Screen damage

It's certainly not MOTable. I suspect plod would pull you.

Technically no but I'd be surprised if you got pulled.

You've had a lucky escape. A few lorry drivers have ended up being killed by the same stunt.

Yeah, that's what I thought too - not injured, not dead, and I don't live in Cockermouth so I can't complain :o)

I'd still report it to Police. You never know, they may actually bother to patrol the bridge and may stop someone else getting 'hit'. That certainly wasn't 'thrown up' from another vehicle.

I was told that you have 48 hours from when the damage occurs to get it fixed.

Rob Graham

I agree about reporting it, but I still think a stone flicked up by another vehicle is a possibility. After my own experience, I don't see how you can be certain that it isn't. Mike.

By whom? Depending on what the person stopping you at the time thinks, you could be issued an immediate prohibition.

We have a Speedwatch arrangement in our village and when we were initially being trained in its use a car with black tape round its screen came past. We recorded it but were told by the trainers that it was not an infringement until 48 hours had gone by. In other words, if we saw it again two days later then it could be reported. Maybe the trainers were wrong.

Rob

Thus spake Rob Graham ( snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com) unto the assembled multitudes:

So does that mean the driver of the taped-up car could drive from one end of the country, never being seen by the same observer twice, without infringing the law? I would have thought the 48 hours applies to the time at which the damage occured, surely?

Well yes. Sorry, I hadn't imagined that you would read it any other way. I confirm that the ruling I heard was that you get no more than 48 hours to get the screen fixed, however many people see it or don't see it.

Rob

multitudes:

If no one person ever saw it twice, and no one reported it until they'd seen it twice at least 48 hours appart, there is no way to read what you wrote originally to give that result.

multitudes:

Are you seriously suggesting that anyone will want to drive around with a broken windscreen indefinitely? There are a few odd loopholes in the law or its enforcement, but this certainly isn't one to get worked up about.

multitudes:

No, not really. We could report it if we saw it 48 hours later. But that wouldn't stop anyone else reporting it at any time. But it would not be a legal infringement until 48 hours OF THE SCREEN GETTING DAMAGED, whether we or anyone else reported it or not. It's not the reporting period that's relevant, it's the time taken to get it repaired.

Willy Eckerslyke gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

If he doesn't, I will.

There's _shitloads_ of people happy to drive around with broken 'screens. That's why it was brought into the MOT in the first place.

Really? My area must be more upmarket than I realised then, because I never see any.

I have seen the same f****it driving an Astra estate with no lights visible on the off-side front, on three seperate days though.

Willy Eckerslyke gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

It's certainly reduced a lot since the MOT started including screens, but

- yep - still plenty about. Usually vans.

I've kept out of this until now but its starting to grate with me.

What really saddens me about that comment is that the government is turning us into a Police State remeniscent of East Germany where residents dobbed in people to the Stazi and you're embracing it with glee. They've managed to turn you into informants without you realising, in your case under the guise of a "Speedwatch" programme where despite it supposedly being about speeding motorists, you were conveniently indoctrinated to mention other motoring "offences" that you are not qualified to make a decision on. You started out willingly dob in people doing no harm to others other than allegedly exceeding a number on a stick and now have decided to expand that to other irrelevent motoring misdemeanours which also cause no harm to others.

Naturally you may have your own views on whether you think speeding is OK or not. However, we don't like speeders in our village so we are trying to do something about it. The issue of the broken screen only arose when one of the trainers said that that motorist had 48 hours from when he broke it to get it fixed. We were not setting out to look at this sort of thing, but this information was given to us and I'm passing it on to this NG. From the stir it's causing I wish I hadn't!

But we still don't want speeders. Maybe you do.

Rob

So get a speed camera installed. If its anything like one installed in a village in Lincolnshire that was in the news several months ago, many of the people caught will be the local residents.