On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 11:38:19 -0000, "DJO" djdublo att liamtoh dott
moc wrote:


"Matt Ashby" wrote in message
om...

Surely when investigating a crime, the police should be given all the
time that they need.

So why then when a road accident occurs they clear things up much quicker?

Because in a road accident the perpetrator is normally one of the
drivers involved and generally still present at the scene, with tyre
marks on the road/dents in the car/other witnesses present, all of
which make working out what happened quite easy.

Suspect that in a one-under or similar rail accident it's quite a bit
harder to work out what happened and no easy-collectible evidence (no
dented cars or tyre marks to photograph).

I'd have thought you could show a little more compassion for the
victim, it's not like this happens every day. Reserve your vitriol for
real incompetences like cracked rails.

In message , Matt Ashby
writes
Surely when investigating a crime, the police should be given all the
time that they need.

There have to be some external parameters. What if there was a death at
7pm on a Friday, and the police said "we want until noon on Monday,
because we don't work weekends any more". That's an extreme example, but
surely the long time it took to investigate this particular incident
points to a lack of immediately available resources, rather than a lot
of work being required.
--
Roland Perry

In message , Jack Taylor
writes

"Baloo" wrote in message
...

Until, of course, its a member of your family that is the victim of the
suspicious death, when you would be asking why the police didn't do
everything possible at the scene to detect the offender. These things take
time, thats a fact of life.

It's only in the last handful of years that it has taken anything like the
ludicrous amounts of time that it now takes to resolve such matters. That,
despite the significant advances in forensic technology and DNA testing etc.
that have been made.

Before the advances in DNA testing etc., the only thing to do with blood
etc. was wash it away, not sample it and record where that sample was
taken from.


As other posters have noted: it doesn't take as long
anywhere else in Europe, it doesn't take as long to resolve a road incident
and it never used to take as long to resolve railway accidents or suicides
as it does now, suspicious or otherwise.



--
Five Cats
Email to: cats_spam at uk2 dot net

it's not like this happens every day.

pedant
Actually, on average (according to BTP statistics), it does
/pedant
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Hardly vitriol! Look at the news today, sadly some poeple died in a road
accident near Liverpool, which is a tragic thing to happen, but the only
picture availble on the TV news was that of skid marks on a road even though
the time between the accident happening and the TV crews arriving would in
all probablility been shorter than the length of time the police took to
investigate at Balham.

On the roads it seems whn a tragedy happens it is cleared up a.s.a.p, on the
railways there is no similar hurry. Maybe my perceptions of these things is
wrong, and if so I shall stand corrected, but don't accuse me of vitriol,
thanks.

It is often all to easy to tell exactly what happened in a suicide by train,
the driver is often in these cases the only poor soul to witness the person
throwing themselves in front of his train.

Even in situations where a road is closed due some tragic situation, the
police can divert cars round side roads etc. You cannot easily do that in
trains, perhap they should bear that in mind? Or am I being unreasonable?

Djo
"Pat Duffy" wrote in message
news
So why then when a road accident occurs they clear things up much
quicker?

Because in a road accident the perpetrator is normally one of the
drivers involved and generally still present at the scene, with tyre
marks on the road/dents in the car/other witnesses present, all of
which make working out what happened quite easy.

Suspect that in a one-under or similar rail accident it's quite a bit
harder to work out what happened and no easy-collectible evidence (no
dented cars or tyre marks to photograph).

I'd have thought you could show a little more compassion for the
victim, it's not like this happens every day. Reserve your vitriol for
real incompetences like cracked rails.


---
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"DJO" djdublo att liamtoh dott moc wrote in message
...

"Matt Ashby" wrote in message
m...

Surely when investigating a crime, the police should be given all the
time that they need.

So why then when a road accident occurs they clear things up much quicker?



They aren't. Up here in the Midlands its quite common for roads (I'm talking
major commuter routes, not country lanes) to be closed through the morning
rush hour following fatal RTA's in the early hours.

Jeff.

In message
"Jack Taylor" wrote:


"CIG_BIG_CIG" wrote in message
om...

Male person, scene treated as a crime scene by BTP and body not
recovered until 1300 approx. The lack of a contingency plan by SCT for
the main lines being closed during the peaks meant services ran up to
180 mins late!

Which once again highlights how bloody disgraceful it is that nowadays the
police are permitted to cause disruption on such a scale to the general
public. Perhaps they should be forced to compensate all of those caught up
in their incompetence (as everyone else seems to be expected to these
days) - that might focus their minds to get the job done more quickly.
Bearing in mind that this incident allegedly occurred at around 01:00 the
railway should have been cleared and open for operation by 05:00 at the
latest.



You are an expert on police procedure and the requirements of
Scenes-of-Crimes operations then? They make one false step and everyone from
the Home Secretary all the way down to the Sun newspaper is going to jump all
over them. They don't need, but certainly get, plenty of cretins complaining
because theor oh-so-important journey has been delayed 5 minutes. If they
screw up a muder conviction by not getting the forensics right in the first
place, those self-same cretins will be the first to start demanding that
heads should roll.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

In message
"DJO" djdublo att liamtoh dott moc wrote:


"Matt Ashby" wrote in message
m...

Surely when investigating a crime, the police should be given all the
time that they need.

So why then when a road accident occurs they clear things up much quicker?


Do they? Recently they have shut the M3 for 4+ hours, the M25 for about 6
hours and so-on. And those were for accidents, not suspected murders.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

In message
Roland Perry wrote:

In message , Matt Ashby
writes
Surely when investigating a crime, the police should be given all the
time that they need.

There have to be some external parameters. What if there was a death at
7pm on a Friday, and the police said "we want until noon on Monday,
because we don't work weekends any more". That's an extreme example, but
surely the long time it took to investigate this particular incident
points to a lack of immediately available resources, rather than a lot
of work being required.

Points to nothing of the sort, how do you know what amount of work was
required?

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

"Jeff McGhie" wrote in message
...
So why then when a road accident occurs they clear things up much
quicker?

They aren't. Up here in the Midlands its quite common for roads (I'm
talking
major commuter routes, not country lanes) to be closed through the morning
rush hour following fatal RTA's in the early hours.

Only car-on-car. Remember train crashes often see the line closed for days.

Pedestrian killings are regularly mopped up and ignored within an hour or
two.

Richard