I had a chat with one of the rigid drivers where I work this morning, he told me he got pulled on the M62 near the A19 junc on Tuesday afternoon. He said it was about 2:30pm and the motorway was flowing freely with not much traffic on it at all, he’s minding his own business in lane 1 when a Mercedes car came past him and pulled into lane 1 and began slowing down for no apparent reason, rigid driver reacted to this and braked and wondered what the guy is up to, the gap had closed to about a rigid length between the 2 vehicles, then a tractor unit is along side the rigid with a copper in the passenger seat videoing both the Mercedes and the rigid, the copper in the tractor gestures for the rigid driver to pull over. The rigid and tractor unit are both stopped on the hard shoulder and the copper jumps into the rigid and begins to tell him why he had been stopped, he tells the rigid driver that they have evidence to prosecute him for “driving without due care & attention” as when the Mercedes pulled into lane one and slowed down he didn’t react quick enough and ended up far too close to the Mercedes. The copper said they won’t prosecute this time, but told him as a professional driver me needs to be prepared for the unexpected on the roads and the police are cracking down due to alot of incidents with HGV’s involved on the M62, they also asked him to pass the info to other drivers at the depot. The Mercedes car that pulled in front was being driven by a copper working in tandem with the unit.
I was highly dubious wether what he was telling me was true or not, but I asked the TM and he said it did happen. I’m gob smacked at the lengths the police are going to now, because in my eyes what the Mercedes driver did is what I’d call driving without due care and attention.
Just thought I’d put this out there, I knew the police were having a seat belt and mobile phone purge on stretches of the M1 & M62, but this is a new one on me
ROG:
Previous to this with the cops, was the driver too close to other vehicles so the cops decided to see if he did it again ?
Not as far as I’m aware, he said the car came past at about 70mph, pulled in about 100 yards ahead and just slowed down to around 50mph
Have to say on the basis of what you tell us here I think the coppers have done nothing wrong? Tailgating is a major cause of accidents with the worst offenders being truck drivers in my experience, it’s high time some action was being taken.
selby newcomer:
I had a chat with one of the rigid drivers where I work this morning, he told me he got pulled on the M62 near the A19 junc on Tuesday afternoon. He said it was about 2:30pm and the motorway was flowing freely with not much traffic on it at all, he’s minding his own business in lane 1 when a Mercedes car came past him and pulled into lane 1 and began slowing down for no apparent reason, rigid driver reacted to this and braked and wondered what the guy is up to, the gap had closed to about a rigid length between the 2 vehicles, then a tractor unit is along side the rigid with a copper in the passenger seat videoing both the Mercedes and the rigid, the copper in the tractor gestures for the rigid driver to pull over. The rigid and tractor unit are both stopped on the hard shoulder and the copper jumps into the rigid and begins to tell him why he had been stopped, he tells the rigid driver that they have evidence to prosecute him for “driving without due care & attention” as when the Mercedes pulled into lane one and slowed down he didn’t react quick enough and ended up far too close to the Mercedes. The copper said they won’t prosecute this time, but told him as a professional driver me needs to be prepared for the unexpected on the roads and the police are cracking down due to alot of incidents with HGV’s involved on the M62, they also asked him to pass the info to other drivers at the depot. The Mercedes car that pulled in front was being driven by a copper working in tandem with the unit.
I was highly dubious wether what he was telling me was true or not, but I asked the TM and he said it did happen. I’m gob smacked at the lengths the police are going to now, because in my eyes what the Mercedes driver did is what I’d call driving without due care and attention.
Just thought I’d put this out there, I knew the police were having a seat belt and mobile phone purge on stretches of the M1 & M62, but this is a new one on me
Well that means it’s true then.
Nothing new here anyway: police being a bunch of [zb]s. Tell us something we don’t already know.
ROG:
Previous to this with the cops, was the driver too close to other vehicles so the cops decided to see if he did it again ?
Not as far as I’m aware, he said the car came past at about 70mph, pulled in about 100 yards ahead and just slowed down to around 50mph
Have to say on the basis of what you tell us here I think the coppers have done nothing wrong? Tailgating is a major cause of accidents with the worst offenders being truck drivers in my experience, it’s high time some action was being taken.
you some kind of ■■■■■■? how was he tailgating the car he says plodding along normally in lane one, car doing 70 goes past comes in at 100 yards then slows to 50 so truck driver in 18 tonne truck reacts then he is tailgating. action needs to be taken against the police in this instance by making a formal complaint. It doesn’t matter prior to this. sorry perhaps the police should actually nick car drivers who drive with fogs on and dipped lights which are incorrectly fitted and blind truck drivers at night huh
How are the police actions so very different from an attempted highjacker? How did Plod know the rigid wasn’t carrying a high value load? Irresponsible entrapment that could have endangered the general public.
Why did they stop on the shoulder? Giving out bowlockings doesn’t fit my idea of an emergency.
Of course it won’t be seen in that light by the berks in blue.
Wiretwister:
How are the police actions so very different from an attempted highjacker? How did Plod know the rigid wasn’t carrying a high value load? Irresponsible entrapment that could have endangered the general public.
Why did they stop on the shoulder? Giving out bowlockings doesn’t fit my idea of an emergency.
Of course it won’t be seen in that light by the berks in blue.
That is pretty much the way the hijackers work here…
So the TM confirmed it was true? Presumably he was in the passenger seat at the time then. I bet that was cozy when the copper jumped in.
To my mind this should have been merged with the ‘Drivers BS’ thread
I wouldn’t put it past the police to pull a stunt like this, but the problem I have with this story is the fact that the police in the tractor unit stopped the rigid themselves.
I was under the impression that the police used tractor units only to get video evidence and left unmarked police cars to pull drivers over and book/warn them.
