Melbourne Police

[Metal Head]

Hi, I am an ordinary nobody tram driver who this morning was incensed as a result of an incident in the Docklands area.

I had pulled up at the intersection of Bourke Street and the Harbour Esplanade to drop off passengers. When I got a white T (to indicate Go) I started to accelerate away when a young lady ran in front of my tram thus I had to apply the emergency brakes to stop suddenly. The lights sequence changed to red and I was unable to go. I called over an onlooking Constable (who was with two trainees) to ask if he was going to book the lady (or at least talk to her) about jay walking? But his reply was they were there to catch cyclists breaking the law “NOT JAY WALKERS” I asked him facetiously what about if someone shot me would he let them go because they were not on a bike? He laughed and walked away not knowing the seriousness of the issue.

I hit someone just over a fortnight ago whilst driving another tram because they were “jay walking” and it is not funny finding yourself in that situation, I can assure you. I have since asked to speak to someone within the Police Force connected to this “cycle blitz”, but no one has had the courtesy to contact me yet.

I used to have a lot of respect for the Police but after this incident and others over the past couple of years, I would not help one if I saw them in trouble. You hear the same old tune about them no having enough people, what do they want one Copper for every one Melbournian. Hey no one pushed them into doing the job, so if you cannot hack it get out.

Why do they (The Police) always announce we are going to have a blitz on "g5j5j7jj6" in a certain area doh. I thought the idea was to catch the perpetrators unaware. No wonder this country is going down the drain....

[Batpig]

Dear Metal Head,

That one reminds me of the time that Dad and I were driving home years ago, and whilst coming down the Main Road, this woman stepped out onto the Pedestrian Crossing right in front of us. The crossing had its own lights, but she obviously couldn't wait for some reason. Luckily, Dad was able to get onto the anchors quick enough to avoid hitting her. Only thing is, he ended up having to stop so close to the Crossing, that from where we were, we just couldn't see the lights anymore up above us (which had been "green" when the woman stepped out...). After she had crossed, we got going again, but unbeknown to us, the lights had changed to "red", because the woman must have pressed the button while she was waiting...

Well, it just so happened that a Police Car (I can't quite remember whether it was marked or unmarked) saw us going through the "red", and pulled us up and - in spite of Dad and my explanation of the situation to them - booked Dad for going through the "red"! It was a crossing - not an intersection - and I'm fairly certain that the Officer even said that he had seen what had happened...

We wrote a fairly long letter to them, and Mum went down and gave them a piece of mind that would have made an Irishman proud, but they didn't back down. I've still got the ticket lying around here somewhere... Crazy, hey!

I like Cops, though. You're bound to get the odd fool now and then in any industry. But I know how you feel.

Hope things work out with your incident from a couple of weeks ago...

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

[Metal Head]

Thanks for the reply Batpig. It makes you wonder why bother saving that person’s life when your father ended getting into trouble through no fault of his own I had the misfortune within days of having past my tram test of an elderly couple falling on my tram and the poor gentleman had broken his back. This was the result of a taxi doing a U-turn in front of me. He drove off to get his next customer whilst this poor guy (and his wife of course) may never walk again. I wonder how their children felt when they found out they had bought a “Golden Wedding” present of a trip to Melbourne that will change their parents lives (and maybe their own) forever.

Yet again today a Constable blatantly ignored a person walking against a red light on a pedestrian crossing whilst I was about to move off. I asked him why he didn’t have a word with her or even book her but he shrugged his shoulders saying he didn’t see anything. I asked him how many jay walkers they had booked today and his trainee colleague said “plenty”. When I asked him to show me he said he couldn’t and I would have to pay $150 to look at them (should they really exist!!) under the Freedom of Information Act. Well what can one say, except I wonder who is worse the criminals or The Police? Maybe they deserve one another and we as a society are worse off for it. Some people have been suggesting (over the internet) about setting up vigilante groups here in Melbourne to stem the increasing crime and violence on our streets as the Police (& Government) won’t instigate a “No Tolerance Policy” towards thugs. I have noticed in the past 3 months the massive increase in Graffiti especially in the well to do areas do our Police do anything when they get out of their stations except collecting theirs meals from the local take away stores?

[Gingermick]

Police are constrained by laws enacted by politicians. It's not the coppers fault, although there as as many hopeless coppers are there are hopeless doctors or engineers. They are probably just too tired after spending 10 hours in a van on speed camera duty catching people breaking the speed limit by 6 kph.

[Woodwould]

...there as as many hopeless coppers are there are hopeless doctors or engineers.

The ratio is an awful lot higher in my experience.

[rrobor]

First thing to move as the lights change in Melbourne is a tram.They drive these roads and can time lights or can see the other side, who knows. But the polieceman said he didnt see the incident, Go up in front of Milud and say that and guess what would happen. So sorry there is always 2 sides to a tale, If the policeman didnt see and was watching bikes from another direction, what do you want him to do, perjure himself on your say so. Move on and forget what you think is your beef with the pedestrians, after all, your living is supplied by them when they have sore feet.

[Gingermick]

I imagine it would be frightening then frustrating when people walk in front of your vehicle. It would definitely give me the sheyets

[rrobor]

I agree, but that doesnt give me the right to defame others who may or may not be guilty.

[Metal Head]

I agree, but that doesnt give me the right to defame others who may or may not be guilty.

So rrober what you are implying is that I am a dishonest person with no integrity?

I can categorically state that in both incidents the police saw the offending people - after all the cyclists had a green light. Yes there are 2 sides to every story and mine is the CORRECT version. I have to have an eyesight test annually to carry out my job. Does the policeman need one to shoot his gun, no. So any innocent bystander in a shoot out isn't safe even if they are within his 160 degrees of vision.

[rrobor]

What I am implying is you are implying that the policeman saw an issue and should have taken action on your say so. What may have happened is that he didnt see it as you saw it. I am also implying that this was one policeman with 2 rookies and you condemn the whole police force for what you see as one policemans error. As to police shooting people etc, My guess would be that more people are killed by trams than shot by police. And no Im not going into whose fault it is other than say in my 35 years in Melbourne I cant recall one incident of a stray bullet from a police shootout hitting someone.

[MatMann]

Whilst I am not a tram driver I do drive trucks everyday throughout the city.

about 3 weeks ago a young girl (maybe 19yo) decided it was a great idea to cross punt road without looking, I saw her coming but was unable to stop the truck in time.

after she was taken by ambulance and the cops had taken witness statements. His(the cops) last statement was your free to go unless her charge goes to court.

its only used after an accident to compound problems not pre-emptively to help avoid accidents.

[Bluegum]

Its pretty scary that people tend to take more risks these days on the road. Its like some people have an it won't happen to me attitude and this is a huge problem. I remember an incident a couple of years back when coming back from a job one saturday. We were were driving back up the Warego highway when this clown in his super charged VP commodore decided it would be fun to play a game wih us. Now we were traveling in a 10m tipper with a bobcat in the back pulling a trailer with a 12 tonne excavator on the back of it. (doing the speed limit) now the car driver sped up past us got in front and hit his brakes then would pull away a bit and do so again. When we went to over take him he wouldn't let us past him and he continued his game with us. We even slowed back to about 70 and he kept at it. It got to a point where this idiot was sitting back about 2.5 metres off our our nose doing this just to annoy us, but i wonder what he would have done if we had of hit him?

[Gingermick]

He probably would've provided very little resistance to being squashed flat.

[Batpig]

Dear Dave,

What an Absolute Moron(s)! Surely there was more than one idiot in the VP, because they usually only start doing really stupid stuff like that when they've got their dropkick-mates in the car with them (or in another car in convoy), giving them that warm, fuzzy, safety-in-numbers-type feeling. Guys are dead-set dangerous now when they get together in a group of two or more, with either Soft-Drink-and-Fast-Food, or worse - Booze, or even worse still - Amphetamines...

Did you try jumping on the Mobile Phone when they were far enough ahead to see you in their Rear-View? Might have worried them, perhaps...

All in all - astonishing...

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

[Bluegum]

Thing was that this fool wasn't thinking about his safety or those around him. I would have hated to have seen the carnage if there had of been a collision. I have been driving trucks around on and off for a number of years now and it amazes me the people who think you can pull up on a 20c piece. Mind you there are a few bad apples in the trucking game as well so it does stem both ways.