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Our kids' primary school suffers from a parent whose driving is consistently dangerous. He reached a new low today when he overtook two other cars (residential street, 30mph zone, school drop-off time) in order to tailgate me and my kids, hooting his horn. The other parents who witnessed this one were also incensed. I've written to the school head, but what at a practical level can the school do?
The school "requests" that parents do not drive on the road immediately outside the school, but he's one of the handful that ignores that.
I suspect that this will be the incident that pushes me over the edge to buying a camera 🙁
That's a Police matter, nothing the school can do. Unless they have cctv footage.
Dangerous driving is a police issue, not a school issue.
The school can simply support you (and anyone else) reporting it by corroborating what you tell the Police.
You've told the Police....right?
Sorry, I wasn't referring to this specific incident, but more about a parent whose driving is consistently dangerous outside the school, and perhaps more concretely, consistently ignores the school's policy on dropping of children by car.
Our school occasionaly requests council enforcers/community support officers/police to come and stand outside when things get bad. Stays fine for a while, then the selfish driving/parking continues again.
If their drivings that bad as said above it's a police matter, school won't be able to do a thing
It sounds like a matter for the police not the school; you have several witnesses. However, the school are more likely to get a proactive response from the police - round here when the drop off pickup parking becomes ridiculous the school send their reminders (which go ignored) and then a week or two later a couple of officers will appear to move people on* etc. Seems to have an effect from a month or so before people forget and go back to their ways, its a roughly 3/4 month cycle.
*another school nearby has a worse issue and traffic cops just come and book them all there.
School round the corner from my last place in the UK did that.
Made multiple calls to the non-emergency number about parking at drop off time and bad driving etc.
Meeting with police was arranged, then they had a few weeks/months where on random days a police van would park up round the corner with half a dozen police in it and book everyone they could.
There were letters to the paper. There were arrests. There were whiny little tossers in the pub...
I moved soon after, so no idea what it's like now.
I'm trying to find out if there's any dashcam footage from this morning. If there is, I'll report it but if not I suspect it would be futile.
But to be clear, I'm not expecting the school to do anything about this specific incident, but more about consistently dangerous driving of a specific individual, and ignore the school's own rules.
I'm pretty sure the school is already aware of this individual, as I'm pretty sure that it was his consistent dangerous parking on a corner (which already had "don't park here" white lines on it) that trigger the school to put cones on the corner earlier this year.
What's annoying is that most of the bad driving isn't obviously breaking a specific rule of the road, i.e. it's less than 30mph, but it's still lethally fast for the conditions.
Send da bois round to av a word?
Can you get several parents to confront the driver at drop off time?
If he is that much of a bellend confronting him will only end up with a huge row.
I might be tempted to set up a camera - either discrete if you want him caught and punished or very obvious if you want to deter him
Report to the police for sure
has anyone confronted said bellend?
In very odd occasions, people dont know they are being dicks and maybe he just thinks he is 'making progress'.
I suspect its unlikely in this case. Not sure if you mentioned, but is he doing the school run too? or just passing by at the same time of day?
What’s annoying is that most of the bad driving isn’t obviously breaking a specific rule of the road, i.e. it’s less than 30mph, but it’s still lethally fast for the conditions.
when I was growing up the primary school successfully got the road outside changed from a 30 to a 20 as it was a fairly busy road from non-school traffic. Doubt it'd do much for this individual though.
overtaking cars under the speed limit when there are kids on the pavement doesn't sound like it'd meet the threshold for careless driving, so I doubt there's much you can do with footage anyway. Police could maybe issue an anti-social driving notice though?
if the parent drives like a pillok there's a good chance the kids are suffering in other areas of parenting, it might be the school is trying their best to keep them onside (to keep the kids education going) and so may choose to let this slide if they don't consider the driving to be an actual danger
pushes me over the edge to buying a camera
if you think the driving in the area is bad enough to warrant a camera, don't ride there with your kids. a camera won't help a jot with their injuries if they get hit.
Camera and report directly to the police. It is unfortunately the only thing which will have an effect.
What you have described in the OP is an offence.
the other thing about reporting to the police is they react to the volume of complaints. so one complaint will do little but if you can multiple parents to complain it will do more as will a series of complaints on different days.
Our school occasionaly requests council enforcers/community support officers/police to come and stand outside when things get bad.
The school our girls went to did that as well. Usually did that at the start of each term to keep things calm.
I've had a reply from the school. Apparently they've reported him to the police twice before, and the police have already been round to speak to him. So definitely not this:
people dont know they are being dicks
Will report it to the police, and hopefully he'll get another visit, for all the good it will do.
Police for enforcement and possibly council for longer term measures such as making it a School Street, putting in parking restrictions, cycle lane etc.
The school can't do anything - most actively disassociate themselves from local traffic problems; although they're obliged to have a School Transport Policy, it'll broadly have stuff like "we encourage walking/cycling..." and "we would like to remind parents who have to drive to show consideration..."
Worthless bollocks in other words.
Get the school to petition the council to close the road to traffic at certain hours. Quite a few roads like that round my way either cctv / another and fines or barriers put in place.
As a resident they are quite annoying especially as they are really badly signposted but seem to work.
that's the obvious answer, as you know, rather than relying on/expecting someone else to have recorded it. They're cheap enough these days.I suspect that this will be the incident that pushes me over the edge to buying a camera
My daughters previous school named & shamed bad parking etc. by printing the number plates in the weekly school news letter....
But Police station would be my first call for dangerous driving - just to give them a heads up that they might want to be around there at some point.
if you think the driving in the area is bad enough to warrant a camera, don’t ride there with your kids. a camera won’t help a jot with their injuries if they get hit.
It isn't. The driving of one individual is bad enough to warrant it. The two cars that he overtook were driving like actual humans and displaying a tiny bit of patience.
"Not cycling" doesn't really solve the problem, as he's a danger to pedestrians as well.
So they've had a word from the police already and therefore is on their radar.
Get a dashcam (ideally front & rear), and if you happen to catch something juicy, they'll be able to prosecute.
So they’ve had a word from the police already and therefore is on their radar.Get a dashcam (ideally front & rear), and if you happen to catch something juicy, they’ll be able to prosecute.
Around where my Mum lives there's a host of new(ish) School Streets, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and so on and there's been a gradual rise in the number of drivers with obscured / covered number plates or driving the wrong side of bollards in an attempt to avoid ANPR cameras.
Anyway there's a local Twitter feed been set up which retweets loads of dashcam / helmetcam interactions of these dangerous drivers and plasters them all over the feed with number plates, type of car etc. They catch the same ones quite routinely, they're serial offenders. The local police and council are both on board with enforcement and there was a spate of prosecutions recently which caused outrage amongst the poor hard-working drivers who have no choice but to ignore the draconian interventions placed upon their freedom to drive everywhere...
So definitely get some footage of it and report it to the police.
We had a similar situation at the primary school next to my shop, a local was constantly speeding past the school at drop off and pick up times (and everywhere else tbf). The school and several different parents reported him by name and numberplate to the police, eventually there were enough reports in a short period of time for the police to visit him..
He now slows for the school, but still drives like a knob everywhere else.
Surely The answer to this is always ‘frozen sausages’
Also, film him and report. If the police think it passes the threshold for dangerous driving they’ll take action. If they don’t then he may be a total arse, but technically he’s done nothing wrong … at which point I refer you back to my opening sentence
They could throw children in front of him until he tires of the bloodshed.
I haven't read all the replies but, in my experience, these sorts of drivers simply don't care - no amount of being asked not to do it will change that - they simply don't think the rules should apply to them. As I am sure is the case for most parents that have been through primary hell, there were at least two occasions where the selfish driving was challenged that ended up in physical fights whilst our kids were at primary school.
My daughters previous school named & shamed bad parking etc. by printing the number plates in the weekly school news letter….
I like that idea.
Get the school to petition the council to close the road to traffic at certain hours. Quite a few roads like that round my way either cctv / another and fines or barriers put in place.
Yep, school opposite my house does that. Barriers out from about 8.45 - 9.15 every morning. Seems to help. There are also often PSCOs out, and occasionally a panda car too.
I know there are some people in life who are arses wherever you meet them - in the pub, round the shops, on the pavement. But actually most people in 1:1 human interactions try to be civil. What is it about the motorcar that changes that?
if you think the driving in the area is bad enough to warrant a camera, don’t ride there with your kids. a camera won’t help a jot with their injuries if they get hit.
Well, no, but I see enough cycling Twitter to know that, at least some of the time, these clips can lead to points / prosecutions. The idea would be that you get ****s like this guy off the road. It's a bit defeatist to say just avoid the area without trying anything that might indeed help other people as well as you and yours.
You've not told us what car he's driving, so we can all judge him even more.
I'd probably ask him why he's driving like a twonk when he stopped outside school, but then I'm fairly confrontational.
But yeah report to police, get other parents to do it as well if they've witnessed it. Provides them a body of evidence.
Maybe some sausages in tyres?
Thanks for all the replies.
I guess the next question is any recommendations for cameras? My main requirement is minimal faff, i.e. turns on and off quickly and easily, decent battery life, and re-uses storage rather than stopping when full.
Absolutely nothing school can do...but like others, I suggest camera footage sent to police.
Might want to remove his valve cores from his car overnight....for public protection.....😎
Does he get out of the car for pickup or dropoff? Be a shame if something happened to it.
I get cross enough about some of the shitty driving around my kid's school but there's been nothing on this scale that I've seen. I'd be confrontational, not necessarily expecting a result but I just don't think I could help it, makes my blood boil a bit just to read the OP. If he's a bit scary then a posse of enough dads would probably be enough. Or a little more peacefully (a bit keyboard warrior so far, I know) just a lot of mums and dads confronting him right there, blocking his way. Shame as a weapon.
I guess the next question is any recommendations for cameras? My main requirement is minimal faff, i.e. turns on and off quickly and easily, decent battery life, and re-uses storage rather than stopping when full.
Does he only drive like a **** when he passed you on a bike? Because buying a camera for one nutter sounds odd to me. If he generally drives like a **** then be a pedestrian till he's out the way and just have your phone ready to capture it.
Does he get out of the car for pickup or dropoff? Be a shame if something happened to it.
Actually, we had a previous bad driver (mild by comparison to this one, and thankfully now gone) who would leave his car with the engine running while dropping off. I never quite had the courage to take the keys and lob them when he wasn't looking, but it was tempting.
Knowing what I now know about this one via school gossip channels, I have absolutely no desire to escalate or antagonise.
I did offer him a few words of advice as I left the school after drop-off but didn't engage. I even managed to keep is swear-free, which I was most proud of. It was only when I got home and found my wife on the phone to the mum he'd overtaken that I fully understood what had gone on behind me.
If there are enough parent's complaining, they will inform the police. We had a stage, like others above, where the police randomly turned up. Usual bad parking etc. The School was at the end of a 50's Cul de Sac where very few folk had a drive, so owners cars were parked on the road legally. You can imagine the chaos at drop off time.
One morning one parent threatened a taxi driver who was dropping off a special needs child, as "he was stopping him from turning round" - driver has to ensure the child is taken to school so can't just chuck them out. This incident sparked the police presence.
Said parent was a knuckle dragger, and lived less than 400 yards from the school.
Knowing what I now know about this one via school gossip channels, I have absolutely no desire to escalate or antagonise.
Local bully/mob/ex-SAS?
My kids’ school has had kids stand out the front of the school in high-viz with camcorders before now. “Just doing a road safety project”.
I’ve found a football rolling into the road accidentally has quite an effect.
That is genuinely genius. Encourage staff. Pta or parenywith enthusiastic kids to do that project. Call it "How safe is my journey to school"
They could time how long it takes to walk, ride, drive front door to gate results will be surprising. My old school in Edinburgh did it from hillend to Stockbridge using various form of transport.
Picture of a school sign, drawn onto a tangerine, then shoved in his exhaust pipe when he stop outside the school.
He’ll make it about 20m down the road and then look like the tool he plainly is.
But THEN, own him with some bombers.
I know its insane but you could do a Colin Farrell from True Detective
Ask the school to set up CCTV monitoring the road . If a suite of cameras captures his mad max driving stunts the plod can prosecute from that. Especialy if there are markers at known distances apart , so speed can be extrapolated from the data.
Apply for 20mph limit 100mtrs either side of school.
It is a police matter. Do you have a Safer Neighbourhood Team or equivalent?
Police with details. If you fancy a bit of vigilanty stuff use a fake facebook ID and pitch in on the (bound to be) school page or maybe the friends/PTA group. You may have an interactive link with school such as Seesaw as well.
It's really name and shame but maybe it might get through or at least to his kids/other half.
Send him to Coventry in all respects and make sure he knows why.
Good chance it doesn't work but worth a try?
If you have support maybe some confrontation or picketing of the pick up area.