Speed kills - even at work

[JonRB]

Just had this come round on the corporate email at work.

email said:

As I am sure you are all aware the traffic speed limit around the site is 10MPH. This speed limit is in place for the Health & Safety of all on site. Unfortunately there are several drivers who seem to ignore this speed limit and treat the roads as a bit of a race track and several near misses have been reported at certain black spots. After discussion at the XXXXX Meetings, Security have been instructed to identify any driver who repeatedly drives over the 10MPH limit and consideration will be given to remove the privilege of bringing their vehicle on to site in the future. We will be installing several additional traffic calming devices in the near future to assist with slowing traffic speeds, however in the mean time I would ask everyone to monitor their own speeds whilst driving on our roads to reduce the risk of any accidents.

Words fail me. We have lost. Lentilist brainwashing is now affecting every walk of life.
What next, a ban on running in the corridors?

[Mr E]

We have some very nasty speed bumps on site.

They're getting the bill for my suspension rebuild. Four figures.

They won't pay, but it will piss them off.

[birdbrain]

Maybe I've misunderstood your point, but are you saying that it's OK to drive like a looney around your site at work because it's not on the roads? Wouldn't it piss you off if someone hit your car because they were driving stupidly?

[Mr E]

birdbrain said:

Maybe I've misunderstood your point, but are you saying that it's OK to drive like a looney around your site at work because it's not on the roads? Wouldn't it piss you off if someone hit your car because they were driving stupidly?

Point is, I can drive like a complete idiot at 10mph as well.

[JonRB]

birdbrain said:

Maybe I've misunderstood your point

I think you have misunderstood my point.

There is security, CCTV, etc. already in place. Every car brought on-site has to be registered against the owner (including make, model, colour, numberplate, owner's department, manager, phone extension, etc.) or else be signed in.

So if there are a few bad cases, why not simply identify them and take them to one side for a good talking to?

Nope, far better to enforce a frankly ludicrously low limit on everyone and waste money building pointless "traffic calming" measures. So just like the real world then.

Edit: Have you ever tried driving at 10mph? I can walk faster than that.
Actually I'm not sure my TVR can go that slow without dipping the clutch!

>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 14th July 09:59

[bruciebabe]

We have a 10 MPH limit at work and it is a Good Thing with people getting in and out of parking spaces and walking around to and from their cars. If I saw anyone speeding I would report them because I don't want to be a victim. Obviously I wouldn't report myself but I have better judgement than all other drivers so that is OK.
btw one hero in a 7 series demonstrated his throttle oversteer control in the snow last year, straight into the parked cars.

[birdbrain]

OK, I see. It's the same in many workplaces though - the companies don't want to take responsibility for speaking to individuals so they punish everyone. My department has a problem with a handful of people being late or sick all the time and instead of dealing with them, the management punish us all by introducing blanket policies.

[ApexClipper]

bruciebabe said:

one hero in a 7 series demonstrated his throttle oversteer control in the snow last year, straight into the parked cars.

Ok, granted I probably wouldn't be laughing much if it was my car he hit, but I have to have a bit of a snigger at the types who show off their spectacular car control only to end up getting it spectacularly wrong!

[germancarfan]

The problem will come when some dull witted fool who knows sweet FA about cars heres the noisy uncivillised TVR and automatically thinks its going fast even though its crawling along and reports said TVR driver for dangerous speeding.

[simpo two]

How did they decide on 10mph as a reasonable figure?

How can they enforce it without calibrated measuring equipment? And is there such a thing as private enforcement of private speed limits? I know that home-made signs have no legal force.

There would also seem to be a wide band of appropriate speeds between 10mph and 'racetrack', though this reasonable middle gound is not mentioned.

Furthermore, I doubt if speedos funtion accurately at 10mph.

If you'd like to supply the Head Lentilist's e-mail address, I'm sure we can get working on him/her/it...

[skinner]

What sort of frim do you work for? We have a 15mph limit on site, for very good reasons. There is a large yard with both fork lift trucks and lorrys moving in all directions (one way system, whats that?)

If they were all to go at higher speed, not only is there a higher chance of them hitting a stationary object, but there is a much higher chance of them hitting a moving soft object, like me.

I think that it really is a common sense thing, they will have seen these 10mph signs elsewhere and decided that one rule for all will work. If they are threatening with security, yet they don't want to deal with these problems head on it will never be solved until they have the HSE breathing down their necks over a "serious" incident.

[slinky]

I recently got pulled into the office to be told that a member of another department had complained to their manager that my driving between our two car parks (joined by public road!) had scared them?!?!?!?

I was in the cento FFS and I only got to the top of first!!

So now I have to drive gently..

the trouble is, I've had a stressful drive to work, get into the main car park (surrounded by office so therefore rather secure) to discover that there are no spaces left, due to motorbikes parking in full car spaces!! so I have to then turn around and drive to the "back" car park, which backs straight onto a canal tow path (usually frequented by pikeys!!!) ..

needless to say, I'm normally not chuffed about doing that so I give it a bit of jonny large potatoes between the two.. not breaking the speed limit as I'm only in first..

Which F**kwit goes to their manager to complain that my driving "Scared" them..

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

slinky

[Mr E]

Someone was scared by an 'ickle Fiat?

My Chinq was many things (cute, honest, fun, small, amusing, unreliable etc etc.)

Scary it was not. Ever*



*Well, except the emergancy stop I had to do 5-up when a 5-series decided to cut me up and then stomp on the brakes

[simpo two]

slinky said:

I recently got pulled into the office to be told that a member of another department had complained to their manager that my driving between our two car parks (joined by public road!) had scared them?!?!?!?

Typical corporate cowardice, made worse as you did nothing wrong and didn't even do it at work! All this bleating line management stuff pisses me off. Which is why I don't have a manager!

[dern]

JonRB said:

So if there are a few bad cases, why not simply identify them and take them to one side for a good talking to?

You're right Jon, I've called security to identify the culprit and they've just towed someone's chim... apparently he was treating the car park like a drag strip while taking a work colleague for a test drive last week, poor sap eh?

The beauty of sending this email out rather than talking to the culprits is that anyone who drives at 20 rather than 10 will assume that it's aimed at them and chances are many more people will slow down than would do if the security people took the genuine racers and pushed them down the stairs.

Could be worse, the security guys at Honda where I worked prior to coming here had speed guns!

Mark

[dern]

simpo two said:

Typical corporate cowardice, made worse as you did nothing wrong and didn't even do it at work! All this bleating line management stuff pisses me off. Which is why I don't have a manager!

Christ, what did you do with him?

[JonRB]

dern said:

I've called security to identify the culprit and they've just towed someone's chim.

Nice try Mark, but I've got the Corrado today.

[dern]

JonRB said:

dern said: I've called security to identify the culprit and they've just towed someone's chim. Nice try Mark, but I've got the Corrado today.

Curses

[james_j]

bruciebabe said:

We have a 10 MPH limit at work and it is a Good Thing with people getting in and out of parking spaces and walking around to and from their cars. If I saw anyone speeding I would report them because I don't want to be a victim. Obviously I wouldn't report myself but I have better judgement than all other drivers so that is OK. btw one hero in a 7 series demonstrated his throttle oversteer control in the snow last year, straight into the parked cars.

I wonder if the BMW driver would have acted differently if the "safety" limit of 10mph was in place then...

"...OOO, I'd better not have a play at sliding around a bit in case I break the speed limit..."

[jacko lah]

I am a manufacturing engineer and as part of my job I have to do risk assessments on things that I change. It is both a legal and insurance requirement.

When asked to improve areas I've not been involved with I ask to see the risk assessment so that I know what risks are there.

Now, I'm assuming that your site has plenty of other risky work 'stations' other than the car park and drives ?

Why not :
1) Ask to see the car park and drive risk assessment and see how they scored it. (If we have ever had a near miss on a machine we score the likelyhood high but we also refer to the accident or near miss report)
2) Ask to see if the company has checked insurance, licence, tax, and MOT of all vehicles using the site. Explain that in order to reduce the risk they need to know that everyone is qualified.
3) Point out more dangerous processes than driving round the site.
4) Assume that the memo was sent by E-mail, have you had a FREE eye check and Display Screen Equipement risk assessment. Insist on these as your legal right
5) Have company car drivers had frequent medicals ? Risk assessment should really be suggesting that anyone that uses a company car (pool or status) should go on an IAM defensive driver course. How many accidents in company cars off site ? If you've had one then the occurance on risk assessment needs to be high.

Incidently I've just spotted one of our so called qualified fork lift truck drivers, who does not have a proper driving licence (he has a push iron), in an unregistered and untaxed forklift unloading a wagon on the public highway. I'm about to have works with our safety Co-ordinator.