Should road laws be tougher on Chav drivers and boy racers?

Toryglen-boy

Toryglen-boy

Toryglen-boy

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i live in a seaside town, you've probably heard of it, Weston super Mare, and its filled with chav drivers and boy racers, you know the type, Saxo's and Corsa's with blacked out windows and big exhausts, that they think looks fabulous but everyone else thinks is minging, and last night when driving home from work, i got cut up with them, racing each other, and them bombing about, there were so many near misses, its unbelievable. The obvious thing to do would have been to blow them off the road, but i am a sensible driver, and have a Fiesta Zetec 1.25 so thats ended that, my point is, they where easly doing 60 or 70 in a 30 zone, and the police dont seem to bother !!

surely laws should be tightended up against this kind of thing? or should new rules be introduced? it msut be affecting insurance premiums etc.
 
dont seem to bother?

i remember sunday nights down weston before they put gates on the access to the seafront.

they have done a big crackdown in the last few years imo.

to say they were doing any speed is like putting your finger in the air. you know they were going faster than you, but to put speeds of 70mph down is a bit silly.

also, around the main 'strip' of weston, i doubt you could get 70mph out of a small corsa loaded with crap, as its some tight bends (would be plenty of accidents at that speed) and small roads.

unless your talking about somewhere a bit quieter in weston near the beach? in which case, its no different to anywhere else in the country :P
 
I know how you feel, went upto Tesco near me a few days ago to see some chav hanging on the back of his mates car while they drove round the houses and Tesco. Had a good mind to phone the police but I knew by the time they got there the chavs would have been well gone.

Sadly what else can the police do? unless they have a increase in police officers theres little else viable (and more police=more tax). Except maybe more Speed cameras which no one wants.
 
Tougher penalties would be difficult, the police can already confiscate vehicles and either auction or crush them.

Personally I'd like to see everyone with either illegal number plates or illegal blacked out windows fined. I'd let traffic wardens collect the evidence including photos and then just fine them all by post.
 
Racing on the public highway carries a pretty harsh penalty in comparison to a speeding (and rghtly so) but like Pigeon has said they have to be caught doing it...
Its a shame really, WSM had a good car scene down there and still does I believe at organised events. It just appears to be ruled by the Halfords done up specials these days and I know for fact that our local boyracer group actually make a bee-line for Weston in order to go race other similar done up shopping mobiles so I really dont envy you down there mate.
 
Morba said:
dont seem to bother?

i remember sunday nights down weston before they put gates on the access to the seafront.

they have done a big crackdown in the last few years imo.

to say they were doing any speed is like putting your finger in the air. you know they were going faster than you, but to put speeds of 70mph down is a bit silly.

also, around the main 'strip' of weston, i doubt you could get 70mph out of a small corsa loaded with crap, as its some tight bends (would be plenty of accidents at that speed) and small roads.

unless your talking about somewhere a bit quieter in weston near the beach? in which case, its no different to anywhere else in the country :P
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i was parked up at Tescos, and watching them bomb past people doing the speed limit of 30, and they where going twice as fast, so 60 is a fairly accurate guess, and if you come off the roudabout at the top of locking road into the main "drag" 60 ir very easly attainable, there is more than enough room


:)
 
I don't know what the penalties are but the only way to catch more muppets on the road is to have a police presence.

I get cut up all the time but most of the time it is by reps in there passat/focus/free car. These people need clamping down as much as the chav idiots (which I only see very few of)
 
Toryglen-boy said:
i was parked up at Tescos, and watching them bomb past people doing the speed limit of 30, and they where going twice as fast, so 60 is a fairly accurate guess, and if you come off the roudabout at the top of locking road into the main "drag" 60 ir very easly attainable, there is more than enough room


:)
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you were parked up and was watching others doing 30? how do you know they were doing 30?
twice as fast? how did you measure this?

im not trying to say they werent speeding, but your using your own opinion on what speeds people were actually doing at the time.

from locking road yeah you could.
 
[DOD]Asprilla said:
True.

Ok, just request that they come in for testing.

I admit that I've not fully defined my masterplan, but you get the idea.
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but they would have so much work to do, they would need to grade each window and also grade the actual light outside the vehicle then make a judgement, otherwise they would just be making all tints be checked.
 
Morba said:
you were parked up and was watching others doing 30? how do you know they were doing 30?
twice as fast? how did you measure this?

im not trying to say they werent speeding, but your using your own opinion on what speeds people were actually doing at the time.

from locking road yeah you could.
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i hear ya, and point noted :)

i jsut find in my experience that everyone on the road expects you to do the limit all the time, if i was driving at 20 on straight 30, i would get flashed and honked like crazy

:)

soz to get up in arms, the whole thing annoys me
 
Surely the best idea would be to take example from motorbike laws and have cars restricted for certain age groups, or ban young drivers from driving anythiing over a 1 litre engine.
 
UKDTweak said:
Surely the best idea would be to take example from motorbike laws and have cars restricted for certain age groups, or ban young drivers from driving anythiing over a 1 litre engine.
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The problem is the cars with the 1 Litre engine though :confused:
 
Morba said:
but they would have so much work to do, they would need to grade each window and also grade the actual light outside the vehicle then make a judgement, otherwise they would just be making all tints be checked.
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OK, how about including it as part of the MOT?

I still think that in some cases I've seen round me it would be viable for Wardens to make value judgements about some of the cases. They all carry cameras in London anyway.
 
A few thoughts:
- The laws in existence are almost certainly more than sufficient to deal with the chavs in question. The key issue is whether there are sufficient police around to deal enforce them.
- Imagine you have a finite resource of police. Lets assume that in general the police are actually pretty damn busy (though there will always be some exceptions that rule). What would you prefer for them to do, catch robbers, muggers, drug pushers etc, or enforce traffic laws?
- Whilst it's easy to criticise the "chav" brigade, most normal drivers don't help the situation. Just look how many people break the speed limit on a daily basis. As soon as average "Joe Public" has displayed the attitude of "I know better than the law about what speed I can drive at", it's a statement that everyone can. The result is that Chav driving nutter also applies the same logic that he can decide for himself about the speed he can drive at, and who are the rest of the public to complain?
 
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