notaslave
08-08-2007, 04:45 PM
Big Brother may be outfoxed by their own laws.
Creep over the speed limit, and you might get a £60 fixed penalty and three points on your driving licence. Really put your foot down in a built-up area, and the magistrates could relieve you of up to £1,000. And that’s assuming you don’t injure anybody.
But go up a ladder without approved ladder training to install one of those flashing roadside speed indicators, and the bench could have £5,000 off you, plus costs, for working at height without consent. Height in this context could mean 3ft (90cm) off the ground, but you could still end up in the Crown Court. Even if you didn’t break your neck falling off.
Health and safety regulations are now the overarching power in the land, as Lancashire County Council has discovered in its attempt to improve road safety in the northwest by installing electronic speed indicators which are regarded as effective in shaming drivers into slowing down.
Thirty of the devices lie waiting to be put up on their roadside poles, but the council has found that it does not have enough staff qualified to go up ladders to install them.
These days to go up a ladder you have to comply with the Health and Safety Executive’s Working at Height Regulations 2005 (amended 2007) which are the offspring of the EU’s Working At Height Directive born in Brussels in 2001. Last year about 350 road deaths were ascribed to speeding. In the same period 14 people died after falling off ladders.
source: Times more... (http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article2217990.ece)
Creep over the speed limit, and you might get a £60 fixed penalty and three points on your driving licence. Really put your foot down in a built-up area, and the magistrates could relieve you of up to £1,000. And that’s assuming you don’t injure anybody.
But go up a ladder without approved ladder training to install one of those flashing roadside speed indicators, and the bench could have £5,000 off you, plus costs, for working at height without consent. Height in this context could mean 3ft (90cm) off the ground, but you could still end up in the Crown Court. Even if you didn’t break your neck falling off.
Health and safety regulations are now the overarching power in the land, as Lancashire County Council has discovered in its attempt to improve road safety in the northwest by installing electronic speed indicators which are regarded as effective in shaming drivers into slowing down.
Thirty of the devices lie waiting to be put up on their roadside poles, but the council has found that it does not have enough staff qualified to go up ladders to install them.
These days to go up a ladder you have to comply with the Health and Safety Executive’s Working at Height Regulations 2005 (amended 2007) which are the offspring of the EU’s Working At Height Directive born in Brussels in 2001. Last year about 350 road deaths were ascribed to speeding. In the same period 14 people died after falling off ladders.
source: Times more... (http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article2217990.ece)