My day with the Motorway Police 

Part 4

Little more cruising and coming back through Oldham on the hard shoulder a gentleman is running back to his car complete with caravan so we stopped and discovered he was on the hard shoulder because he had run back to see if his mate was still following him. It gets better now, he could have been booked for being a pedestrian on the hard shoulder, no tail lights on the caravan, registration on caravan different to the one on the car. But he managed to top all that by not being insured to drive the car, he was driving it because his boss told him to. He was actually working for a circus and it looked as if all the clowns had come to town on the same day. It took a full hour from seeing him running to getting the vehicle and caravan towed away.

On the whole it was a most informative day not to mention entertaining for some of the excuses people came up with as to why they shouldn’t be booked. I think what I get from this more than anything else is we need more police, throughout the whole day we were a very visible presence and with those few exceptions the more we were seen the more people didn’t break the law, and if the police ever want someone to ride around in a marked police car just as deterrent I’ve already volunteered. There is just no comparison whatsoever in the actions of drivers I see from my Green School of Motoring car and what I saw from a marked police car.

My day with the motorway police

 Part 3

Five minutes later we see a five foot length of steel across the middle and outside lane and while we’re on the hard shoulder waiting for a rolling road block to take effect so it can be cleared cars are racing past seeing it at the last moment and having tyres shredded which meant several vehicles needing assistance on the hard shoulder. Simon got out to clear the carriageway once the rolling road block took effect.

Little more driving and being visible took us to  the police waiting area at the side of the west bound M62 to keep an eye on traffic generally and to look out for one particular vehicle which  might be coming our way, that turned out to be a no show. But I must say with a marked police car sitting there everyone behaved themselves.

Later as we came down to the roundabout joining the M60 to the M62  someone had broken down at the lights so Simon tucked the car in behind them for their safety got out and rustled up a police tow to a safer place with a breakdown vehicle.

Traffic Police

Part 2

Strolling up the M62 at about 60mph watching everyone behaving themselves, in the outside lane was a car heading East bound speeding, we followed him at a distance for several miles without lights or sirens. Eventually we caught him up as he was doing just over 80mph in the centre lane tailgating and over taking. When Simon pulled him over onto the hard shoulder he said the reason he kept overtaking at speed was because he’d heard that from today (Monday) you could be booked for loitering in the centre lane and yes he did see us behind him but didn’t want to get booked so kept overtaking. When it was pointed out to him that he could have just kept his speed down he just kept saying he didn’t want to get booked for being in the centre lane. He didn’t get booked for being in the centre lane but did get booked for speeding. Had he lived closer to home I would have given him one of my cards and offered refresher lessons.

My day as an Observer with our local Traffic Police.

Part 1

Arrived at Chadderton Police Traffic Headquarters for 7am and was quickly ushered into Simon’s BMW 330d.  where, with lights and sirens we headed for an incident on the motorway. Not nice so we’ll skip over that.

From there we went towards Stockport and saw a driver without seat belt. Followed him off the motorway and by that time he had put on his seat belt, he was invited into the back of the police car.  When asked if he knew why he’s been stopped he replied, “For using my mobile” 

When the car was checked on the ANPR the driver showed up as having previous convictions for using a mobile. But since he wasn’t actually seen using it he was only booked for the seat belt offence.

As we finished with the seat belt a call came through about 20 miles away and so the next thing we know we’re flying along the motorway with lights and sirens at about 110mph. Ten miles further on the call was cancelled. So back down to about 60mph.

Booking Tests

Can't seem to figure out how to explain to pupils that when they went to book any of their tests they either go through Direct Gov or through my website, where they can book their tests at no extra cost.I constantly tell them not to just put in book my test or whatever it is they use to be directed to a booking agency where it seems some charge as much as an extra £20 booking fee.

Orange Sunrise

Useful advice! Just returned from an all inclusive Mediterranean cruise, not sure if you could get free booze for 24 hours or not? But we became addicted to the non alcoholic cocktail Orange Sunrise. Came home, bought everything we needed to recreate the drink.
What a mistake, we either didn't mix it correctly or could it be that it tasted better on location on the back of a cruise ship in the hot (34deg) Mediterranean Sea than cold, wet Manchester?

sean@greensschoolofmotoring.co.uk: Yahoo! UK

sean@greensschoolofmotoring.co.uk: Yahoo! UK: Yahoo! UK Green School of Motoring Ashton-U-Lyne has just lost a pupil because I'm holding him back. He booked his test and I told him ...