Back to the classroom...

My afternoon was spent in the local football stadium being "educated" about the dangers of speeding after my brush with the law back in November! When I say football stadium, I don't mean that there were so many of us that they could only accommodate us in a stadium (although we were the second of two classes today and there were about 30 of us attending!), but we were in a function room where the Northampton Cobblers have their home.

I was expecting footage of accidents and grisly scenes as a way of showing us the consequences of our actions, but there was only one video, that of a pedestrian in Australia who was killed by a car, and even that was censored and a dummy used, which was a relief. Most of the people there had been caught speeding in a 30mph zone and my misdemeanour, at 81mph on the M1, was the fastest of all. Not sure if I'm proud of that or not! Because most people there had been speeding in an urban area, the afternoon was geared towards that and I still don't think I can bring myself to keep to 70mph on the motorway which had the least percentage overall of deaths or serious injuries. The worst roads to travel on are country roads, journeys I do every day.

I had planned to speak my mind about the consequences of speeding near schools, through villages and in residential areas but the two people conducting the course were trainers, not the police, so my grievances about the speed limit where I live and the impact of fast cars near Sophie and Mikey's school would have fallen on deaf ears. I have asked the Parish Council to have the limit lowered on the country road outside our estate (from 60mph to 40mph) but was told it was "too expensive" to reduce it even though both children have to cross the road to catch the school bus and the fact there is a path running to both villages. That, I think, is far more dangerous than my driving at 80mph on a motorway on a dry day with very little traffic on the road!

Anyway...rant over. I drove home very carefully (and slowly) through the horrendous rush hour traffic, thanking my lucky stars I don't have to do that journey every evening!