SMIDSY'D by a lincolnshire police officer(traffic)

[sabestian]

This is a very similar situation to the one I had my previous bike written off. Glad it turned out better for you. It will stay in the system for a while, though.

[T.C.]

glad you escaped well saved !

traffic bizzies seem to be trained to drive fast but not to drive well these days

And therein lies most of the problem

Times have changed for the worst. I know I keep harping on about "back in my day" but back then to drive a 1.3 Panda car you had to do a 4 week standard course.

To go on traffic, you had to attend a 4 week intermidiate advanced course to authorise you to drive a traffic car but with restrictions and then you went on the 4 week Home Office advanced course which for us was either at Chelmsford or Maidstone, and then if like me you went on bikes, you started all over again.

And then every two years you went back for a refresher where you could lose your class 1 and come back with a 2, but it kept you on your toes.

There was also professional pride. We were issued with our own car or bike and it was ours for as long as it was in service, and so you looked after it, kept it clean and if there was any damage it was down to you as (apart from the occasional Sgt or Inspector) no one else drove or rode it.

My old crewmate is an instructor on the driving school and he was explaining to me only a few weeks ago how things have changed.

Panda car drivers in the main have a 1 hour test drive, and if they are safe, they are authorised to drive a marked vehicle albeit a diesel.

Traffic officers now go straight onto the advanced course which is now three weeks in total, and instructors are under orders to give class 1 tickets even though they are not of the standard required, and in some cases WPC's have been given a class 2 even though they struggle to drive to class 3 standard because of all this political correctness rubbish.

So overall driving standards have dropped substantially, bosses have tried to save money thereby standards have dropped, and we no longer have the professional traffic officers who had to be of a better driving standard than the public if for credibility purposes if nothing else.

I am not saying I don't make mistakes, we all make mistakes no matter how well qualified we might be, but I quite often cringe when I see some of the antics some so called traffic cops pull these days, but they seem to think it is OK because they are "Traffic Cops" and don't like to be told that they are not of the calibre you would expect from so called professional drivers

Sorry, I will get of my soap box now

[Willopotomas]

Stay on it T.C.. Please.. One of my pet hates is bad driving.. More so bad driving by the Police, who should be at a better standard of driving than more or less everyone else on the road. Some of the tricks I see them pull make me want to pull them over for a word in their ear. I do after all contribute to their wages, but I'm bound to be the one being told off under some "section 5" bullshit..

lol..