Cop kicks runaway driver's head in!

A suspected traffic violater is in custody, after leading police on a high speed chase in El Monte, Southern California. The driver failed to pull over after a violation, driving at top speed before trying to make a run for it. On arrest, he was kicked by the policeman. Not only that, another policeman cuffs him violently and a third lets his dog bite the guy's feet.

Rough justice or what? I'm all in favour of getting dangerous drivers off the road, if that's the case, but two wrongs don't make a right. Surely the police of California have got that message by now?

Lord Ahmed banged up in jail!

Another driver who thinks he is above the law is jailed. This time it is Lord Ahmed, who will be doing six weeks out of a 12 week stint. After all, nobody but the most depraved does the full stretch. Ahmed won't have time to figure out where everything is before he is let out again.

The driver of the car he hit was killed. 12 weeks for that? I wonder if Lord Ahmed voted for a ban on hand-held mobile phone use whilst driving when it went through the House of Lords. It's an utter disgrace.

Only this morning whilst walking my children to school a driver on his mobile phone casually turned into his driveway right in front of us. He didn't appear to have noticed. If he'd hit us, would it have been careless, dangerous or what?

Some people are just too arrogant and selfish for their own good. Perhaps as Lord Ahmed sits in his cell tonight, chewing over the rights and wrongs of life with his cellmate, he can reflect on it all. And a good run round the excercise yard will stimulate the brain cells!

Kate Middleton on her mobile whilst mobile!

It is part of modern day culture, I suppose. People doing what they want when they want because they think only of themselves. It would be very surprising if Kate Middleton, who has been caught using her mobile phone whilst driving, didn't find her brain engaging itself with her hands and ears BEFORE she spoke on the phone. The problem was that she chose to ignore that message, because momentarily she was above and, as she hoped, beyond the law.

Every day I see several such people blithely ignoring the demand to desist from using a handheld phone whilst driving. When spotted, they normally react with a mixture of childish arrogance and disdain.

What are we to do with such people?

Anne Robinson banned from driving

The UK is in a total shambles, as Alan Sugar might say, when it comes to road safety, speed policy and driving habits. Yesterday Anne Robinson, she of the Weakest Link fame, was banned for driving under the totting up procedure. She had another speeding conviction to her name.

Her lawyer, Michael McGoldrick, came up with a pretty weak link! He said she had not seen the camera as she was disorientated by the road system on her first ever visit to Portsmouth. Come on, Mr McGoldrick, everyone knows that it is 30mph within a city centre, unless it is a dual carriageway indicating 40mph or more. And in any case, does the fact that she had not seen a speed camera mean that she can speed?

The whole system is ridiculous. The authorities are out to raise money by catching speeding motorists but make little or no effort to re-inforce good behaviour by placing quality, instructive road signs where they should be.

I think a whole new educational approach is required. We need to get away from the racing around regardless of others approach and behave a bit more decently as citizens. I would trial in certain areas roads with no markings. Let the drivers learn to be cautious, careful and considerate. Think it won't work? Well, its been done in the Netherlands and it does work.

The result will be a less stressful driving experience, but it will have its downside. The authorities will lose out on fines, the accident repair business will be upset, and the road painters will have to look elsewhere.

I'm all in favour of getting our roads back to civilisation and away from the current mayhem. Ms Robinson thought it OK because it was a Sunday morning. I suppose the magistrate listened to this weak explanation because he was going to fine her anyway. All he could say was "I am sorry she won't have a very pleasant memory of her first visit to Portsmouth".

We won't get very far with magistrates and everyone else just playing the same old record!

Boston cell phone party - no danger at all!

In the "I can't be bothered" department of politics, I think Massachussetts Senate President Therese Murray takes the prize for this month's Clutz Award! She says of a bill to ban people from holding cell phones or sending text messages whilst driving (which may die in the state Senate this year), "I haven't given it any thought. No one has asked me for it, so it's not something that is at the top of my radar." Such a casual approach to potential death and injury on the roads. What does she care? Not a lot, because she hasn't given it any thought. Well, she has actually because she's talking about it, but this is arrogant politician speak for "I don't care!".

I know that using a mobile phone whilst driving is a potential hazard. When it was still lawful, or at least not illegal, in England to do so, I found it distracting to say the least. Now with the ban, now four years old, it is quite apparent that it causes accidents leading in some cases to death. In England in August 2006, a lorry driver who caused a woman's death because he was distracted by his mobile phone was jailed for four years. John Payne, 31, had been punching the keypad of his new phone and failed to spot a traffic queue ahead. His lorry crashed into a Peugeot 106 driven by Trinity Taylor, 23, rolling over the top of the car crushing it, and killing her. Outside Winchester crown court, after Payne was sentenced, Ms Taylor's family said motorists caught using mobiles should face as much stigma as drink-drivers.

I wonder what the politically astute Senate President thinks of drunk drivers? At one time they were socially accepted. And that is the trouble. Casual behaviour leading to a superior arrogance behind the wheel is still socially acceptable for mobile phone use. Rep. Joseph F. Wagner, D-Chicopee, a key architect of the House bill, said there's been a proliferation of drivers holding and talking on their cell phones whilst driving in Massachussetts (and presumably the whole country!). Wagner said it's a distraction for drivers to use cell phones, and he's backed up by statistics from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Wagner said the bill is needed to improve safety on the roads and save lives. All this is lost on the Senate President, as she hasn't "given it any thought".

I'm all for freedom and liberty, but there comes a time when freedom to be stupid, reckless, or just be downright anti-social is to deny others the right to a freedom to enjoy security and safety.

Therese Murray is simply a silly woman!