Hadn't thought of it like that..but he's right. Poor lane control is a 'give away' for a drink or drug driver.
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Well, I for one am constantly driving like a drunken driver then, protecting my tyres and suspension and car generally from the appalling road surfaces that abound now and that have been made far far worse by the constant water erosion of the wet winter.
This has been exacerbated by the reticence to do much work on our roads before the very wet season started.
I certainly spend a lot of my time trying to view the road in the near vicinity of my car and then taking avoiding action if safe so to do.
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Ditto for me too, my route is like that of a drunker than drunk old drunk as I weave my merry (hic) way along the highways & byways!
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Anything that makes me harder to spot is welcome in my book. We must all make a virtue of necessity in today's neglected back roads.
There are some very nasty potholes in the lanes round here, the worst ones concealed by puddles. I know where most of them are but there are a couple that still catch me unawares. No damage so far fingers crossed.
There's evidence of some swift repairs on a brick bend in a small-town ratrun near here. Out in the sticks though... Caveat Bufo eh?
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If coppers are too unobservant to note difference between genuinely erratic driving and weaving round potholes then there's a real problem with either recruitment or training.
The clue is in existence of potholes.
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>>
>> The clue is in existence of potholes.
>>
Or puddles. You have to assume any puddle may conceal a pothole if you are going to drive through it at 50. So you either have to drive permanently at 20 just in case, or down the middle of the road avoiding the puddles at the sides.
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>> or down the middle of the road avoiding the puddles at
>> the sides.
My preferred option. I move over if anything is coming the other way.
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>>Poor lane control is a 'give away' for a drink or drug driver.
When I was young I used to get the occasional copper following me and so I would try to "act innocent".
Now I would have been a lousy criminal for much the same reason I get stopped all the time in customs - I just look guilty, and never more so than when I am trying to appear innocent.
But when you were following some kid in a beat-up escort, what signs or behaviours made the difference between pulling it over and not? This being long before the days of APNR.
I've always wondered, but nothing I ever did stopped me getting pulled.
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p.s. and when I once asked a Customs Inspector the same thing, she said it was more than her job was worth to allow someone who looked *that* guilty to walk past, whether or not she really thought they were likely to be doing anything wrong.
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Surrey police are surely dumb? When I used to drive with too much alcohol 50 years ago, I just drove straight over potholes... slowly... No way I could avoid them : reactions too dulled.
Last edited by: madf on Tue 25 Mar 14 at 14:30
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>> I've always wondered, but nothing I ever did stopped me getting pulled.
I always got pulled because I was a youngster driving a car the copper couldn't afford.
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Lucky you. I drove cars that nobody else would be seen dead in.
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>> I drove cars that nobody else would be seen dead in.
There is your answer.
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>> Lucky you. I drove cars that nobody else would be seen dead in.
>>
The most I spent on buying a car was £80 until I was about 27...and then I got a company car...
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>> But when you were following some kid in a beat-up escort, what signs or behaviours
>> made the difference between pulling it over and not? This being long before the days
>> of APNR.
>>
>> I've always wondered, but nothing I ever did stopped me getting pulled.
>>
This is my take on it. It's not exhaustive and does not come from a manual and others will have differing views. You also have to take into account different social eras and different parts of the country.
1, Something highly chavved up. Let's see whether he's legal or not. Excessively blacked out windows were my 'red rag to a bull', what are they hiding, let's have a look.
2, A clean car is looked after, so presumably the driver might well pay attention to any faults and/or insurance/MOT etc, conversely a filthy one or one bashed up is neglected, so what else is neglected?
3, An open window at night = drink/driver
4, Very young in something expensive (to buy or insure) = 'how can you afford that'?
5, Vans at night. Drink/drive or burglars?*
6, More recently, male driving girly car, quick check on the insurance database in the police car and only a female insured.
7, Faulty lights, just an excuse to stop for many reasons inc drink/drive, docs, ownership.
* or once in my case, when I borrowed the Central Cheque Squad's undercover van one night duty to move a settee from Ilford to Barnet and got stopped on the A406 for looking 'dodgy'.
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potholes make drink-drivers 'hard to spot' - Westpig
