All drivers to be "GUILTY!!!" ???WTF??? (and other gubment daftness)

[MinionZombie]

Another beyond retarded idea from a crumbling government: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6841326.ece MINISTERS are considering making motorists legally responsible for accidents involving cyclists or pedestrians, even if they are not at fault. Government advisers are pushing for changes in the civil law that will make the most powerful vehicle involved in a collision automatically liable for insurance and compensation purposes. The move, intended to encourage greater take-up of environmentally friendly modes of transport, is likely to anger some drivers, many of whom already perceive themselves to be the victims of moneyspinning speed cameras and overzealous traffic wardens. How do "green issues" have anything to do with this? I'm flummoxed ... I really am.

[SymphonicX]

fucking hell.... I just don't understand how a group of people can sit around a table and decide that this will make the world a better place...that and taxing the view I have from my bedroom. I mean the levels of stupidity...what are they doing?!!? They know they're out next election, so what's the point in all of this? Making it hard for tories to actually do anything when they get in? Christ. The fact that its a "when they get in" scenario too...depressing. I just don't get it...really I don't...I saw a cyclist peddling down the middle of the A316 with 40mph rush hour traffic whizzing past him...when there was a cycle lane on the pavement for him...tell me...who's fault is that if he gets twatted?

[Tricky]

What............the...........f**k! So next time a cyclist decides the rules of the road dont apply to them & they go flying through a red light straight into the side of my car & knacker my door & wing up, I have to pay for it,and I have to fork out compo for them if they injure themselves in the process?

[shootemindehead]

OK, I'm a cyclist. I cycle everywhere and people in cars can be the ultimate in dickheads...but this? This is just ridiculous.

[MinionZombie]

OK, I'm a cyclist. I cycle everywhere and people in cars can be the ultimate in dickheads...but this? This is just ridiculous. True that, but Tricky is equally true too. Like you've all said - this announcement is just ridiculous. I really do think that those in Labour actually have contracted a mental disease. I'm just waiting to see one of the Balls siblings to come out of #10 wearing a Clown Costume flinging his own shit at the Sky News camera across the road. Either that or for Ed Balls' wife (forget her name) to realise she's a stupid twat who talks absolute gibberish and is in need of a bloody good smack with the common sense stick. I've seen plenty of chavs (on foot, or on bikes) pratting around at the side of dual carriageways, crossing the road rather than using the overhead footpath mere yards away. ... So then what about trucks that get into accidents with cars, or the odd bus? Is it some daft theory of "the biggest is the guiltiest"? I mean, what absolute codswallop ... I can't wait for this to be mocked unmercifully in the blogosphere. ... ALSO - continuing the trend of "guilty until proven innocent" (when it's supposed to be the other way around!): http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ivil-liberties There is a new phrase in law enforcement circles, although it is more about enforcing the state's prejudice than any law. It is the Potential Dangerous Person, or PDP. This label is given by Northumberland and Cleveland police forces to someone who is suspected of crimes but who has not been charged, let alone found guilty of an offence. Under this new designation they will be targeted as criminals, watched and no doubt harassed. ... It is all part of the trend under Labour that allows the authorities to undermine the legal concept of innocence and to determine a person's intentions and take action, without reference to a normal court of law and without informing the individual of the nature of accusations against him or her. On Sunday I wrote about a "sleeper" clause in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 which works with Jack Straw's Protection from Harassment Act 1997 to allow a restraining order to be made on a person who has been acquitted. The power of the state to decide someone's guilt or bad intentions is most notoriously embodied by control orders, where individuals are held under house arrest and effectively deprived of their liberty and livelihood by a process that does not allow them to know the allegations against them or the length of the order. It will be argued by those who have lost sight of the fundamentals of our free society that the PDP scheme is no different from the sort of intelligence work that monitors potential terrorists and hopes to prevent terrorist attacks. Our society has more or less tolerated control orders on the basis that they may save many lives, but now the tools of surveillance and control have without any debate spread into other areas of policing.

[Mike70]

So next time a cyclist decides the rules of the road dont apply to them & they go flying through a red light straight into the side of my car & knacker my door & wing up, I have to pay for it,and I have to fork out compo for them if they injure themselves in the process? that's about it. this "law" is beyond daft. have the folks responsible for making this idiocy up out of thin air stopped to consider a really nasty consequence this law may have? this idea could give con-artists/insurance fraud schemers a freehand. that insurance scam you've always dreamed of? no problem, just get a bike or motorcycle, slam it into a car and then file away at the claims. since the car driver is "automatically" responsible unscrupulous folks will have a field day. besides, holding anyone liable or responsible for something they aren't at fault for, ought to be morally repugnant to anyone with half a brain.

[Tricky]

this idea could give con-artists/insurance fraud schemers a freehand. that insurance scam you've always dreamed of? no problem, just get a bike or motorcycle, slam it into a car and then file away at the claims. since the car driver is "automatically" responsible unscrupulous folks will have a field day. And that is EXACTLY what will happen, its an open door for ridiculous & false claims & an attack on motorists yet again! Due to the way a lot of cyclists ride about in Hull during my commute on a morning & evening I probably wont dare drive through the city centre anymore! They ride none handed alongside traffic, dont signal, wobble all over the road, jump red lights, mount kerbs, ignore cycle lanes & go in the road anyway, and in winter when its dark most of them now have those pathetic little flashing LED's instead of proper lights which can make it pretty hard to see them in fog or rain

[EvilNed]

Come on guys, this law is too dumb to be passed. Alot of dumb laws are suggested each year. But still, this kinda takes the cake. It's doubly dangerous because two of my relatives have accidently killed people on the road when they ran out infront of their cars. They were acquitted in court and there were witnesses and they simply weren't at fault. But with a law like this, they'd be charged with manslaughter.

[MinionZombie]

Come on guys, this law is too dumb to be passed. Alot of dumb laws are suggested each year. But still, this kinda takes the cake. It's doubly dangerous because two of my relatives have accidently killed people on the road when they ran out infront of their cars. They were acquitted in court and there were witnesses and they simply weren't at fault. But with a law like this, they'd be charged with manslaughter. I'm not saying it would pass - it's so preposterously stupid that it could never get that far - but the very fact that this is even being considered at all, is purely shocking.

[SRP76]

Right there in the original post you have the reason. They're trying to force everyone to stop driving vehicles, and either walk or bike. "Save the planet" and all that horseshit. After volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, ice ages, and everything else, I'm pretty sure the planet can survive automobiles. But that's just me.

[Danny]

good lord, so basically the government wants the next generation of brits to be bike riding ex students with 60,000 in debt and only speaking and spelling "LyK Diss" im telling ya dude, moving over to the canuk side of the pond is looking more desperate if you want to make films compared to this country any day of the week. -hell, when i was 9 my mom owned a big long station wagon type car, we where going down the A38 at 70 when the mini in front of us HIT HIS FUCKING BREAKS ON THE MOTORWAY, he hit us, i luckily walked away with whiplash but according to this, because my mom had the bigger car, SHE would have been liable? fuck that for a game of soldiers thats crazy as bollocks.

[Tricky]

Right there in the original post you have the reason. They're trying to force everyone to stop driving vehicles, and either walk or bike. "Save the planet" and all that horseshit. After volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, ice ages, and everything else, I'm pretty sure the planet can survive automobiles. But that's just me. Yep, and it doesnt seem to register in their minds that not all of us live within walking or cycling distance from work!I have a 25 mile commute to my work or 50 miles a day, and no chance of a bus or train to get me there, so im hammered by high fuel costs, hammered by car maintenance because of the condition of our shoddy roads, I pay ever increasing road tax, high insurance (because my last car was written off in floodwater 2 years ago, which apparently counts as my fault too ),& I cant enjoy driving because of the ever more sinister & totalitarian deployment of speed cameras everywhere!I bet the people who first invented the motor car never dreamed it would get like this

[MinionZombie]

Yep, and it doesnt seem to register in their minds that not all of us live within walking or cycling distance from work!I have a 25 mile commute to my work or 50 miles a day, and no chance of a bus or train to get me there, so im hammered by high fuel costs, hammered by car maintenance because of the condition of our shoddy roads, I pay ever increasing road tax, high insurance (because my last car was written off in floodwater 2 years ago, which apparently counts as my fault too ),& I cant enjoy driving because of the ever more sinister & totalitarian deployment of speed cameras everywhere!I bet the people who first invented the motor car never dreamed it would get like this All this bleatering usually comes from city-dwelling chatterers who have a whole host of frequent public transport at their fingertips, or the ability to just walk/jog/cycle anywhere they want free and easy. Meanwhile the MAJORITY of the United Kingdom doesn't live in the cities, they live in "semi-rural" areas (and then of course a whole bunch of folk who really live out in the sticks). I live in a semi-rural (mostly rural) area. The nearest town is 2 miles away, which is a long-ass walk in most conditions, barely any buses come by our place (yet there is a bus stop), so they're really infrequent, then you'd have to get on another bus to get to the closest city - and believe me, that takes ages (a combination of the slow-ass bus system, and the one-lane-a-side road that links our town with the nearest city - a city which is 30 miles away, and has no ring-road, so it always takes forever to get to the centre). And that's not taking into account having to go and do shopping, or like me - going somewhere at any time of day and week with a bunch of camera equipment. I couldn't do my job relying on public transport in this area in a million years, but I can with my own transport. Taxis are about, but again you have to wait for possibly a long time, and then they're bleedin' expensive. We don't have rail, or tubes (naturally), so that's out, and while some do cycle, it's very dangerous to do so on the winding, rural roads around here. So the only real way to transport yourself anywhere on time, is by car. good lord, so basically the government wants the next generation of brits to be bike riding ex students with 60,000 in debt and only speaking and spelling "LyK Diss" im telling ya dude, moving over to the canuk side of the pond is looking more desperate if you want to make films compared to this country any day of the week. Innit just.