GMP say ‘pas d’excuses’ to speeding cabby

A taxi driver caught running a red light in Salford told police ‘you can do that in France’ when stopped by police on Wednesday morning.

The driver told officers that it was OK that he ran a red light as “you can do that in France”, before being told by officers that “Eccles isn’t in France” when he ignored the red light to turn left in Eccles.

GMP Eccles posted about the incident on their Facebook page at 7:30am on Wednesday morning, saying a traffic offence report (TOR) was issued to the cabby. The Facebook post also added some humour to the situation by using the hashtag ‘#pasd’excuse’, meaning ‘no excuse’ in French.

The RAC says that in France; “If a red light is accompanied by a yellow arrow, you may proceed in the direction indicated by the arrow, provided you give way to vehicles travelling in that direction as well as to pedestrians.”

The busy cabby’s excuse has inspired us here at SalfordNow to comprise our own list of ‘excuses’ given to the authorities.

Here’s our Top 10:

1. Topping the list is a driver who claimed they’d ‘just washed their car and were trying to dry it’ when justifying why they were doing 80 km/h in a 60 km/h zone.
2. Helping out a friend was this drivers excuse, ‘I have to get the boys to a weigh-in’, while doing 155 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.
3. Another, who was doing 45 km/h over the limit, decided that science would be their way out of trouble, explaining ‘I was testing my new windscreen’.
4. ‘I have cramp causing my foot to hit the accelerator’ is another one given by a sorry driver.
5. Some law-breakers were looking for sympathy with ‘I’ve had a bad day, I broke up with my girlfriend’

   

6. A personal favourite is the driver who probably shouldn’t have a licence in the first place after hearing their excuse of ‘the stereo isn’t working’ this being what led them to doing 88 km/h in a 60 km/h zone.
7. Someone blamed the chilly weather with ‘I’m not wearing socks and it’s cold’ after doing 12 km/h over the limit.
8. This driver was just being a supportive friend ‘I was running late for my mate’s powerlifting competition’
9. Someone clearly wasn’t told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day as their excuse was ‘I’m tired. I’ve been up since 4am’, our response to this one would be, have you heard of caffeine?
10. and finally possibly the most bizarre of the lot: ‘A magpie flew in front of my car and it was carrying a bit of foil, so that’s what your speed detection device picked up’.

Have you heard any excuses as bizarre as these? Let us know @SalfordNow on Twitter and Facebook.