{"id":209,"date":"2007-09-23T08:36:55","date_gmt":"2007-09-23T07:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=209"},"modified":"2007-09-23T14:12:26","modified_gmt":"2007-09-23T13:12:26","slug":"and-now-from-the-ministry-of-stupidity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=209","title":{"rendered":"And now from the Ministry of Stupidity"},"content":{"rendered":"

background:<\/em><\/p>\n

The world has given us\u00c2\u00a0automatic speed cameras.<\/p>\n

Vehicles that are detected as exceeding the speed limit are photographed.<\/p>\n

The policing authority in which the offence took place checks the\u00c2\u00a0vehicle registration details\u00c2\u00a0with DVLA.<\/p>\n

The policing authority send the registered keeper\/owner a fixed penalty notice that:<\/p>\n

Asks if the registered keeper\/owner was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence (and\u00c2\u00a0therefore,\u00c2\u00a0admit to the offence and receive a light-ish fine and a three penality point endorsement on their driving licence).<\/p>\n

The fixed penalty notice also asks – if the registered keeper\/owner wasn’t the driver at the time of the offence<\/em> – for the details of that person, so the fine and penalty points may be awarded to them.<\/p>\n

A flaw in this system came to light: supposing the registered keeper\/owner didn’t know who was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence?<\/em> What would happen\u00c2\u00a0to the fine and the penalty points?<\/p>\n

This situation isn’t<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0impossible, as a logical person in our government should have been able to determine.<\/p>\n

Suppose there’s\u00c2\u00a0a vehicle – might be a minibus, might be\u00c2\u00a0a van – filled with building contractors -\u00c2\u00a0on a long journey, the driving being\u00c2\u00a0shared between a number of folk.<\/p>\n

The problem\u00c2\u00a0is compounded by the fact that it can take up to a month for the fixed penalty notice to arrive at the address of the registered keeper\/owner.<\/p>\n

Would a gang of people\u00c2\u00a0driving somewhere over a month ago remember who was behind the wheel at\u00c2\u00a0a specific time or place?<\/p>\n

Another situation might be even more common:\u00c2\u00a0a husband and wife have one car between them and they too share the driving; who is going to remember whether the husband or the wife drove home from that family visit\u00c2\u00a0or that shopping trip almost a month ago?<\/p>\n

In these situations the court has – up until now – decided that they can’t award any penalties because they don’t know who to award the penalties to.<\/em><\/p>\n

Very good logic – given that the legal system was designed to go for the driver and not the registered keeper\/owner.<\/p>\n

and now today:<\/em><\/p>\n

In an attempt to close this loophole the admin section of UK PLC have decided that where the registered keeper\/owner of the vehicle is unable to identify who the driver at the time of the offence was (you can almost guess what’s coming, can’t you?)…<\/p>\n

The penalty points should be applied to the driving licence of the registered keeper\/owner.<\/p>\n

That’s brilliant Ted (as Father Dougal would exclaim).<\/p>\n

But sadly it isn’t\u00c2\u00a0 brilliant.<\/p>\n

In fact, it’s quite stupid.<\/p>\n

Supposing -\u00c2\u00a0just humour me for a few seconds – just supposing that the registered keeper\/owner of the vehicle didn’t have a licence?<\/p>\n

Oh dear, that’s buggered it.<\/p>\n

But that would never happen, would it?<\/p>\n

Well yes, it happens all the time.<\/p>\n

Supposing the registered keeper\/owner of that vehicle over there is a Ltd company?<\/p>\n

Like, say, Hertz, or Europcar, or Easy?<\/p>\n

Suppose the registered keeper\/owner of that vanfull of contractors was His & Hers Building\u00c2\u00a0Contractors Ltd.<\/p>\n

Or the owner of that minibus was King David School?<\/p>\n

Sigh.<\/p>\n

Humanity: so much potential, but\u00c2\u00a0outweighed by so much stupidity.<\/p>\n

B<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

background: The world has given us\u00c2\u00a0automatic speed cameras. Vehicles that are detected as exceeding the speed limit are photographed. The policing authority in which the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}