SCRAM bracelets: a kop out or a fashion accessory?
Experts wary of alcohol bracelets
I recently read an article from an Australian journalist regarding alcohol bracelets. It seems troubled celebrities such as Lindsay Loan who have court dates and can not be bothered to turn up for them are being issued with them to monitor their drinking levels but do they really work and are we not missing the point by a long way?
Lohan was fitted with one recently in a United States court after failing to appear at a probation hearing in a drink-driving case. The SCRAM bracelets analyse sweat to determine whether the wearer has been drinking alcohol. If the bracelet wearer drinks, then the relevant legal bodies are alerted. Australian experts in alcohol issues however doubt whether strapping the chunky bracelet on offenders actually works. The point whether it actually works or not is the point we are missing surely, “troubled celebrities” need to learn there are consequences for their actions and if they don’t turn up for court hearings then their should be a warrant issued for their arrest or a fine to be issued and a further court date to be set. There is an alternative view that these said celebrities and also normal civilians should be treated for their alcohol problems but who’s to say said celebrity will appear at a clinic to receive treatment if they can’t appear at a court of law to receive judgement for a crime they committed.
Australian National Council on Drugs chairman John Herron says it would be better to offer treatment to people with alcohol issues. “I don’t think there is a place for it in Australia,” he said. “We are a much smaller country and people like Lindsay Lohan need treatment obviously. If they repeatedly infringe, those people need treatment. “They’ve got a health problem and punitive action like that with technology hasn’t got a place here.” Dr Herron, a former Liberal senator and surgeon, also points out that the device has been found to be faulty at times. “One of the difficulties with it, apparently, is there are problems if it gets too much sweat,” he said. “In parts of northern Australia, there’s a lot of sweating going on. “As I understand it there are also technical difficulties in the monitoring of the device itself. At this stage, it will need to be improved. I’m more impressed with having alcohol prevention devices in motor vehicles, like ignition locks to stop vehicles from starting.”
National Drug Research Institute director Professor Steve Allsop agrees more work needs to be done on the device. “It’s very early stages, and really we shouldn’t embrace something until there’s some strong quality evidence about its sensitivity and accuracy,” he said.
“As evidence emerges, my position may well change. But at the moment, I’d be very cautious about suggesting this is something we should embrace across Australia.”
Professor Allsop, who has worked in the drug and alcohol field for more than 20 years, also doubts whether the bracelets would work in deterring offenders.
“The evidence tells us if we want long-term changes in behaviour, sanctions [like bracelets] might have a role in the short-term, where we say we want you to adhere to this particular order and we’re going to monitor your behaviour to make sure you don’t drink or travel in this particular way,” he said.
“But in the longer-term, the evidence tells us that as soon as you remove those sanctions [such as the bracelet] the incentive to desist from drinking will also be removed.
“That really tells us that [bracelets] will only be part of a broader strategy.
“We actually need to change things – people’s environments, make sure we provide counselling and other forms of interventions to back these sorts of short-term measures up.
“We’ve got good evidence about treatments and community-based interventions that work. Additional resources need to be invested in those approaches.”
It was reported that Lindsay Lohan has asked Chanel for help dressing up her SCRAM bracelet. Lohan tweeted: “Can CHANEL please help me out by getting me some stickers to put on my scram bracelet so that I can at least wear a chic dress?!!?” In our world of political correctness and human right cases I hope Britain is not going to embrace these bracelets and start issuing them to offenders, maybe these bracelets will become the new celebrity must have maybe a designer range will be launched and we will see them feature on the catwalks of the next London fashion week? Let’s hope we don’t and a more sensible approach to the law is adopted, maybe adhering to the rules would be a better choice.
Keep your hands on the wheel not on the meal….
It seems that some drivers driving habits are worse than thought, from applying make-up to even acts of sex.
Seat belts, airbags, hands-free driving laws and devices – they’re all designed to help make us safer, more responsible on the roads and potentially prevent dangerous driving. However, new survey results, sponsored by Jabra, a world leader in innovative headset and in-car speakerphone solutions, suggest we are anything but responsible whilst driving. If anything mobile phone offences and dangerous driving seem to be on the increase.
Despite technology to help keep both hands on the wheel, people are choosing to use their hands elsewhere whilst driving. The most common activities for the six countries polled ( US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Japan) include eating, changing clothes, operating GPS systems, yelling at other drivers, texting and even performing sexual acts whilst behind the wheel. To compound issues, only about half of the survey respondents reported they’re using a hands-free device, which is the law in many countries.
For commuters, some activities may seem time-saving, with nearly 25 percent admitting to styling their hair or changing clothes while the car is in motion, but ultimately these acts are perilous, resulting in humiliating or more serious injuries or possibly disqualification a fine or points on your licence.
The majority of respondents (72%) also admitted to eating food regularly while driving, which might seem convenient with fast food and drive-throughs, but for others’ safety it is important to keep both hands on the wheel, not the meal.
Further survey findings include:
- 29% of respondents admitted to kissing others while driving, whereas a smaller, but surprising number (15%) said they’ve performed sex or other sexual acts while driving
- 28% confirmed they text while driving
- 25% admitted to changing clothes while driving, whereas much fewer (5%) have shaved while behind the wheel
- 13% reported they apply make up while driving
- 10% also reported reading newspapers or magazines while driving
- 5% confessed to playing video games, while even more (12%) admitted to writing or reading emails while driving
“We have seen the demand for hands-free devices increase as most of Europe and numerous American states pass laws prohibiting the use of hand-held devices while driving, but we are honestly shocked at what people are doing with their hands – even when not using a headset or speakerphone,” said Anne Raaen Rasmussen, Vice President of the Mobile division at Jabra. “Jabra’s products are designed to help drivers keep both hands on the wheel – not the meal, newspaper, make-up, or another person in the car. The bad behaviours that were revealed in the survey at first seemed to be a joke, but in reality they are really quite frightening and a threat to everyone’s safety on the road.”
Road rage in general appears to be a global issue, with 63 percent reporting that they yell at other motorists while driving – and the French appear to be the biggest offenders. Young people (age 18-35) from all countries also appear to be engaging in dangerous driving behaviours with higher frequency, but at the same time don’t feel that these activities are as dangerous as perceived by those who are older. Across the board, the Japanese are the worst offenders when it comes to personal grooming while driving and electronic distractions like video games, movies, audio books, and music devices. Alternatively, the British appear to be more safety oriented with the highest level of awareness around highly dangerous driving behaviours. Whilst this is encouraging that British roads may be safer compared to the rest of Europe it highlights the crazy lengths that drivers will go to, to save time or multi-task behind the wheel.
“SpeedSpike” will it reduce speeding or is it another “Big Brother” invasion of secrecy?
In many cities it’s almost impossible to walk around without your movements being recorded by surveillance cameras. In fact, driving anywhere in Britain means having a picture of your car and license plate being snapped multiple times per journey. But what if you were being tracked from space, by satellite? It sounds spooky, but it’s now a reality in some parts of the world. Speed cameras which communicate with each other by satellite are being secretly tested on British roads. “SpeedSpike” is a hi-tech device that can follow drivers’ progress for miles to calculate whether they have broken speed limits. It combines number plate recognition technology with global positioning satellites and they can be set up in a network to monitor tens of thousands of cars over huge areas for the smallest breach. The system uses similar methods of recognition as the cameras which enforce the congestion charge in London, and allow two cameras to ‘talk’ to each other if a vehicle appears to have travelled too far in too short a space of time.
After a covert national trial which has not been publicised until recently, just days after a report showed motorists have been fined almost £1billion in speeding tickets under the Labour government, authorities hope the new cameras will enable them to re-create the system used on motorway contra flows.
The Home Office is currently testing them at two sites – one in Southwark in London and another on the A374 between Antony and Torpoint in Cornwall.
Details of the secret trials emerged in a House of Commons report and immediately attracted criticism. Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox, whose Devon constituency is close to the Cornish test site, said fundamental questions had to be addressed before such an ‘alarming’ level of surveillance was extended. He said: ‘You always have to ask if it is really necessary to watch over people, to spy on them and film them. ‘We will get to a point where it becomes routine and it should never be a matter of routine that the state spies on its citizens.’
Is this a deeper descent into a “Big Brother” society while decrying the technology as an invasion of privacy or will this really reduce the amount of speeding on the roads of Britain and actually make it safer to drive on the roads or be a pedestrian?
The technology, explains Andy Howard, head of road safety at U.K. motoring group AA, is not quite as sinister as it might sound. “It’s just a normal speed camera,” he says, but one that is hooked up to a network of speed cameras that use GPS satellites to track their locations, rather than directly tracking a driver’s route. Every time a car is photographed by one of the speed cameras, the time is recorded, and then the system calculates the average speed between two cameras to determine whether the driver was actually speeding.
“Theoretically, you could guard every entrance to a town and see if anyone averaged 30 mph inside,” Howard said. “But we don’t think this is likely.”
It would be “mathematically difficult” to calculate if a motorist has broken speeding laws if they had travelled through multiple speed zones, according to Howard, like driving from a 45 mph limit to a 70 mph zone on a highway. The technology would be most applicable on a long-distance run along a single highway, say, from London to Edinburgh.
“We already have ‘average-speed’ cameras through road works (construction zones). Cameras snap your license plate as you go in and as you go out,” he said. These cameras have been in service recording driver information since the year 2000. The only difference is that while these cameras are connected by wire, the new cameras would use GPS.
In the company’s evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee, it boasted of ‘number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day’ as well as pointing out the system’s low cost and ease of installation.
The company believes the cameras can be used for ‘main road enforcement for congestion reduction and speed enforcement’, can help to ‘eliminate rat-runs’ and cut speeds outside schools.
It said: ‘We have an urban test site at Salter Road in Southwark and are working in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police.
‘We also have an inter urban test site located on the A374 from Torpoint to Antony at which we are working with the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.’
The trial is being carried out in conjunction with the police and the Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership.
Superintendent Tim Swarbrick, chairman of the partnership and head of roads policing, said it was being tested ‘on a live road system to assess how effective and accurate it is’.
Last week a report showed that motorists have been hit with speeding tickets worth almost £1billion under Labour. However receipts have fallen since police were stopped from keeping part of the money raised from speed cameras. It suggested that the explosion in the number of cameras was used as a ‘cash cow’ and that forces no longer have an incentive to install them.
Drivers were clobbered with 1.23million tickets in 2008, of which 1.03million were issued by speed cameras, the Home Office report revealed.
The tickets raised more than £73million for the Treasury that year, or £200,000 a day. In total, 16million tickets have been issued since 1997, raising £913million.
The responses gathered from U.K. motorists when they were informed of the new satellite tracking experiment were uniformly negative. This instinctive recoil strengthened when it was mentioned that a unit of an American company, Tennessee-based PIPS Technology, is the one implementing SpeedSpike. PIPS did not respond to requests for comment. Similarly, the British government said it does not comment on trials that are still underway.
Dylan Sharpe, the campaign director of U.K.-based Big Brother Watch said: “We’re very much opposed to more surveillance. The government now knows exactly where we’ve been and how much we drive.
”We’ve had GPS systems, satellite navigation systems, it was only a matter of time before an agency worked out how to [use] GPS [to] track cars and their speed.”
But Howard says any data collected by the system and the transmission of driver information is regulated by the government, so “if you have the right guidelines and rules then the system wouldn’t be inappropriate”.
Support for regular speed cameras across the U.K. runs between 69 and 74 percent, according to AA’s figures. So while there are undoubtedly concerns over the spread of this sort of speed camera tracking, it seems as if the general public — and the media — are perhaps being just a little narrow-minded on the issue and this really is a trial to reduce deaths by speeding & to really make the roads safer.
Shock sign encourages speeding drivers to slow down
The BBC recently reported that a sign has been put up on a rural road in Oxfordshire seemingly asking drivers to spare a thought for foxes when it comes to their speed. The sign, which reads “For Fox Sake Slow Down”, has been put up on a single carriageway between the villages of Wheatley and Waterperry. Jo Abbot who is a member of the RAC Foundation spotted and photographed the sign, she said “It seems someone has got fed up with speeding cars and decided to try and do something about it. Despite its rural setting, this is a busy and fast bit of road. “To that extent the sign has worked – I certainly slowed down for a second glance.” It is not known how long the sign has been in place. Mrs Abbot said although it looked as if it had been done professionally, the sign was not legal because it had not been authorised as outlined by the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. Despite that, the RAC Foundation said it served a purpose to remind people to watch their speed on country roads. According to the Highway Code, the speed limit for cars and motorbikes on a single carriageway is 60mph unless otherwise stated.
I live in a small village that has through routes to larger towns and we do suffer from speeding cars, but drivers still seem to feel that although there is a 30mph village this speed limit isn’t applicable to them and proceed to carry on with a similar speed to that of the national speed limit. We have solar powered traffic signs, which flash at you if you’re going over 30mph, and these are successful in reiterating the speed limit but how effective are they in slowing the drivers down? As a common user of country roads, I see for myself many drivers doing way over the speed limit, not only being a danger to other road users but also to pedestrians and residents.
THOU SHALT NOT SPEED
Switzerland, the motorist’s hellhole – famous for chocolate, cheese and a complete intolerance toward speeders.
So you wouldn’t be surprised if I said that the country had passed a new law sanctioning capital punishment for anyone caught even thinking about breaking the speed limit. But you might be surprised, as were I, to hear that our European neighbours have installed a new road calming initiative called the ‘road angel’.
So what is the road angel? A fluffy name for a new speed camera? The PR’s idea on how to tackle speed enforcement stereotypes? No…it’s a guy, dressed as an angel who spends all day by the side of the road waving at speeders. I know…I’m as shocked as you! Here’s the guy in action:
But this fella isn’t the local nut job, he’s actually paid quite handsomely to do this as part of an advertising campaign called ‘Slow Down. Take It Easy’. Here he is in action again:
I appreciate the Swiss’ attempts to mix things up and admire the way they’ve applied a marketing message to the roadside – the simple bizarre nature of this guy would slow me down alone. But I wonder what Britain’s alternative would be?
We all know Gordon Brown needs a new job? Or perhaps a Page 3 model with a placard? Maybe even Jenson Button pumping his fist in the air whilst screaming, “slow down…..baby!”
Of course not, how’s that going to generate cash (for further road calming measures)? No, we’re quite happy with our ‘road demons’ – men and women camped in their mobile fortresses with their faces hidden behind the lens of a camera. When there’s no more room in hell…the dead shall police the roads.
By Chris Sweetman of Sweetmans Solicitors, specialists in defending drink driving, speeding, parking and dangerous driving offences.