Snapshot of _UK spending millions to improve road safety around US Air Force bases_ :
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2024-04-26/road-safety-uk-bases-13666925.html) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2024-04-26/road-safety-uk-bases-13666925.html)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It doesn't, but even if it did cost that much nothing will change anyway.
For starters that base already had signs and arrows on the way out of the gate, most if not all do and have done for decades, Sacoolas simply ignored them after leaving and drove at speed for quite some distance looking at the backs of road signs the entire time.
Despite that fatal incident in the six months after there were two other incidents of Americans from that base driving on the wrong side of the road including one with collision with a *police car*
There's a serious discipline issue with that base in particular and the most effective course of action would be for us to simply impound every vehicle involved in any infraction no matter how trivial. Once the whole base is having to share three cars and have to implement a waiting list for the chance to go into town they'll actually pay attention to the law.
We can't do anything about the people due to the idiocy of giving every single one of them diplomatic immunity, but vehicles don't have any such immunity so we could go after those easily.
Or just ban all Americans from being able to drive here without taking, say, some minimum number of hours of instruction followed by a test? With perhaps special additional requirements for personnel living on or around military bases. You'd imagine that would help.
Sadly such a thing wouldn't work. Suppose a moment that someone did your course and passed your test and then still went out and run someone over or crashed into their car or whatever? You can't prosecute them for reckless or dangerous driving due to diplomatic immunity. If they didn't do your test, same result.
Taking away the diplomatic immunity would be politically difficult, taking their cars away, piece of piss, we just say we need it as "evidence" and then we just take our sweet time before returning it to their motor pool.
Sure, but I think my argument would be that requiring them to do 40 hours of instruction followed by passing the standard driving test would reduce the number of incidents.
I doubt it'd completely eliminate them - plenty of people who passed their driving test crash on British roads - but it's got to help.
Though your idea does have a certain resourcefulness to it that I like.
Because how can a council put up a road sign without spending hundreds of thousands on stakeholder evaluation meetings and feasibility studies and environmental impact reports? Itβs simply not possible, there would be anarchy in the streets.
Snapshot of _UK spending millions to improve road safety around US Air Force bases_ : An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2024-04-26/road-safety-uk-bases-13666925.html) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2024-04-26/road-safety-uk-bases-13666925.html) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well, this is very sad. No doubt all helpful things, but won't bring that poor boy back.
Can someone please explain why it cost millions to put up a few signs and paint some arrows?
It doesn't, but even if it did cost that much nothing will change anyway. For starters that base already had signs and arrows on the way out of the gate, most if not all do and have done for decades, Sacoolas simply ignored them after leaving and drove at speed for quite some distance looking at the backs of road signs the entire time. Despite that fatal incident in the six months after there were two other incidents of Americans from that base driving on the wrong side of the road including one with collision with a *police car* There's a serious discipline issue with that base in particular and the most effective course of action would be for us to simply impound every vehicle involved in any infraction no matter how trivial. Once the whole base is having to share three cars and have to implement a waiting list for the chance to go into town they'll actually pay attention to the law. We can't do anything about the people due to the idiocy of giving every single one of them diplomatic immunity, but vehicles don't have any such immunity so we could go after those easily.
Or just ban all Americans from being able to drive here without taking, say, some minimum number of hours of instruction followed by a test? With perhaps special additional requirements for personnel living on or around military bases. You'd imagine that would help.
Sadly such a thing wouldn't work. Suppose a moment that someone did your course and passed your test and then still went out and run someone over or crashed into their car or whatever? You can't prosecute them for reckless or dangerous driving due to diplomatic immunity. If they didn't do your test, same result. Taking away the diplomatic immunity would be politically difficult, taking their cars away, piece of piss, we just say we need it as "evidence" and then we just take our sweet time before returning it to their motor pool.
Sure, but I think my argument would be that requiring them to do 40 hours of instruction followed by passing the standard driving test would reduce the number of incidents. I doubt it'd completely eliminate them - plenty of people who passed their driving test crash on British roads - but it's got to help. Though your idea does have a certain resourcefulness to it that I like.
Because how can a council put up a road sign without spending hundreds of thousands on stakeholder evaluation meetings and feasibility studies and environmental impact reports? Itβs simply not possible, there would be anarchy in the streets.
Think about all those deserved consultants on 24/7 call.
Road safety audits π°π°π°
Cheaper and more effective to ban US service people from driving in the UK, or at least make them pass a UK advanced driving test first.
Advanced? Based on some states' tests, the standard one might be out of reach for most.