A tractor driver has been caught trundling along at a top speed of 24mph (38km/h) down the M1.
It is understood the driver ended up on the M1 after following directions from his satellite navigation system.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-27809029
www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Tractor-driver-arrested-driving-slowly-motorway/story-21226928-detail/story.html
"Police said the driver was arrested for driving without due care and attention and his one tonne tractor was seized."
One tonne?? I suspect it weighs a lot heavier than that.
|
|
Seized for what breach of what law I wonder?
|
|
Perhaps - Not exceeding the minimum speed limit.
|
>> Seized for what breach of what law I wonder?
To quote from the website:
"By law, farm tractors, cyclists and other slow-moving vehicles are not allowed on motorways."
|
>> >> Seized for what breach of what law I wonder?
>>
>> To quote from the website:
>>
>> "By law, farm tractors, cyclists and other slow-moving vehicles are not allowed on motorways."
>>
In the old days (1980s) I recall flipping great blue signs at the foot of motorway entrance slip roads - at least on the M1 in Bedfordshire - displaying a long list of prohibited vehicles. Don't recall seeing them anywhere in recent times.
|
>> In the old days (1980s) I recall flipping great blue signs at the foot of
>> motorway entrance slip roads - at least on the M1 in Bedfordshire - displaying a
>> long list of prohibited vehicles. Don't recall seeing them anywhere in recent times.
I remember such signs in sixties when the gradually extending M1 became part of our route to Dorset/IoW etc. Now superceded by the standard international carriageway/overbridge icon which is assumed to cover all the prohibitions.
|
|
Every tractor driver with a brain knows motorways are a no go area... doesn't need signs for them to know that surely.
|
Why would a farm machine driver/operator need satnav.
Anyone else got:
Fast
Scenic
Eco
Plough the fields and scatter
journey options?
|
|
Well of course you are referring to a car satnav but many of the ones from the last 10yrs have the most amazing field mapping GPS systems to give accurate application of sprays etc.
|
|
I came across a satnav for farmers back along that helps them plough big fields in straight lines.
|
I knew someone would bring that up :-)
Actually steers the tractor for accurate seed distribution (stop it).
I don't think the tractor ones have the M1 and Marble Arch though.
|
|
I would appreciate some of them investing in tail lights for their ruddy great bale trailers which are currently running 24/7 before they buy Pratt Navs.
|
I've not used any more than a map to get from A to B in the past, but I must say that I was quite impressed with the TomTom Go that I used on a longish journey recently.
The 3.5" screen was too small for me, but I am sure that I would get along just fine with a larger version - or possibly the 3.5" mounted on the dashboard rather than the windscreen.
|
I've not used any more than a map to get from A to B in the past, but I must say that I was quite impressed with the TomTom Go that I used on a longish journey recently.
The 3.5" screen was too small for me, but I am sure that I would get along just fine with a larger version - or possibly the 3.5" mounted on the dashboard rather than the windscreen.
|
>> I've not used any more than a map to get from A to B in
>> the past,
Do you find you forget things as you get older? Repeat yourself, that sort of thing?
|
>> Do you find you forget things as you get older? Repeat yourself, that sort of
>> thing?
>>
Certainly not, I say, certainly not.
And, thanks to your speedy response, I say, thanks to your speedy response, I am unable to remove my duplicate post.
:-)
|
>> or possibly the 3.5" mounted on
>> the dashboard rather than the windscreen.
Don't be too quick to fit it to the dashboard.
I used to have our satnav fitted to the dashboard air vent, via a very useful little adaptor sold by Brodit... and very useful it was to... until I found that eventually I couldn't read the damned thing without my reading glasses on, which is an unnecessary faff when you are driving and otherwise don't need them... so it's back on the windscreen now.
|
>>I couldn't read the damned thing without my reading glasses on
The 3.5" satnav was perfect while I had my reading glasses on, but unfortunately the road ahead wasn't!
|
It genuinely worries me how little some people I know can actually see and who hold valid driving licences.
Just because they could read a number plate during their driving test possibly decades ago doesn't necessarily mean they have sufficient visual ability to be safe now.
( I wonder why my iPad wanted to change sufficient to 'suffice cat'? ) funny things spell checkers.
When I see my mother in law for example peering through her bottle end glasses while leaning forward over the steering wheel clutched white knuckle tight it does give give one pause...
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sun 15 Jun 14 at 11:48
|
>> It genuinely worries me how little some people I know can actually see and who
>> hold valid driving licences.
>>
The eyesight requirements for driving are scarily low. I have worn glasses for over 50 years and consider my eyesight without to be dreadful. My optometrist assures me that my eyesight without glasses still more than meets the driving licence requirements.
|
I fell foul of Satnav stupidity for the first time this weekend. I've been a refusnik for years, but my current phone has the free google maps navigation thing, and I needed to go somewhere unfamiliar on Saturday and I thought, well, you know what, let's embrace the new century at last and try it out.
I knew how to get to the town I was going to, but didn't know the precise location in that town to which I was heading. So I stuck the post code in and off we went. I noticed straight away that the thing wanted me to go the long way round using main roads/motorways when I knew the best, shortest and most scenic route already, so I ignored it, and it kept on trying to divert me all the way to said town.
Then we got in to the town and I needed to rely on it to find the specific destination. As I arrived at a staggered crossroads, it looked to me as if it was recommending a right then an immediate left. At that exact moment a telephone started ringing - but it was not mine. And that was the only phone in the car. Confused and pushing buttons on the aftermarket Nokia handfree thing by the steering wheel to try to shut it up, I turned right and then saw no immediate left to turn in to. Then I saw it. A silver E class estate bearing down on me, head on. And then I realised. I was in a one way street going the wrong way. I hadn't seen the no entry signs due to being distracted by the ringing thing (whatever it was) and the satnav screen on my phone. Anchors on and swift swing in to handy car park on my left. But oh. That's no ordinary car park. It's a Police station. Yes, there are some left.
Fortunately for me I managed to do a three-point turn and get back on the road going the right way before anyone else spotted me.
At journey's end I realised what it was that was ringing in the car. The car has an old aftermarket satnav installed, kind of a blue and grey screened old fashioned thing which is hardwired behind the dash and in to the handsfree set etc, which I have never got round to removing. I have merely dismounted it and hidden it in a dashboard cubby hole out of the way untiil I get a man to rip it out. It is one of those satnavs which has an incoming-only telephone line apparently - I never knew such tings existed. And for some reason someone had dialled that number at precisely that moment.
So, on balance, I'm not a convert yet. And I feel a bleedin' fool for having relied on it and been distracted enough to make a really, really bad mistake.
So Runfer/WdB, if you were in Didcot on Saturday, and you were nearly killed by a pillock in a Mazda, sorry.
|
>> if you were in Didcot on Saturday
I've made the same mistake on Mereland Rd too. Got to the end of Church St and turned right (I didn't see the LH turn only sign prior to the junction). Fortunately it's only a short distance to the Broadway from there and no one was about.
|
>>Fortunately for me I managed to do a three-point turn and get back on the road going the right way before anyone else spotted me.<<
Don't celebrate too early. Video camera enforcement technology maybe smarter than it used to be, but it still relies on snail mail to send out PCNs!
The days of the PCN being in the email Inbox before you have finished the 3 point turn cannot be far away.
|
Thanks for that thought.
:-(
|
Unless I'm much mistaken, or continuing to be distracted, I can't see a camera around this particular cop shop.
tinyurl.com/q3tpe5c
|
Used to know Didcot very well - grew up only a couple of miles from there - but it was before I was a driver. Went back in 2005 for a job interview and got hopelessly lost trying to find my way out. But no, I wasn't still there last Saturday.
};---)
|
I use my elderly TomTom One quite a bit - in some ways it has made me more adventurous in picking destinations.
However, before I used it in 'anger' I went on a couple of trips to places I definitely knew to
1. make sure it was taking me the way I expected and could be trusted and
2. find out how precise it was in giving directions.
As a result, apart from one unscheduled trip to a golf club car park that required an 8 point turn due to the jobsworth on security, it has never sold me a pup in terms of routing.
Last edited by: Alastairw on Mon 16 Jun 14 at 13:14
|
|
1 tonne? sounds more like one of those garden tractors than a farm tractor.
|
More Sat-Nav Stupidity - Meldrew
