Dangerous drivers who put lives at risk on Shropshire roads are being shopped on a website which could be used by police to warn motorists about their driving.
The website - betterdrivingplease.com - was set up to give members of the public the chance to report motorists they have seen driving dangerously.
And county motorists are already making use of it.
Reports from the Telford area include a 56-registration lorry reportedly doing 56mph on a 40mph stretch of the A442, and an S-registration car tail-gating on the M54 near Telford Services.
The driver of a V-registration Subaru was also reported for dangerous driving on the Dovaston to Kinnerley Road.
WiresFree said: “While stopped and indicating to allow my daughter to reverse off our drive, the Subaru nearly rear-ended me, swerved to other side of road, and nearly caused a head-on collision with my daughter.”
An R-registration car was reported for pulling a trailer with no number plate on the A518 at Telford and an 04 registration van for “cutting up”on the A5 near Shrewsbury.
Sarah Warren, Telford police spokeswoman, said: “While we cannot comment on individual websites, West Mercia Police are committed to road safety.
“Any reports made to the police in relation to how a vehicle is being driven are recorded and evaluated and appropriately dealt with.”
Andrew McGavin, a road safety campaigner who set up the website is in talks with police chiefs about them checking their records against the website database, then writing to offenders.
24 Comments
I hope the police evaluate the poor driving of police vehicles in the manner that they target non-police drivers
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Whilst not condoning dangerous driving I wonder how many malicious and unsubstantiated accusations will appear on this site?
I would also be interested to know if the police would be as enthusiastic for a similar site commited to naming and shaming anti-social behaviour and crime without evidence being substantiated.
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Good idea in principal however the major contributors seem to be Sunday drivers who object to being overtaken when they are probably travelling well under the speed limit and therefore posing as an obstruction.
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Salopprode nicely said .. just another way for the police to go after the motorist for more money
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If you are concerned about the driving of another road user you should call the police, after all it is their job, and one of the few that they seem to concentrate on (unless you are testing your new car).
Websites such as these are open to abuse and strike me as the haunt of the petty minded snooper with too much time on their hands.
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Cool! And when does the person running this site get sued for libel and go “boo-hoo-hoo” all the way to the court?
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Whilst I agree there are far too many ‘idiot’ drivers out there driving dangerously, this is certainly not the way to address it.
There are far too many drivers on our roads with poor driving ability and even worse reactions, who crawl around holding everything up, secure in the belief that they are ‘driving safely’ and that anyone who dares to pass them is a lunatic. This sad website just plays right into these fools.
I would suggest anyone who finds themselves on there should seek a good solicitor and sue them. I cant believe it is legal for people to be publicly berated like this without any evidence.
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If we reverted to public transport and horses we wouldn’t need websites like this.
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This is an outrage and smacks of some petty, small minded idiot who wishes to be more important than he realy is. The Police should refuse to monitor sites of this nature and tell people if they have a complaint of bad driving they should personally report it to Police, make a statement of the evidence - with the details of witnesses and leave them to consider it on its merits. Sarah Warren is entirely correct and gives a diplomatic response but if this fool approached me when I was serving, I think he would have had cause to complain of a very undiplomatic reply. How about somebody following Mr. Andrew McGavin to check on the standard of his driving -that is if he drives a car, knowing his type, he probably rides a sit-up-and-beg -bike.
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Sorry Guy’s, But you may have the very best of intentions in setting up this site, but you are so wrong to do this.
Anyone who enters any comment on this site about another persons actions whether in respect of driving a vehicle or any other matter leaves themselves wide open for a civil action to be taken against them by the named persons for defermation.
And without proof that would stand up to scruitancy in a court of law, they themselves could end up seriously out of pocket.
Making any accusations in public, even if true but can not be proven is moving into very dangerous territory, and a mine field of cross claims with horrendous possible consequences.
MY BEST PROFESSIONAL ADVISE IS TO STAY WELL CLEAR OF THIS AND ANY OTHER SUCH SITES.
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I hope “WiresFree” reported his daughter as well as the Subaru, as it is very dangerous ato reverse onto a main road, I think it’s actually illeagal.
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I too get very worked up and annoyed by some peoples poor driving skills, erratic and some times dangerous behaviour behind the wheel. But having read some of the drivel posted on that site by one serial poster. Maybe his time may be better spent on concentrating on his own driving than making notes on other people reg numbers and then having to brake suddenly avoiding the (alleged driver) 2feet pulling over in front of him. We pay a police force to enforce the laws and have numerous cash raising speed cameras to entrap even the most careful motorists. Let the boys in blue do the job they are paid for with out having to resort to so vigilante highway men.
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I just had a quick read out of curiosity. It comes across as 354 pages of infant school “tale telling”.
This one caught my eye. It reportedly took place on the A5 between Telford and Shrewsbury.
“Tailgated me in wet weather in the outside lane at 70mph. I moved over to the nearside lane and he continued to tailgate drivers for the next 5 miles”.
If the complainant was able to move into the nearside lane then what were they doing in the outside lane in the first place? Lane hogging?
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Sounds like a good idia to me.
I disagree with john jones about the police making money from the motorist.
I dont think they will make any from me,as i always try to drive my old tranny van with the utmost care and courtesy in accornance with relevant laws.
It’s not difficult realey.
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So we are trusting the views of motorists to decide who is driving bad?
No offence but how many times a day do you get cut up by and idiot who then tries to make out that it was your fault????
What’s saying i fall out with my neighbour and they decide to make up some rubbish on this site to where my numberplate would then be advertised…
It’s illegal to advertise someones address without consent…is this also the case for private vehicle data???
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I’ve been lurking on this site for over 12 months now, and many of the “reports” are shocking on their own. Comments such as “the driver speeded up behind me, then overtook and speeded on”, and “I was doing 70 on the M69 and two cars overtook me doing at least double the limit” (the reporter still managed to get both reg plates though).
By far the worst though are those who take photos of the “dangerous” driver using their mobile phones from the car!! Maybe it hasn’t occurred to these people that using a mobile, even if the car is stationary, is illegal if the engine is running.
It’s a poisonous little site that adds nothing whatsoever to improving nor discussing road safety.
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about time the public turned to
diy there are too many dangerous and careless drivers about after all if one collides with you if he can he will most likely bugger off and leave you with a hefty bill
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Mind you, perhaps when the person from the “Safety” (sic) Partnership who parks his ENTIRE VAN on pavements whilst servicing the speed camera is put on that site..?
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I think I might start a website where people can post the number plates of all the totally inconsiderate drivers who crawl round our main road network, usually at the busiest times, holding everything up. We’ve all seen them with 15 or 20 cars and lorries all stuck behind them, driving for mile after mile at a turtle speed because they’re in no hurry, but too thick to think about pulling over and letting everyone else pass. They are the cause of many accidents as they frustrate drivers behind into overtaking out of desperation. Isnt it about time we started identifying these dangerous drivers?
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What a lot of winging comments.So what do people suggest we do about the bad drivers? Quite clearly the Police do nothing as they need to get their own house in orderand stop looking after their own!If you drive within the law you should have nothing to fear. I do though agree that the site could be abused>
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So how else are we to deal with the two million cars on the roads that the Police admit are unregistered, uninsured, untaxed, No MOT, - that’s one car in every 15 - if you are hit by one of these who picks up the bill - you - the driver may be untraceable. Add ambiguous number plates that you can’t read and mobile phone drivers - you mean to tell me - let the boys in blue deal with it - where are they - you can drive hundreds of miles without seeing a police car on the motorway - highways agency officers are not empowered to stop vehicles and can not exceed 70mph. Yes, anything can be abused - but is that a reason to winge and do nothing. Unless the public start to help the Police 1 in 15 rogue vehicles will become 1 in 10 and we will all know somebody who has suffered because we did nothing.
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As one of the ‘winging’ contributors to this page, I feel I have every reason to ‘winge’. Police officers are trained in law and so able to accurately assess who is breaking it. Contributors to this website are not trained, and are expressing a personal opinion on other people’s driving standards. That they are able to publicly vilify people who may have been driving perfectly safely, albeit not to their personal liking, is completely wrong. People who have poor perception skills are as common as those who have poor spelling skills. Therefore, Dave and Andrew, I will continue to WHINGE.
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Thanks David - that is what democracy is all about but did you know that in English Law a qualified driver is qualified to have an opinion of another motorist’s driving? Here is the definition: A person is to be regarded as driving dangerously if and only if: (a) the way he drives falls far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver; and (b) it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving in that way would be dangerous.
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I think you are misunderstanding the definition. It is not saying that a competent driver is entitled to judge another person’s driving, it is saying you will be regarded as driving dangerously if you are driving in a manner which, if you were a competent driver, you would consider dangerous.
If the website required contributors to prove their ‘competence’ prior to posting, I would have no objection. In the last 5 years I have driven a quarter of a million miles on business, fortunately accident free. I am as frustrated as anyone with the ‘idiots’ on the road, but I am equally frustrated by the selfish slow-coaches who drive around at a snails pace holding everyone else up, without a thought of pulling over even when the queue of vehicles in their mirrors stretches off into the distance. They are mostly elderly, and their reactions, sadly, have slowed over the years to a level where it is very questionable whether they are still ‘competent’ at driving. Because their reactions are so slow, they are unable to drive at the same speed as younger drivers. This does not mean the younger driver is driving dangerously, although the older driver often believes that, because they themselves would be unable to safely drive at the same speed. Perhaps the website should require the contributors age as well ?
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