http://peat.me.uk/2006/05/16/fog-light-cabbie-gets-jail/ Thoughts from, and the lives of a Canadian and a Brit living in Southern England. Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:01:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://peat.me.uk/2006/05/16/fog-light-cabbie-gets-jail/comment-page-1/#comment-8242 Nick Colloff Sat, 02 Sep 2006 14:10:31 +0000 http://peat.me.uk/?p=688#comment-8242 I, like your columnist, hate the use of front and rear fog lamps when there is no fog around. I have spoken to many people using them in this way and after the prliminary "are you a cop" and "no", 9 time out of 10, I have had a stream of verbal abuse, swearing and physical attacks. I have even had my car keys taken from my car and thrown into a hedge. So, on the basis of the response I get, I believe these morons deserve everthing they get in the way of fines etc. I can bet that the very same people I have spoke to, if challenged by the police or interviewed by the media, would say that they didn't realise they were on or fogot to turn them off and are being unjustifiably targeted. My experience, in the Birmingham area, is that approxximately 5% of all vehicles use fog lamps when there is no fog. This equates to approx 10% of all vehicles fitted with the lamps. I have been in touch with the local Police liaison officer, who although sympathetic, stated that the police have far better things to do than chase these offenders. He furnished me with some figures relating to fixed penalty issues (this was in 2004). The number of fixed penalty notices issued in a 40 week period was 42 - in the whole of the West Midland area. I can deduce from this that there is one police officer who is taking this seriously, and probably being panned for it. I have written to local papers to highlight this problem to no effect. The Police aren't interested, the general public aren't interested, there is total apathy when it comes to this problem, and others like it. My view is that this results in people, particularly young people, believing if they can get away with this very visible offence they can get away with anything. In the majority of cases they are probably quite right. But it's nice to see the system working, even if it is in a microscopic way. I, like your columnist, hate the use of front and rear fog lamps when there is no fog around. I have spoken to many people using them in this way and after the prliminary “are you a cop” and “no”, 9 time out of 10, I have had a stream of verbal abuse, swearing and physical attacks. I have even had my car keys taken from my car and thrown into a hedge.
So, on the basis of the response I get, I believe these morons deserve everthing they get in the way of fines etc. I can bet that the very same people I have spoke to, if challenged by the police or interviewed by the media, would say that they didn’t realise they were on or fogot to turn them off and are being unjustifiably targeted.
My experience, in the Birmingham area, is that approxximately 5% of all vehicles use fog lamps when there is no fog. This equates to approx 10% of all vehicles fitted with the lamps. I have been in touch with the local Police liaison officer, who although sympathetic, stated that the police have far better things to do than chase these offenders. He furnished me with some figures relating to fixed penalty issues (this was in 2004). The number of fixed penalty notices issued in a 40 week period was 42 – in the whole of the West Midland area. I can deduce from this that there is one police officer who is taking this seriously, and probably being panned for it.
I have written to local papers to highlight this problem to no effect. The Police aren’t interested, the general public aren’t interested, there is total apathy when it comes to this problem, and others like it.
My view is that this results in people, particularly young people, believing if they can get away with this very visible offence they can get away with anything. In the majority of cases they are probably quite right. But it’s nice to see the system working, even if it is in a microscopic way.

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