Capital Summertime Ball 2024

[Jono]

A woman is facing charges of 'careless and inconsiderate driving' after deliberately driving through a puddle at high speed to soak a group of people waiting at a bus stop. The charge carries a fine of up to £2,500.

Police began to investigate after they received complaints about a clip of the incident, which was posted on YouTube.

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The clip, taken from inside the Kerry Callard's vehicle, is accompanied by her male passenger's commentary as the car travels along down Weston Hill in Plymouth.

"Here we go, ready to drench the kids..." the passenger begins.

"Puddle at the bottom of the hill coming up, kids at the bottom of the hill – come on!" he continues excitedly, as the car drives through the puddle, soaking the bystanders.

"That was brilliant! Awesome!" he shouts, laughing.

Police said 29-year-old Callard had contacted them voluntarily about the incident last Thursday and the evidence was now being reviewed.

"We had three complaints from members of the public and as a result a 29-year-old woman was interviewed. The file has gone to the CPS for consideration," said a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police today.

"Although driving through standing water may be seen as a bit of fun, potentially it is very dangerous. Not only is it showing no consideration to the pedestrians who may get a soaking, but it could result in the driver losing control of the vehicle due to the force of the water snatching the wheel from the hands, or by the vehicle aquaplaning," the spokesman added.

Callard has claimed the children asked to be splashed and would not have done it otherwise.

"The fun factor is mostly gone from life these days but they were playing in puddles, like kids always have done. If the kids weren't saying 'Splash me, splash me', I certainly wouldn't have done it. I'm not a serial splasher," she told the Daily Mail.

Local police said the children's agreement would make no difference to how the standard of driving was judged.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?YouTube_happy_splashing_video_driver_charged&in_article_id=752210&in_page_id=34

Well I never thought you could be fined for this sort of thing. Does the element of YouTube make it any different to day to day life though?

[Timsk]

They have a point about how she was driving though. Speeding up to go through what was clearly relatively deep standing water (seen by the other car going through it ahead) could easily have seen her lose control of the car at speed, even killing anyone involved in the process.

A low speed alternative I'd see the funny side to, but not this. There's reckless/dangerous 'fun' and there's 'fun' with a bit of common sense...

[E*F*4L]

it has always been against the law to do it, its a form of assault.

"the kids asked us to do it" yeah right.

the car could have easily veered into the kid's, when the water catches the wheels of the car (any driver will know the feeling if they have driven through a deep puddle, how the car sort of tramlines) or even hit something under the water & veered into the people standing there & most likely of killed them or seriously injured them.

the parents should take legal action & sue the pair, the driver at least & make them pay not the insurance company, hopefully they get banned from driving, a few weeks in jail also.

this type of thing REALLY pisses me off :x

they should be taught a lesson & see how they like it !

maybe the CIA could use some of their waterboarding techniques on them !

[KingTutsWWH]

... and breathe Alan.

I agree with some of the above though. Petrified myself by aquaplaning on the motorway in Madrid once. It is very dangerous.

Also, although I'm all for the odd water fight, I don't find splashing people with water in the street to be particularly amusing. Maybe Im losing my sense of humour?

[E*F*4L]

yes it does come across as a bit of a rant,

but if it wasn't for idiots like that there wouldn't be so many accidents nor health & safety (gone crazy) on the roads, wonder what other things they have got up to on the road, yes im not saying im the worlds best driver, but i do not drive like a nob.

that pair are just like the c (word)'s who drive across level crossings when a train is coming !

the video has been removed (in Jono's post), so here it is

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[superchris0110]

that pair are just like the c (word)'s who drive across level crossings when a train is coming !

Without risking a rant from me on this subject, and taking it totally off topic...

That indeed is unacceptable. However where I live, network rail keep the train gates down for 37 minutes in every hour (they probably only need to be down for 20 minutes. Usually they go down for trains that are 7 minutes away from the crossing). I can only assume this is similar everywhere else because when questioned, they responded it was for their passengers safety and to ensure no delays.

I heard somewhere, believe it was newsbeat, that despite all the latest safety campaigning, deaths at railway crossings have actually increased. The length of time the gates remain down per hour has most likely increased over the years, and therefore it seems possible that people are aware of this and rather than wait 3 times longer than they should, they risk their lives and potentially everyone on the train.

Back to the happy splashing... I do hope she gets that fine... the size of that puddle linked in with how fast they were going, looks like it could have really hurt those poor kids and is totally uncalled for. If puddles are safely unavoidable, I will drive around. If there is no chance I can pass (oncoming traffic) I will go through, if safely possible, at a reduced speed. If someone happens to be walking past a puddle at the same time im going to drive past and I cant safely reduce my speed or avoid... sorry but there isn't anything you can do!

[DarkAngelMJH]

Yeah I soaked someone the other day by driving through a puddle, I was on course to avoid it but when a dickhead driver cuts you up, well it was either the puddle or crash.

[Party Roy]

People who stand next to large puddles of water are bound to get soaked. Just don't stand there!

[mark-juggler]

People who stand next to large puddles of water are bound to get soaked. Just don't stand there!

I dont stand next to puddles, and also i run when im walking up to a big puddle. I dont fancy getting soaked for no reason!

[E*F*4L]

People who stand next to large puddles of water are bound to get soaked. Just don't stand there!

what if its where the bus stop is ?

[E*F*4L]

not so happy splashing :hahaha:

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