Private road - can I go nuts?

[OverSteery]

I work in a business park with a 1/2 mile 'private road' to the actual building I work in. There are metal gates from the road that are closed annually. Just after these gates (which are usually open) there is a manned security barrier, opened for each vehicle. So from previous postings here, I think it does count as private land.

When I've passed this barrier, am I therefore outside the reach of the normal traffic laws?
- Are the 15mph signs of any legal significance?
- Can I remove my crash helmet (when on a motorbike)
- Can I wheelie for the remaining 1/4 mile to the office (OK, I'm not that good at wheelies)
- What duty do I owe the landlord? no doubt my employer has a contract with them, but I don't.

Clearly I am not going to do any of these things, so its a purely hypothetical question, but I am interested to know the position.

[John Laverick]

I can't answer your question but a mate got a written warning at work for drifting his car into the car-park one early morning.

[PaulD86]

OverSteery said:

- Are the 15mph signs of any legal significance?

Can't answer your question other than to say that the lowest speed limit in the UK for a public road is 20. There were 15 mph limit signs up on a road near me which were deemed unenforceable. They were replaced with 20s. This is in Scotland so may differ from the rest of the UK.

[Pica-Pica]

There may be 5, 10, 15 mph signs in various car parks but UNECE reg 39, only requires speedometers to be tested at 40kph (about 25 mph).

I would imagine you could be done for other things though on private land.if an employee and your boss’s land, I am sure you have a duty of care within his your employment/engagement contract somewhere.

[eybic]

iirc private land is considered to be land that the public has no access, an access road in my mind is not private as the public can gain access to it.

[S11Steve]

eybic said:

iirc private land is considered to be land that the public has no access, an access road in my mind is not private as the public can gain access to it.

I'd agree - if it is behind closed gates, then crack on, but if it is accessible by the public, then you are at risk of points etc.

I had a customer present his licence with 6 points for an IN12 endorsement - most insurance endorsements are shown as an IN10, so this was a new one on me
He had been giving his 15 year old kid driving lessons on a supermarket car park one Sunday evening when the shop was closed, police arrived - father got an IN12 for aiding and abetting..

[AllyBassman]

S11Steve said:

I'd agree - if it is behind closed gates, then crack on, but if it is accessible by the public, then you are at risk of points etc.

I had a customer present his licence with 6 points for an IN12 endorsement - most insurance endorsements are shown as an IN10, so this was a new one on me
He had been giving his 15 year old kid driving lessons on a supermarket car park one Sunday evening when the shop was closed, police arrived - father got an IN12 for aiding and abetting..

Interesting,

I wonder how they get around this at the Trafford centre where they provide driving lessons to under 17's in a large part of one of the car parks!

[eybic]

AllyBassman said:

S11Steve said:

I'd agree - if it is behind closed gates, then crack on, but if it is accessible by the public, then you are at risk of points etc.

I had a customer present his licence with 6 points for an IN12 endorsement - most insurance endorsements are shown as an IN10, so this was a new one on me
He had been giving his 15 year old kid driving lessons on a supermarket car park one Sunday evening when the shop was closed, police arrived - father got an IN12 for aiding and abetting..

Interesting,

I wonder how they get around this at the Trafford centre where they provide driving lessons to under 17's in a large part of one of the car parks!

I'd guess that they are insured for it whereas the guy that the poster above refers to did not.

[Gary C]

John Laverick said:

I can't answer your question but a mate got a written warning at work for drifting his car into the car-park one early morning.

Nice one.

When my site was still technically still a construction site, one of the overspill carparks was rough ground and i used to drift my manta between the gap in the chainlink fence

[Durzel]

Presumably you're not the only business that occupies this business park.

Perhaps ponder about bringing your company into disrepute and how that can lead to a gross misconduct charge.

[Gary C]

Durzel said:

Presumably you're not the only business that occupies this business park.

Perhaps ponder about bringing your company into disrepute and how that can lead to a gross misconduct charge.

Oh come on, he wasnt suggesting he was going to go nuts, just a theoretical question

[Durzel]

Gary C said:

Oh come on, he wasnt suggesting he was going to go nuts, just a theoretical question

Just pointing out that companies seldom have a sense of humour over things like this. Pulling a wheelie (and being seen to do this by other company's employees or whatever) might be perceived to be bringing the company into disrepute.

Would be a shame if the OP thought there were no other considerations than the legality of it.

[donkmeister]

I know people who are no longer allowed to drive on the sites they work on due to such acts of mindless fun.

As these sites are all former and current airfields, they now have long walks at the beginning and end of their working days...

I would think your employer can ban you from driving on the site.

Also, spare a thought for the consequences... Where I work we ended up with massive speedbumps everywhere because people were ignoring site speed limits and going 30ish, and huge tyre damage things because some numpty refused to look both ways when crossing a one-way road whilst another numpty took a shortcut the wrong way on a one-way road.

Do you want to be driving/riding over speedbumps?

[anonymous-user]

If it's a true private road, you will be outside the remit of a lot things like drink driving, dangerous driving etc, but there is still the rare offence of Wanton and Furious Driving if you hurt someone, plus other possible criminal offences and potential civil liability.

If you're not going to hurt someone / damage anything then you're probably fine with respect to any of the above. That may not apply to a company's misconduct proceedings if relevant though!

[S11Steve]

donkmeister said:

As these sites are all former and current airfields, they now have long walks at the beginning and end of their working days...

I would think your employer can ban you from driving on the site.

Again, I agree - we have a significant number of vehicles at Bruntingthorpe, and even though they run VMAX events there up to 240mph, whens it's company time, site rules apply.
I know we are all driving Gods here and 200mph runs are a nothing more than a gentle breeze...., but the planning and safety logistics that go into a VMAX event are very different to the day to day operations of the site when there are 2000+ vehicle movements per day, dozens of car transporters and hundreds of staff milling about.

But sitting at the end of an empty runway in a Jaguar F Type R with "no clearance for take-off" is a little upsetting though

[bucksmanuk]

I work on a major defence site… Armed police on the gates stuff…
The site speed limit is 20 mph, and all we normal workers stick to that limit. I arrive - put it on cruise at 19-20 and pootle off to “my” parking space. There are flashing sings warning you of being just 1 mph over.
But there are many police on site, and do they stick to the 20- limit, especially past our office? No.
In quieter moments we time them between known bollards and the record so far this month is 37 mph. No blue lights on, no sirens, no urgent call to attend to. Our comments go nowhere.

[Wacky Racer]

OverSteery said:

- Can I remove my crash helmet (when on a motorbike)
- Can I wheelie for the remaining 1/4 mile to the office (OK, I'm not that good at wheelies)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbiR_fQ38s

[Darth Viper]

I was involved with some filming at this runway (they film some car program there) and there are all these speed limit signs around (some low number). But given a large open tarmaced space, who can resist a few donuts?

[GravelBen]

bucksmanuk said:

But there are many police on site, and do they stick to the 20- limit, especially past our office? No.
In quieter moments we time them between known bollards and the record so far this month is 37 mph. No blue lights on, no sirens, no urgent call to attend to. Our comments go nowhere.

Try pushing a cardboard cutout of a policeman out in front of them

[Centurion07]

Pica-Pica said:

There may be 5, 10, 15 mph signs in various car parks but UNECE reg 39, only requires speedometers to be tested at 40kph (about 25 mph).

.

Not to mention a speed limit ending in a 5 needs to be personally signed off by the Home Secretary so genuine ones are almost unheard of.