Reckless on a public road...

i just unmarked it as a question.. that's all.  you may resume the "bad driver" videos now...

We quite enjoy some of the cop reality TV programs.  Our own Highway Cops is our favourite being NZ based, but the UK ones are good.  We have learned from these shows that a pursuing police car needs permission from the duty Sargent to continue a chase, and that only police drivers with the appropriate training, and driving the right sort of vehicles are allowed to chase anyway.  If a chase becomes dangerous, then the cops have to abandon the chase in the interests of everyone's safety.

What happens more than the law averages would suggest, is that the chased vehicle crashes with tragic consequences, moments after the chasing cop car apparently abandons the chase. On at least one occasion with the crash in sight of the suddenly stationary chasing cop car.  Go figure.

In NZ they don't have much imagination when it comes to traffic violations.  20kph over the 100kph national limit for non dual carriageways is viewed akin to murder, and crossing the central white line is even worse.  It's entirely black and white.  Never mind maximising your sight lines, or getting past slower vehicles and out of the danger area as quickly as is reasonably possible.  What makes that even crazier is that the cops will absolutely bust your butt for driving 10kph under the limit with four or more vehicles queued behind you.  Yep.  They book you for going too slow.

Getting back tho those reality Cop shows, I can remember a biker getting stopped doing 160MPH, and his penalty was having to pay for a driving safety course.  No points on his license, or huge fine plus a 12 month ban from driving.  I don't know who will have run that course, but I have done a couple of motorcycling advanced riding courses with police motorcyclist instructors, and we were reaching 120MPH on 60MPH roads.  Unbelievable!  

But here's the thing.... Wikipedia has a Road Deaths per 100,000 inhabitants table, and the UK has one of the best set of figures out of that long list of countries, with NZ being similar to the USA, so so much for speed is the root of all evil when it comes to road safety.

List of countries by traffic-related death rate - Wikipedia

Last night our national news had an article telling us that the government was considering bring the national limit down from 100kph to 70kph.  This is in a country where you can drive for hours and see a handful of other vehicles.