What a dreadful and completely tragic story - a carload of innocent people wiped out by a Polish immigrant going the wrong way on the motorway.
You can scarcely comprehend how awful this must be for the remaining family of the family members wiped out by this.
The story is here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8006893.stm
I wonder if it will turn out that the driver in this case had been drinking.
This is particularly likely as figures from one course provider show that more than one in ten drink drivers on their courses are from Eastern Europe (*1)
Eastern Europeans caught by roadside breath tests are also twice as likely as the average drink driver to be serious offenders who have at least two-and-a-half times the legal limit of alcohol in their systems (*1).
Also, the Motor Insurance Bureau said the number of crashes involving uninsured Polish vehicles had risen from 938 in 2004 to 3,312 last year. It had also dealt with 745 cases involving uninsured Lithuanian vehicles last year, up from 232 in 2004. The MIB is lobbying for a European-wide database of insurance policies to allow police to check instantly whether a foreign vehicle is insured.(*1).
As you would expect from a Labour government no record is kept on the number of foreign vehicles in the country(*1), much like their attitude to immigrants in general of course.
Foreign drivers also tend to have a poor grasp of British traffic laws (*1). In fact one force had to waste tax payers money on translating drink drive campaign messages into Polish to try and get the message across. (*2). Its not just drink driving either. DoT figures suggest one in five foreign drivers stopped at random by police is in breach of UK motoring law - nearly double the number of UK offenders. (*3)
Clearly there is no checking of the number of foreign cars here, and therefore presumably no data on the number of foreigners who can legally drive under the present arrangements, its very hard to know if the cars are safe or insured. These foreign drivers dont have to have their cars registered or checked for safety for six months to a year and they dont have to know British road law.
The post 2004 EU accession arrangements (courtesy of Labour) allowed the deluge of Eastern European immigrants into the country. Clearly and most characteristically for these incompetent (lethal) buffoons they failed on many many accounts to prepare a proper framework for this.
And is it therefore any surprise that this kind of tragedy is now more likely to happen?
Another thing we can thank the Labour Party for.
Sources
*1 - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2106977.ece
*2 - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/pubs/3902103/Police-re-issue-Christmas-drink-drive-warnings-in-Polish.html
*3 - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/3434519/Fifth-of-foreign-drivers-breaking-law.html
Posts
After reading your comments on Beatroot's blog and seeing how you berated a blogger for not doing his homework and checking the facts i decided to do as you suggested and read your blog. - Oh dear!!! You claim that Polish drivers are ignorant of British driving regulations, and point to the tragic crash on the M1 as evidence. Well i fail to see how driving up the wrong slip-way is a result of a failure to understanding driving regulations. The signs indication no entrance are international and this was clearly tragic mistake. As for your suggestion that Polish drivers drink because they are unaware of the rules, well that just boarders on the ridiculous. You state how: "Foreign drivers also tend to have a poor grasp of British traffic laws (*1). In fact one force had to waste tax payers money on translating drink drive campaign messages into Polish to try and get the message across." - What message, Polish laws are four times stricter than UK laws (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_alcohol_content). After have driven in the UK for nine years and driven in Poland for five, i feel i am in a position to have some opinion other than biggotted hearsay. The rules regarding driving are generalny stricter in Poland than in the UK and the penalties are generally harsher than in the UK.
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