'Worst Case' Of Driving Filmed By Cop
Discussion
Video here http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13202...
SkyNews said:
A reckless driver who was filmed overtaking eight cars at once by an undercover cop has been banned for driving for 18 months.
Graily's white van, rightIn the police video, Christopher Mark Graily, 39, can be seen driving his Mercedes van at over 60mph on the wrong side of the A614 in East Yorkshire for over 30 seconds.
He is also seen diving in and out of traffic at high speed, passing cars on blind bends and forcing other drivers to brake sharply to avoid him.
The Humberside officer who made the recording from his motorbike said it was a "miracle" nobody was killed.
PC Glen Dennis told the Hull Daily Mail: "In my time as a police officer, this is the worst case of dangerous driving I have come across.
"It is a miracle he didn't kill someone."
Graily, of Marton Road, Bridlington, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving at Hull Crown Court on Wednesday.
He was sentenced to four months in jail, suspended for 12 months, and banned from driving for 18 months.
He was also ordered to pay a £722 fine and given a four-month 9pm to 6am curfew and a 12-month community order.
PC Dennis decided to follow Graily along the road after receiving a number of reports over several days concerning bad driving in the area.
The officer used a covert motorbike with video equipment to film the van driver's dangerous manoeuvres.
"We are happy with the sentence, which reflects the serious nature of the offence," he told the Hull Daily Mail.
Graily's white van, rightIn the police video, Christopher Mark Graily, 39, can be seen driving his Mercedes van at over 60mph on the wrong side of the A614 in East Yorkshire for over 30 seconds.
He is also seen diving in and out of traffic at high speed, passing cars on blind bends and forcing other drivers to brake sharply to avoid him.
The Humberside officer who made the recording from his motorbike said it was a "miracle" nobody was killed.
PC Glen Dennis told the Hull Daily Mail: "In my time as a police officer, this is the worst case of dangerous driving I have come across.
"It is a miracle he didn't kill someone."
Graily, of Marton Road, Bridlington, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving at Hull Crown Court on Wednesday.
He was sentenced to four months in jail, suspended for 12 months, and banned from driving for 18 months.
He was also ordered to pay a £722 fine and given a four-month 9pm to 6am curfew and a 12-month community order.
PC Dennis decided to follow Graily along the road after receiving a number of reports over several days concerning bad driving in the area.
The officer used a covert motorbike with video equipment to film the van driver's dangerous manoeuvres.
"We are happy with the sentence, which reflects the serious nature of the offence," he told the Hull Daily Mail.
Greendubber said:
14-7 said:
Mind you, he probably thinks he's a really good driver!
Yep, he's more than likely a member on here and will be along soon starting a thread about how unfair it is that he's been collared as he thinks he's a 'Driving God'...so that means the Police should leave him alone 
Yeah, I overtook all those cars without crashing! That's how good I am!
Interesting.
I'm not perceptive enough to judge from this grainy, small-scale video all the nuances that may have been involved. It appears, however, that:
- all the overtakes in the first sequence were on. The road was straight as a string, there were no offside roads or lay-bys (with the exception of a possible dirt access point into a field on the right), he had good visibility ahead at all times.
- The overtakes in the second sequence appeared to begin after he had reached the exit of a bend, leading into another long, straight section, and therefore he would have had sufficient visibility there as well. It is not clear why he pulled back in just after the initial overtake of the little van; the van driver touches his brakes, although the "Dangerous Driver" had not used his own brakes. I'd accept that he pulled in anomalously and thus upset the van driver, although it's not clear where the actual danger was. There was rudeness.
After pulling in front of the little van, the D Driver then pulled out to the offside to resume overtaking, but you can see that, two or three cars ahead of him, another car has already done the same. Again, his view appears to be clear, particularly considering that the D Driver has a high vantage point.
He is said by the narrator to have exceeded the speed limit, although it is not clear by how much. The first set of overtakes was past a string of cars whose drivers were, in sheep-like fashion, trailing line-astern behind an HGV that was itself probably travelling at 40 or so. Not exactly prima facie evidence of a serious speeding offence by the overtaker.
Two of the three times that he pulled out to the offside, he even appeared to hesitate in order to establish a view ahead before committing to the overtake, something that at least 95% of all overtakers fail to do.
So the offences here were:
- pulling in front of the little van, although with apparently no change in speed,
- possibly exceeding the speed limit, although by not a great deal, and
- making quite a few perfectly legitimate overtakes.
If this guy in fact committed other offences not in the video, fair enough. If his most basic "crime" was, however, having the nerve to make a number of legitimate overtakes, then four months in jail and an eighteen months ban seem absurd.
I'm not perceptive enough to judge from this grainy, small-scale video all the nuances that may have been involved. It appears, however, that:
- all the overtakes in the first sequence were on. The road was straight as a string, there were no offside roads or lay-bys (with the exception of a possible dirt access point into a field on the right), he had good visibility ahead at all times.
- The overtakes in the second sequence appeared to begin after he had reached the exit of a bend, leading into another long, straight section, and therefore he would have had sufficient visibility there as well. It is not clear why he pulled back in just after the initial overtake of the little van; the van driver touches his brakes, although the "Dangerous Driver" had not used his own brakes. I'd accept that he pulled in anomalously and thus upset the van driver, although it's not clear where the actual danger was. There was rudeness.
After pulling in front of the little van, the D Driver then pulled out to the offside to resume overtaking, but you can see that, two or three cars ahead of him, another car has already done the same. Again, his view appears to be clear, particularly considering that the D Driver has a high vantage point.
He is said by the narrator to have exceeded the speed limit, although it is not clear by how much. The first set of overtakes was past a string of cars whose drivers were, in sheep-like fashion, trailing line-astern behind an HGV that was itself probably travelling at 40 or so. Not exactly prima facie evidence of a serious speeding offence by the overtaker.
Two of the three times that he pulled out to the offside, he even appeared to hesitate in order to establish a view ahead before committing to the overtake, something that at least 95% of all overtakers fail to do.
So the offences here were:
- pulling in front of the little van, although with apparently no change in speed,
- possibly exceeding the speed limit, although by not a great deal, and
- making quite a few perfectly legitimate overtakes.
If this guy in fact committed other offences not in the video, fair enough. If his most basic "crime" was, however, having the nerve to make a number of legitimate overtakes, then four months in jail and an eighteen months ban seem absurd.
I've looked at the footage several times and what I see is over ambitious driving that really can't be condoned and was unwise but:
1. generally there was no oncoming traffic
2. the people who were happy to sit in line did the usual thing of closing gaps to force him to stay in the oncoming lane
3. the police motorcycle followed through on his manoeuvre...
Overall, the type of driving that would cause me to mutter 'twat' under my breath and take suitable precautionary action. The penalty would seem somewhat harsh IMO.
1. generally there was no oncoming traffic
2. the people who were happy to sit in line did the usual thing of closing gaps to force him to stay in the oncoming lane
3. the police motorcycle followed through on his manoeuvre...
Overall, the type of driving that would cause me to mutter 'twat' under my breath and take suitable precautionary action. The penalty would seem somewhat harsh IMO.
I understand the points you make but several people actually show brake lights and there clearly isn't enough room for him to pull in safely should anything appear coming towards him.
Take in to account the width of the road, the type of vehicle he is driving and the weight of traffic I don't think they were safe manouvres (opinions vary obviously).
On the second sequence he is also overtaking on a blind left curve due to the HGV obscuring his view. Sure there is a car overtaking but the one holding back behind the HGV appears to be looking for an overtake (positioned towards the centre line although not correct in that scenario) only to have the white van barge past when he clearly couldn't see anything and was just winging it.
His driving obviously isn't that good if the Police had received numerous complaints as well over the preceeding few days.
Take in to account the width of the road, the type of vehicle he is driving and the weight of traffic I don't think they were safe manouvres (opinions vary obviously).
On the second sequence he is also overtaking on a blind left curve due to the HGV obscuring his view. Sure there is a car overtaking but the one holding back behind the HGV appears to be looking for an overtake (positioned towards the centre line although not correct in that scenario) only to have the white van barge past when he clearly couldn't see anything and was just winging it.
His driving obviously isn't that good if the Police had received numerous complaints as well over the preceeding few days.
So basically they have forced him out of a job and he has a god chance of loosing his house for what to my eyes look no worse then any other driving i see on a daily basis.
He overtook 8 cars in a row, so what i have done that as well and i am not aware of there being a maximum amount of cars you can overtake.
The second overtake you can clearly see he is following another car which is also over taking.
But then i remember overtaking is basically illegal now and considered to be highly highly dangerous
This country is s
t at times
He overtook 8 cars in a row, so what i have done that as well and i am not aware of there being a maximum amount of cars you can overtake.
The second overtake you can clearly see he is following another car which is also over taking.
But then i remember overtaking is basically illegal now and considered to be highly highly dangerous
This country is s
t at timesHave to say I'm with flemke on this one. I don't see anything there particularly dangerous. I wouldn't be particularly upset if somebody passed me like that.
I have overtaken 5 or 6 cars in a oner, if they seem to be dawdling along following a lorry or something. As long as you watch for people pulling out in front of you, what's the problem?
If the overtakes were so brazenly dangerous, around blind bends etc, then how does the motorcyclist (who must have been feeling even more vulnerable surely) manage to keep up like that?
The video says that the police were reacting to complaints from drivers on that route. I think that the art of overtaking on single carriageway roads is dying, and because a lot of people can't do it, they resent anybody else who can, hence the stupid headlight-flashing and coffee bean gesticulations when you pass perfectly safely. The next step for those morons is to go running to the police and report "bad driving", when in reality they don't have a bloody clue what good driving is.
This guy may have been driving like a nutcase, he may deserve to be punished, I wasn't there, so I don't know. It's certainly not clear from the evidence of that article or the video though.
I have overtaken 5 or 6 cars in a oner, if they seem to be dawdling along following a lorry or something. As long as you watch for people pulling out in front of you, what's the problem?
If the overtakes were so brazenly dangerous, around blind bends etc, then how does the motorcyclist (who must have been feeling even more vulnerable surely) manage to keep up like that?
The video says that the police were reacting to complaints from drivers on that route. I think that the art of overtaking on single carriageway roads is dying, and because a lot of people can't do it, they resent anybody else who can, hence the stupid headlight-flashing and coffee bean gesticulations when you pass perfectly safely. The next step for those morons is to go running to the police and report "bad driving", when in reality they don't have a bloody clue what good driving is.
This guy may have been driving like a nutcase, he may deserve to be punished, I wasn't there, so I don't know. It's certainly not clear from the evidence of that article or the video though.
tvrgit said:
Have to say I'm with flemke on this one. I don't see anything there particularly dangerous. I wouldn't be particularly upset if somebody passed me like that.
I have overtaken 5 or 6 cars in a oner, if they seem to be dawdling along following a lorry or something. As long as you watch for people pulling out in front of you, what's the problem?
If the overtakes were so brazenly dangerous, around blind bends etc, then how does the motorcyclist (who must have been feeling even more vulnerable surely) manage to keep up like that?
The video says that the police were reacting to complaints from drivers on that route. I think that the art of overtaking on single carriageway roads is dying, and because a lot of people can't do it, they resent anybody else who can, hence the stupid headlight-flashing and coffee bean gesticulations when you pass perfectly safely. The next step for those morons is to go running to the police and report "bad driving", when in reality they don't have a bloody clue what good driving is.
This guy may have been driving like a nutcase, he may deserve to be punished, I wasn't there, so I don't know. It's certainly not clear from the evidence of that article or the video though.
I have overtaken 5 or 6 cars in a oner, if they seem to be dawdling along following a lorry or something. As long as you watch for people pulling out in front of you, what's the problem?
If the overtakes were so brazenly dangerous, around blind bends etc, then how does the motorcyclist (who must have been feeling even more vulnerable surely) manage to keep up like that?
The video says that the police were reacting to complaints from drivers on that route. I think that the art of overtaking on single carriageway roads is dying, and because a lot of people can't do it, they resent anybody else who can, hence the stupid headlight-flashing and coffee bean gesticulations when you pass perfectly safely. The next step for those morons is to go running to the police and report "bad driving", when in reality they don't have a bloody clue what good driving is.
This guy may have been driving like a nutcase, he may deserve to be punished, I wasn't there, so I don't know. It's certainly not clear from the evidence of that article or the video though.
I have to agree. From the limited evidence of the film, there doesn't seem to be too much wrong.14-7,
We're just exchanging views here; please don't think that I'm trying to stir anything up.
Yes, at times there were no gaps in which to pull in safely, but if you can see that there is nothing ahead, what would be the need to pull in? If you say that it would be better for the van driver to hesitate a bit before each individual overtake, in order to be sure that the next car has clocked him, that is true, although you can often judge from a car's "body language" whether its driver is thinking of pulling out in front of you. If anything, it may have been that the estate driver braked because he was surprised by the police motorbike closing from behind him. There were loads of overtaking opportunities in the first sequence, yet no one apart from the van driver seemed interested. It would have been fair to judge that all the other vehicles were intent on holding station.
It appears that the concerned Trafpol of E. Yorks were not concerned about all the tailgating in the video.
It would have been the "fault" of the tailgaters that there were sometimes no gaps.
In the second sequence, the only vehicle that braked was the little van. As I said above, that move of pulling in front of it was poor, certainly rude.
If the car directly behind the HGV was looking for an overtake, the van driver should have hestiated, which he does not appear to have done. At the same time, the car on the nearside was not using its indicator, and was too close to the HGV to get a view anyhow.
At the end of that sequence, there are lights ahead of the HGV. It's not clear if they belong to an oncoming vehicle or, if so, how far ahead it might have been. If it was oncoming, and near, then that could have been dangerous driving by the van.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the worst thing the driver did was to upset people by having the gall to overtake them. We see every day how many drivers are content to sit in a long, slow-moving queue of vehicles on an single-lane carriageway, unwilling to overtake, but perfectly happy to tailgate. These people not only do not wish to overtake, which is fair enough, but they themselves do not know how to overtake, and they resent it when someone else does some overtaking, even when it is safely and correctly done.
Cheers.
We're just exchanging views here; please don't think that I'm trying to stir anything up.
14-7 said:
I understand the points you make but several people actually show brake lights and there clearly isn't enough room for him to pull in safely should anything appear coming towards him.
In the first sequence, there was only one car that momentarily used its brakes, a silver estate. He used the brakes when the van was already abreast of him, as the estate itself was tailgating the car in front. The estate's braking may have been related to its being overtaken, but I don't see how it was the result of the van's doing anything wrong. Rather, the estate driver was not paying attention.Yes, at times there were no gaps in which to pull in safely, but if you can see that there is nothing ahead, what would be the need to pull in? If you say that it would be better for the van driver to hesitate a bit before each individual overtake, in order to be sure that the next car has clocked him, that is true, although you can often judge from a car's "body language" whether its driver is thinking of pulling out in front of you. If anything, it may have been that the estate driver braked because he was surprised by the police motorbike closing from behind him. There were loads of overtaking opportunities in the first sequence, yet no one apart from the van driver seemed interested. It would have been fair to judge that all the other vehicles were intent on holding station.
It appears that the concerned Trafpol of E. Yorks were not concerned about all the tailgating in the video.
It would have been the "fault" of the tailgaters that there were sometimes no gaps.In the second sequence, the only vehicle that braked was the little van. As I said above, that move of pulling in front of it was poor, certainly rude.
14-7 said:
Take in to account the width of the road, the type of vehicle he is driving and the weight of traffic I don't think they were safe manouvres (opinions vary obviously).
Do we know what the overtaking van weighed? Unladen, it would have been lighter than most of the cars that it overtook. 14-7 said:
On the second sequence he is also overtaking on a blind left curve due to the HGV obscuring his view. Sure there is a car overtaking but the one holding back behind the HGV appears to be looking for an overtake (positioned towards the centre line although not correct in that scenario) only to have the white van barge past when he clearly couldn't see anything and was just winging it.
When he pulled out on the left bend, which really appears to be a long sweeper, with at least some forward vision possible, the HGV was three vehicles ahead. The van driver certainly could see some distance before him.If the car directly behind the HGV was looking for an overtake, the van driver should have hestiated, which he does not appear to have done. At the same time, the car on the nearside was not using its indicator, and was too close to the HGV to get a view anyhow.
At the end of that sequence, there are lights ahead of the HGV. It's not clear if they belong to an oncoming vehicle or, if so, how far ahead it might have been. If it was oncoming, and near, then that could have been dangerous driving by the van.
14-7 said:
His driving obviously isn't that good if the Police had received numerous complaints as well over the preceeding few days.
There could have been other examples, not in this video, of far worse behaviour by this driver, although I inferred that the reason that his video was released to the public was because it was the police evidence against the driver, and therefore the basis for the actual charge.I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the worst thing the driver did was to upset people by having the gall to overtake them. We see every day how many drivers are content to sit in a long, slow-moving queue of vehicles on an single-lane carriageway, unwilling to overtake, but perfectly happy to tailgate. These people not only do not wish to overtake, which is fair enough, but they themselves do not know how to overtake, and they resent it when someone else does some overtaking, even when it is safely and correctly done.
Cheers.
I have to say as well, I was watching that video expecting something truely shocking, and instead saw a van make some overtakes that appeared safe, if "ambitious" and probably unneccesary....
I have stayed on the offside for durations approacing 30 seconds, and overtaken long lines of vehicles perfectly safely and within the speed limit. I had the sense to check that a police motorcycle wasn't following me, of course
The penaly seems out of proportion to me. If a marked police car had made these overtakes it would be pats on the back all around, but WVM does it and gets 4 months imprisonment! The last burglar I nicked got 2 months....
I have stayed on the offside for durations approacing 30 seconds, and overtaken long lines of vehicles perfectly safely and within the speed limit. I had the sense to check that a police motorcycle wasn't following me, of course
The penaly seems out of proportion to me. If a marked police car had made these overtakes it would be pats on the back all around, but WVM does it and gets 4 months imprisonment! The last burglar I nicked got 2 months....
gazza_3 said:
Thats a joke, i over took 8 cars in one move on the way to Stansted, everything was fine, much like the one in question, fair enough he made that little van brake but then he just touched the brakes, when i was overtaking those 8 cars i had a focus the same as me following me during the maneuver which shows how safe it was. Poor bloke really. "Worst driving" he's seen, obviously his first shift then.
vonhosen said:
gazza_3 said:
Thats a joke, i over took 8 cars in one move on the way to Stansted, everything was fine, much like the one in question, fair enough he made that little van brake but then he just touched the brakes, when i was overtaking those 8 cars i had a focus the same as mine follow during the maneuver which shows how safe it was. Poor bloke really. "Worst driving" he's seen, obviously his first shift then.
EFA
EFA twice
. I've been up since 4:30 AM let me off this time Edited by gazza_3 on Thursday 26th June 21:54
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