Drivers fined for ignoring no entry sign
Monday 23rd May 2011, 2:29PM BST.
A DOZEN drivers have been fined after risking head-on collisions by ignoring a temporary one-way.
L’Aumone has been restricted since Monday so Guernsey Gas could cut off an old service and Guernsey Electricity could install new services.
The one-way system is from L’Aumone Garage towards the traffic light junction.
Sergeant Martin Harris (pictured) said drivers ignoring the signs was a major issue.
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I dont understand, if you read the paper it says the drivers were given a 30 pound fine and wouldnt have to go to court.
Why should this one way be treated any differently to any other? Surely the drivers should have gone to court and faced the usual penalty, including, if the judge sees fit a disqualification
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What a waste of tax payer’s money, there’s been a police officer standing there everyday for the past week or so now, such a waste of money, why can’t they go and catch the vandals setting alight the cars or throwing them off the cliff. Or are they too busy trying to pay off their 4×4 BMW vehicles?
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@ Mr G
Why do people ignore the sign?
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Er, how can you turn the police sensibly stopping drivers driving the wrong way up a one way into an anti police rant?
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If the police want to catch another bag full they need to bring their speed gun down to Le Felconte where the current (temporary) speed limit is just 20 mph. In a couple of days they’d probably make enough money to pay for the proposed pumping station at L’Eree.
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Neil
Its easy if your anti police.
Glanstar
I agree.
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Agree, Neil. The police are here to uphold the law and, although nobody would argue there are more serious crimes to deal with, that doesn’t mean other offences should just be ignored.
It would be a different story if a child had been knocked down.
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well stated neil.police get a bad press even when its in the publics safety so to do.what about the accidents they are preventing for that handful of people who always do what they wish without a thought on the outcome.
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for your information it wasnt Police standing there 24/7, a Traffic Warden spent more time there than the Police.
People need to learn that No Entry means just that, putting workmens life at risk is not funny. The diversion put an extra 5 mins into your journey, big deal.
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While not wishing to comment on this particular article, I think that the problem is not helped by motorists becoming increasingly more frustrated when they see roads being closed when there is no real need for them to be closed. It also often the case that road continue to remain closed when there is nothing happening, or the happening is long since passed! For example – why was Kings Mills closed for a further three days after the contractors had finished and moved away. Could it have been that an old 45 gallon oil drum on the other side on the road closed sign was really a IED? If those responsible for road closure signing are unable to get their act together and also use a bit more common sense when applying closures etc., then heads should roll! The excuse given that “it was over a week end and the work could not be signed off until Monday” simply doesn’t wash especially as we are paying through the nose to use OUR roads via fuel tax. Perhaps the unnecessary diversions we all encounter several times a day are simply a (not very well hidden) way for the States to increase fuel tax revenue!
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Why were they ignoring the sign? Was the re-direction of traffic inadequate? Maybe the traffic warden should have been re-directing traffic instead. Obviously people had no idea where to go.
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Drive through a one way the wrong way, risking other peoples lives and get a £30 fine and no court appearance. But if you put your foot down on a completely empty bit of coast road, not risking anyones life, and you get court and a ban. What a joke. They should have been banned as it was dangerous.
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Wil
The report says a dozen drivers have been fined which suggests that the several thousand others who would have passed this way over those few days DID recognise the No Entry sign and DID take the alternative route
These idiots chanced their arm and were caught and fined. Good
I agree with Graham however. Contractors know full well when the job is finished and should be fined heavily if they do not remove the signs at the appropriate time
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This happens often when the Rue Maingy is a temporary one way to the scout campsite.
The worst offenders are the residents of the little clos up on the left.
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Nice idea Ray, except the contractors don’t put the signs out, Environment do.
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Graham,
I see you point, but my arguement this isnt a road closed, this is a specific no entry and one way system.
You can under certain circumstances go down a road closed (access to property etc)
Under no circumstances can you go down a no entry.
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Valandra Bolan
Thanks you for giveing me a real laugh today.
Your comment “putting workmens life at risk is not funny”
Assuming there were ever workmen actually there, that is!!!
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This is all about the safety of road workers.
Everyone commenting seems to be dreadfully middle class and unaware of the dangers of working in a manual occupation.
Being a manual worker is dangerous anyway, without idiots in cars whizzing by within feet of where you’re working.
Can you imagine the outcry if cars were ignoring a No Entry sign in Town next to a Trust company??
And the vibration of the vehicles caused a Trust Administrator’s recently purchased cappachunio from Woodies to spill all over their mouse mat? How dreadful would that be?
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If people insist on ignoring road signage then take their vehicle off of them for a minimum of a week and make them pay £200 to get it back after a road safety test.
I wonder how many would pass. It would also stop the waste of The Court`s time.
I bet that after the word got around you`d have less people trying to take short cuts and the exchequer would be a few thousand better off.
Take a child`s toys away and they soon learn a lesson.
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George
Yep … got me there
So,let’s look at the current situation as I see it
The Boogie Woogie boys of Company B apply to close a road for five days to install a water service / repair a gas main etc
Everything goes very smoothly and the trench is finished and tarmacked in four days.What happens next?
Ideally the Company staff would phone Environment with the good news and would be instructed by Environment to turn the road closed signs to face the hedge before they leave the site, thus re-opening the road as soon as possible.Environment would then direct Public Works? staff to collect the defunct signs,including all the diversion signs within the hour
Unfortunately that seems a little ambitious and the “We’re finished” phone call is perhaps a little late or not made at all
I presume Company B is charged an administration fee for closing the road.Perhaps an early finish rebate on that fee would encourage that call to be made promptly to the great benefit of us all?
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Fools they could have killed someone.
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. . . I don’t think it is Environment who take the signs away!
At the end of the day, if a road is closed, it is closed for a reason. If there is a no entry sign and a barracade across the road, then you don’t go through it.
The road in question was right on the L’Aumone junction – it is completely obvious as a driver that you shouldn’t go down there.
Too many drivers seem to think they are above the law and that “just slipping through” or doing the thing you aren’t supposed to won’t matter in their case.
Maybe they should bring in points penalties on your Driving Licence like the UK and the Police should enforce that. That would certainly make a lot of people learn – and stop and think in the future!
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@ Mr Lloyd, of course there were workmen, they were the ones that wanted someone down there to try and sort it out.
The diversion was not that difficult, up the hill and down past the Castel Hospital and ta daaa there you are at the garage or doctors.
The Environment Dept are the ones that close the roads and sort out the signs if you feel the need to blame someone then point the finger at them.
Everyone wants the quickest and easiest way to get from A-B and dont care how they get there or who they hurt along the way.
@ Town Dweller, very true!!
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It’s an offence to drive against a no entry sign, do it and you’ve committed one, period. Get caught you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.
The problem is to many people think the law is for everyone else but them.
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I don’t understand the problem, it was one way, and they were all only going one way.
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Ohhh, someones had a sense of humour bypass!! Dont worry it was supposed to be a joke!
However seeing as you are soooo serious about this then it raises a valid discussion point.
Whilst myself always abiding by the rules of the road, I can certainly understand why this happened.
Drivers over here constantly have to drive past roadworks where no work is being carried out, deadlines contantly being missed, “road closed for 2 days” turns out to be 2 weeks. one set of diversion signs lead you directly to another road closure and so an and so on.
Going out on a cycle really opens your eyes, when it comes to large stretches of closed road, at peak time of the day, with NO men, and nothing at all happeneing, and these situations are not restricted to lanes, I’ve seen many main arterial roads closed with nothing happeneing for days!
So we get this situation. Sometimes, when you need to be somewhere and you havent had the luxury of a traffic report, yet another road blockage, emergency or not, can be a bit galling. This may have had some bearing on the attitugdes of the drivers who committed this offence.
Perhaps if experience tells us that people are working 100% to repair damage and get roads open asap, instead of the impression we currently have then perhaps people would have more repsect for roadworks.
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I must apologise to the cyclist who I verbally abused the other evening at L`Aumone lights I was travelling in the correct direction on the temporary one way he was attempting to go against it He helpfully pointed out that I did not know how to drive whilst he contradicted himself and the road signs saying no entry. I`m so sorry I doubted your integrity I was wrong thinking one way meant FOR EVERYONE CYCLES CARS SCOOTERS MOTORBIKES ETC. Once again I apologise and I will go study my highway code
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must also point out to Valaandra the diversion IS RIGHT PAST FRIQUET TO FILTER AND LEFTONTO ROUTE COHU TO YELLOW LINE AND LEFT. THE ROAD FROM CASTEL HOSPITAL TO THE SURGERY IS ALSO CLOSED DUE TO THE SAME WORKS THIS OR ANOTHER ROAD AROUND THERE HAS BEEN CLOSED ALMOST CONSTANTLY SINCE NEW YEAR MAKING ACCESS TO KE7 NIGH ON IMPOSSIBLE TO VISITORS WHO TRAVEL BY BUS
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Well said Brian Shepherd.The whole situation is chaos ! Idiots at the Helm. What do you expect?
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brian shepherd – I think I know who you mean as I think that I was sitting behind him at the lights when he went straight on.
Solidly built bloke?
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You sound very irate brian. I’m a cyclist and when I and my fellow cyclists go down closed roads and one way systems without interfering in any way with oncoming traffic (which is almost always possible) we tend to react only when irate motorists take it upon themselves to be amateur policemen (they’re almost always male).
I bet the cyclist in question wasn’t doing anything to upset your safe passage but you just had to open your window, start waving your arms about and start swearing and shouting abuse. In that situation is it really a surprise when the cyclist says something back?
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@Martino
Are you saying that the Highway Code and Traffic laws/regulations don’t apply to cyclist?
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Martino – I also occasionally cycle through road closures – where traffic flow is permitted for local access but the advantage of being on the bike is that you can slip past road works often by dis-mounting and walking past the actual closure.
But the closure that brian is talking about is actually a no entry sign and a one way road (temporarily), so not just your normal “road closed” situation. I wouldn’t cycle that the wrong way as the road works go almost to the white line and you would need to squeeze past cars coming the other way.
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I’m not saying that at all Tim. The Highway Code and traffic laws/regulations do indeed apply to cyclists. It’s just that we’re happy to ignore the nonsensical and impractical ones at times – just as almost all Guernsey motorists ignore the laws against driving on pavements virtually every time they take to the roads. Come on, you must be guilty of that?
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During the recent closure of Les Coutanchez (for a very small area being worked on by Cable and Wireless) as a cyclist the diversion I would have needed to take was huge. I cycled to the area where the triangular signs were, the van was parked and the small hole was situated, dismounted from my cycle and walked the short distance, then continued throughout the remainder of the extensive closure on my cycle. It did strike me that if the many tens of motorists who had been severely disrupted for the four days could have seen the extent of the ‘roadworks’ they would have been incensed. It occured to me that it would make sense (particularly when the closure involves a major route) if the work could begin around 9.15 after the ‘rush hour’ and be accessible during the ‘rush hour’ in the afternoon.
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I take your point Terry Langlois and I totally concur with you Burdock. Personally when I am on my bike I take every one of these closures as a separate case. Also the time of day/night makes a difference because there have been some closed roads I have cycled through when there were no workmen around that I would not have cycled through during working hours. Most of the time, though, all that is needed to negotiate a closed road on two wheels is a little commonsense and the willingness to dismount and walk on the pavement in the odd few areas where the whole of the road is up.
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Martino
Your post dated May 26 @6.53pm
Are these the same motorists, that after waving at you and calling you very disgusting names, suddenly drive away very quickly when you stop your bike and get off and turn round towards them.
If you want a bit of a giggle I recommend you try it once, I think you’ll find their sudden disregard for the speed limit quite ironic.
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ref Jon
Its easy to miss the signs, i was going home after playing Darts at the Rocky, after a few sherbert Dib Dabs,and wearing the wrong glasses, i found the Morris Traveller took me the wrong way and at an excessive speed.
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I’ll have to try that one Dave. Usually I just smile or laugh but that seems to make them even more irate!
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Martino, I’m a cyclist but wil only push my bike along a temporary or permanent one-way street if it avoids a long detour. I won’t ride against a no entry, or on the footpath, or ride without lights at night. Or do anything else that gives other cyclists a bad name. The trouble is there are many cyclists who think they are pedestrians on wheels.
But I also will go through a closed road and get off and push past the work area.
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Martino says it all. Many cyclists ignore the rules of the road – wrong way down one way streets, whether temporary or permanent; riding more that two abreast; riding on the wrong side of the road; ignoring red traffic lights. Need I go on?
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Just think of all the extra money the states are making from these road closures. We use more fuel so the more fuel we use the more tax they get. its a conspiracy. Bring back the motor tax…
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Colin
Actually, Martino has not advocated anything that breaks the law.
Going past a “road closed” sign is not breaking the laws of the road as people will use the road travelling in both directions – it is just that they cannot get past the blockage. A cyclist can become a pedestrian for the bit that is actually blocked.
Martino did not suggest going the wrong way down a one way street and immediately accepted that his first post did not apply to the L’Aumone closure when I pointed out that it involves a no entry sign.
Riding more than two abreast is (a) extremely rare and (b) not actually illegal (I’ve not actually double checked the highway code but I am sure that it simply advises riders to ride no more than two abreast).
I’ve also rarely seen cyclists going the wrong way down one-way streets or jumping red lights in Guernsey.
However, I have on a daily basis seen motorists driving while using their mobile, speeding and failing to give cyclists enough space as they overtake – all of which are much more likely to cause personal injury to a third party than a cyclist doing anything that you mention.
Cyclists are not one group, just as motorists are not one group. You don’t tar all BMW drivers as bad drivers just because you see one. Most cyclists are also motorists and so putting them into one “cyclist box” distinct from the “motorist box” is a bit silly. Some people are inconsiderate or reckless, others aren’t. End of.
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Terry Langlois
Good post apart from ”
I’ve also rarely seen cyclists going the wrong way down one-way streets or jumping red lights in Guernsey”.
I see that on a regular basis everyday including on the pavements around town and in cases through town.
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I think Terry needs to check up on the law. If a closed road is correctly signed it will state that all traffic except for residents/callers is prohibited. This includes cyclists. So if a cyclist uses a closed road as a through-way he is in breach of the law.
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i think most people have lost most of the common sense they were born with , firstly environment is in charge of allowing road closures and they permit far too many at any one time and often in related areas where people having navigated one end up confronted with another and thats bad,roads work should be carried out as fast as possible and cleared before the offical dateline if possible due to the inconvienence they cause.
secondly yes people should not enter no entries but they should never be made in the opposite direction to normal traffic flow, and lets not forget whatever road legal or illegal a motorist travels on they should drive always expecting the unexpected .
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i think were missing the point here this is about driving through a no entry sighn.the other day aproaching l,aumone traffic lights going the right way a lady turned from the le friquet through the no entry.on seeing the police booking another lady driver further down the road she did a five point turn in front of me and drove up rectory hill.is a fine enough i ask myself.
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