to investigate whilst on the phone to the police.
To my shock these people did not run away (as i thought initially the car would be stolen), instead they tried to start the car and move on, however the damage was too great. While all of this was happening all i could hear was them laughing and joking about what happened! I was still shaky did not see the funny side!

Anyway the police came and took the group away.

The police then later came to my house to get a statement from me. They wanted me to ID who was driving, due to the fact that when they arrived at the scene one guy, the owner of the car said he was driving, after the police discovered he was 3-4 times over the limit, he has suddenly started to deny he was driving. I unfortunatly did not see who was driving, because they were driving far to fast.

I have two questions I hope someone can help me with;
Firstly can he really get away with it, is there nothing else that the police can charge him with in the possible event that they can't prove who was driving?

Secondly; Our road has a particular problem with drivers speeding up and down at all hours of the day and night, how do i go about applying for speed bumps and other traffic calmers.

Unfortunately, it seems that someone (a child) has to get knocked down before traffic calming measures are installed.:loopy:

Before you go getting the council to bang more speed bumps everywhere, think about it... Nobody in a stolen car cares about their suspension, do they?

A speed bump to them is like a ramp. They love 'em. All speed bumps do is inconvenience other drivers, and knacker everyone's suspension.

Furthermore, not everyone who zigzags down the road is drunk. Have you ever seen Michael J Fox coming home in the DeLorean?

if he says he wasn't driving, then by law he must know who was, it's a criminal offence not to (anyone who's had a speeding ticket knows this...)

Originally posted by Maldonado
if he says he wasn't driving, then by law he must know who was, it's a criminal offence not to (anyone who's had a speeding ticket knows this...)

That doesn't help much.

Mike's story: "My friend Colin was driving."

Colin's Story: "Mike was driving".

Police: "No body is going home until one of you owns up."

it's a criminal offence not to know? or it's a criminal offence not to say?

Originally posted by ptigga
That doesn't help much.

Mike's story: "My friend Colin was driving."

Colin's Story: "Mike was driving".

Police: "No body is going home until one of you owns up."

1stly. Smedley, quality pic man!

I dont know why we bother with the rozzers nowadays, they are mostly spotty faced pen pushers with uniforms on. However I would have thought they would have taken the guys first confession without needing a witness....unbelievable attitude from an unbeleivably bad police force.

Originally posted by ddixon
Secondly; Our road has a particular problem with drivers speeding up and down at all hours of the day and night, how do i go about applying for speed bumps and other traffic calmers.

If you contact the council about traffic calming measures they look to see how many accidents there have been on that particular road and by accidents I mean physical injury to people not just wing mirrors being knocked off. You will then recieve a nice letter saying that they get hundreds of requests for traffic calming and they will take note of your request.Then don't bother holding your breath.
A road near me has had two fatal accidents and a lot of more minor car bumps and nothing has been done to improve the situation in over five years.

My car was stolen a couple of years ago. It was chased by the police as it had young joyriders in it, and they crashed my car and wrote it off.
The group of lads that they dragged out of it were taken to court but got away with it because they said that they didn't steal the car. Their mate whom they wouldn't name did the stealing and they were all just taking it in turns to have a drive.
The worst bit was that my neighbour saw someone doing the stealing and called the police, but although the police were in the area they can't do anything until the car is driven away!
This was all the info I got about the situation but it stinks.
Anyway, back to the point-The police can't really do much if nobody owns up to being the driver.

Originally posted by Tony_BLiar
1stly. Smedley, quality pic man!

Once again, I fell foul of the HY (you work it out). The avatar has been censored.

:D a gardener has been banned from the road-after the boys in blue spotted him driving his lawnmower along the pavement at 6mph after a night of heavy drinking,in his wisdom he decided to drive to a job the morning aftergoing to a party,but when the spotty faced pen pushers stopped him for driving on a verge ,they discovered he was three times over the legal limit,banned for a year and fined £250. :loopy:

Originally posted by ddixon
Firstly can he really get away with it, is there nothing
else that the police can charge him with in the possible
event that they can't prove who was driving? [/B]

Sadly, they can get away with drunk driving just by not
owning up, regardless of evidence. I recently had my car
stolen and the police found identifiable fingerprints all
over the remains of the ignition. When they arrested him,
he just said that he had seen the car parked up with the
door open, and like the good citizen he is, he leaned in to
'turn the stereo off'. They never even asked why he found a
car with the door smashed open and didn't report it to the
police. Useless.

On the other hand, if this guy you saw was in the car and wouldn't say who
was driving, isn't he liable for at least the offence of
dangerous driving? I thought that the owner took
responsibility if they were in the car and wouldn't name
the driver?

Traffic calming measures are the do-gooders way of dealing with the problem without actually punishing the individuals concerned. We, as a society are too lenient. Our judicial system is criminal - allowing the perpetrators of these crimes to get away with a slap on the wrist, whilst the rest of us are paying £60 fines for minor offences.

Originally posted by smedley
Once again, I fell foul of the HY (you work it out). The avatar has been censored.

Not a very good job though. Can still see a p***k behind whatever has been blacked out in the foreground :heyhey:

Originally posted by smedley
Once again, I fell foul of the HY (you work it out). The avatar has been censored.

Lest anyone think the mods are censoring avatars, you were politely asked if you would change it entirely as we had received complaints.

You censored it, not us. We'd still like you to change it though.

Originally posted by Tony_BLiar
1stly. Smedley, quality pic man!

I dont know why we bother with the rozzers nowadays, they are mostly spotty faced pen pushers with uniforms on. However I would have thought they would have taken the guys first confession without needing a witness....unbelievable attitude from an unbeleivably bad police force.

A highly offensive attitude from someone who clearly does not know what they are talking about.

1. I do not need to go into why we need a police force.

2. The paperwork weighing down officers comes from above, not from the officers themselves.

3. When conducting an investigation, every officer worth his salt knows that the primary objective is to establish the facts. To this end, information from independent witnesses will lend weight to any possible charges, giving a conviction a more likely outcome in court. The criminal justice system in this country, rightly or wrongly demands that a person is innocent unless proven beyond all reasonable doubt. The police are duty bound to present all the available information to the court. The COURT then decides whether a person is guilty or not.