Dad pulled out on traffic cop on M6

[Kenai]

ergh first you acuse people of being favourable to victim, anti police

then you say people have a more pragmatic approach - confused.com.

I'm not sure how you're reading those statements but they're not contradictory or confusing.

I didn't say people are favourable to the victim, I said the 'victim' will present a biased view of events. How you've read that as 'anti police' I have no idea.

I then said its more likely people will assume the 'victim' has done something daft and presented a bias view of it than the police being randomly vindictive.

 

[NVP]

Look at this way, if your dad had been doing 150mph this would never have happened. Therefore the lesson here is to drive faster.

QFT

 

[skyripper]

Yeah funnily enough people manage to cope just fine with people coming up behind doing well over 120MPH there granted it is more of a normal but still.

On those rare unrestricted bits of autobahn it's expected there will be a bigger faster car coming up behind you so you are more likely to be looking for them. This was the M6 which is generally s*** at the best of times unless it's the half mile after the toll booth grandprix

 

[Quartz]

Shame the old man only has a front dashcam.

Now you know what to get him for Christmas. But if he can demonstrate he was driving at a legal speed then he should definitely contest the charge. He might also consider any curvature of the motorway - perhaps the headlights of the police car were obscured by the central barrier or other traffic.

 

[james.miller]

There's only a few reason i can think of to explain why your dad didnt see the copper at all. He was on a bend, in which case the drivers mirror may not have spotted the car (and your dad should have used the interior mirror as well) or the copper didnt have his headlights on. Otherwise... i dont know? Your dad should have been able to spot the copper, even in the distance, and be able to judge his approaching speed.

For the officer to go through the effort of stopping and issuing the ticket I suspect it would have been a pretty dangerous manoeuvre by the OP's Dad.

They'll almost certainly have footage of the incident.

i'm going with this ^

 

[NVP]

On the topic of headlights, are projections from the police car headlights visibly reflecting on anything in video at any point at their closest?

 

[james.miller]

120mph = a mile every 30 seconds

Which would be a problem if the OPs dad was parked in lane 2 but he wasnt.

 

[TheVoice]

Edit: also the part about not having blues on to avoid spooking the target, but the other car did have them on? Hmm...

It reads like the second car came past after his dad had already been stopped.

 

[eviled]

Which would be a problem if the OPs dad was parked in lane 2 but he wasnt.

Relative speed is still nearly a mile a minute

 

[Nasher]

It's hard to judge the speed of something coming towards you, especially at night.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

We've all done it, you look in your mirror, see a car in the distance in the outside lane and make a judgement they are doing just over the speed limit so you'll be OK, nobody expects the car to be doing 120 mph.

 

[Haggisman]

We've all done it, you look in your mirror, see a car in the distance in the outside lane and make a judgement they are doing just over the speed limit so you'll be OK, nobody expects the car to be doing 120 mph.

This. Hence why emergency vehicles traffic well in excess of the speed limit tend to use these flashy blue lights so you are aware

To be honest, no one except OP's dad and the police driver know what happened.

Dad could have seen the car in the mirror obviously speeding and decided to be a vigilante and slow him down.
Dad could have seen the car a mile away behind, figured he had plenty of time to overtake (not expecting someone doing almost twice his speed) and pulled out perfectly reasonably and the police office took offence to being slowed down.
Dad could have not bothered to look properly and pulled out 20m ahead of police car, forcing him to slam on and perform an emergency stop.
etc.

If dad thinks he's in the right, take it as far as he can (be bothered).
If not, take it as a lesson to check your mirrors more carefully in future, count it as a lucky escape that he didn't end up with a car going into the back of you at 120mph, and drop the force in question an angry tweet suggesting they advise their drivers to use the blue lights when they're speeding down the motorway.

It reads like the second car came past after his dad had already been stopped.

True, I guess it depends how soon after...

 

[james.miller]

Relative speed is still nearly a mile a minute

Right, and you dont think the OPs dad would have had enough time to react between checking his mirrors and manoeuvring before the copper piles in to the back of him?

Seems very likely a mistake on the dad's part. we've all done it.

 

[DereksDontRun]

120mph is fast, but it's all relative speed as others have suggested.

If the op's dad was doing 60mph and the cops 120 (say worse case) that's 60mph difference. so the speed the cops are approaching is the same as pulling out of junction into 60mph traffic (such as leaving services with no slip-road). Yes, they're approaching quickly, but you can see cars a fair distance away, gauge their speed and distance (in the dark, when it's raining etc.). So, I don't think it's an argument. Possible argument for a police bike, as the single headlight could look like a car a further distance away, but it's not the case here.

if the op was doing 70mph and the cops only 100mph (as it said 100-120) then there's only 30mph difference. So, pulling out into 30mph traffic. really no excuse for not seeing them.

given the police gave up their pursuit (which they were obviously keen on doing prior to this) then I can only guess the OP's dad pulled out dangerously (or was being a road-warrior and trying to block/slow the quicker traffic to 70mph and not pulling over when there was space).

 

[Semple]

It's not so much that as the obvious bias inherent when you only get the 'victims' story.

Prime recent example the guy asking about dangerous driving laws because someone brake checked his driver, followed later by a video of a lorry tailgating, flashing headlights and trying to half arse an overtake at a junction, all in crap visibility - the brake check he received was probably the least bad bit of driving in the video.

This happens routinely on forums, it's hardly surprising that people think it's more likely this is a case of someone blindly changing lanes right in front of someone else rather than a copper being so annoyed at a perfectly reasonable mistake that he gives up on a pursuit just to dish out a FPN.

Everyone will have their biases that affect which scenario they think is more likely to have occurred. Most people on here have never had an issue with the traffic police, so are unlikely to default to the assumption they're out to stitch up a totally innocent motorist just to be an ********.

I agree here, if the copper had plenty of time to safely adjust his speed they would have done. My bet is on the op's father badly misjudging the distance and pulling out which probably caused the copper to nearly crash, hence him abandoning a much more important chase just to dish out a ticket.

Edit: also the part about not having blues on to avoid spooking the target, but the other car did have them on? Hmm...

If you watch any of the police shows, if they're trying to catch up with a suspected car they'll usually do it without lights to avoid provoking the suspect into a high speed chase - the last thing the police want. Once the suspect has been spooked they'll stick the blue lights and sirens on.

Frankly with some of the poor driving I've seen on the motorways, (with cars pulling out in front of flashing blue lights, or the police sat behind a car with flashing blue lights, but it's taken the driver half a year to realise he needs to move over) I'm not sure having them on actually makes them more visible.

 

[m4rmite]

Nvm.
The Internet lied to me.

But I'd contest it and want to see the police dash cam footage.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Speeding police must have their flashing lights on. Its the police policy and road traffic rules.

if you can find that policy the OPs Dad is on to a winner

 

[NVP]

Speeding police must have their flashing lights on. Its the police policy and road traffic rules.

This is not true - they have to use their discretion with regards to situational risk.

 

[stuman]

Dad was middle lane hogging.

Then saw a car coming up at pace and being a professional decided to “teach” the motorist moving in excess of the normal speed limit.

is now unhappy that it was police.

your dad is a grumpy old man using years of professional driving as an excuse to create dangerous situations.

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Should have undertaken, pulled a moooney on the middle lane hogger.