01/04/2010
FEATURE BY GLEN CROMPTON
 |
The last thing I really want to discuss right now is Lewis Hamilton's encounter with the constabulary at my local GP. Plenty has already been said, in fact too much. Commentaries range from the surprisingly valid to the utterly mad. The commentators range from public forums to senior police, from tabloid hacks to government ministers with penchants for calling one of the best drivers in the world a dickhead. Even Mark Webber weighed in with a clumsy attempt at defending his fellow F1 competitor which resulted in a harsh rebuke from the local police. Ironic that clumsy driving by Mark late in the GP saw him diminish his and Lewis' finishing places.
So that's what's driven me to have my say when I should be typing about a reasonably interesting GP weekend. Problem is, I was there when it happened - right across the road having dinner with my family. I had no idea the driver in question was a world champion. Were I a crack journalist, I'd have been all over it. You'd have read about it first on Pitpass and there'd have been supporting video footage filmed with my mobile phone. I am not a crack journalist (most would say not a journalist at all), I didn't video it and, quite frankly, I barely noticed it. My only reaction was to comment that given the time lapse twixt tyre squeal and ensuing police siren, the driver in question couldn't be all that observant - though they may not have been the exact words.
Some backdrop is due. The laws Lewis is supposed to have broken were framed in response to a very real problem. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of families here are left grieving or coping with the long term consequences of needless road accidents. All too often the precipitant error comes from a young driver. Of course the press is ever-ready with stories of illicitly organised drag racing on public roads though actual annual fatalities stemming from this absurd behaviour number in the tens or less.
But we have a populist system of voting in governments and, perhaps unsurprisingly, that system has a history of seeding legislation which favours voting trends over common sense. Which is to say that which the press makes most popular is that which is most often legislated upon. In this case, the government created what are known as the "hoon laws." They are tough and penalties include impounding the vehicle in which the offence was committed. There is talk of upping the legislative ante and sending the vehicles of recidivists to the crusher.
The car Lewis was driving was impounded albeit only for a matter of days. Therein you begin to see the one of many critical flaws in the approach of the governments responsible. The car Lewis was driving was not his. For all I know he probably had another one at his disposal by daybreak the following morning. There have been cases where similar laws have resulted in mechanics' test drives of customer cars resulting in impounding and of course parents' cars have suffered the same fate in the hands of errant children. I call it bad legislation and the impounding of Lewis' loaner serves only to underscore my view.
I absolutely do not question the need to address this problem just the means by which it has been done. The government that enacted the hoon laws has done nothing to address the most basic problem, that of road licensing. The license test in Victoria, to me at least, remains a pathetic joke. I could go on at length about this but I shall spare you. The one thing I can say with personal conviction is that the testing system to gain a road license in this state does not prove much about your ability to drive an automobile in any meaningful sense.
Lewis' incident took place on Fitzroy Street - the main vehicle access point to the Albert Park complex. Fitzroy Street is a wonderful, popular, cosmopolitan restaurant, bar and café strip with plenty of sidewalk tables. The roadway is a broad dual lane, dual carriageway separated by dual tram lines. Even when the GP is not in town, this heady mix of wide road and abundant audience is something of a magnet for those who believe that the best way to impress members of the opposite gender comes down to loud exhausts, sharp stabs on the throttle and antics which greatly reduce tyre life. I'd boldly suggest that most of the perpetrators do not possess Lewis' car control.
Having spent much of the day in question sitting beside the street in question, I can assure you that Lewis was not the first road user that day to contravene the laws under which he is said to be charged. I saw far worse and my guess is that none of those other drivers had a shiny cup in their cabinet attesting to the fact that they are among the most skilled drivers in the world. Lewis can thread a car most people couldn't even drive out of a Pitlane between the barriers at Monaco. I bet this is well beyond the capabilities of the dolt in the black Maserati who so annoyed me with that same afternoon.
Yes, Lewis broke a road law in a country he was visiting. He had the misfortune to break a law in a country that favours zero tolerance on the road. Many among my countryman feel this approach has more to do with filling government coffers than the safety of road users.
I broke road laws in Italy once and the officer who made that clear to me gave me a talking to and sent me on my way. It didn't make the international press and nor it should have, even if I had been a famous racing driver. The Italian policeman made my error clear to me. Nobody was hurt, no harm was done and he didn't have to waste his time filling in reports. To me, that is sensible, meaningful policing but that, I gather, is not something that governments permit where I live.
It was all too easy for the international media to suggest that Lewis should have been treated as I once was in Italy and many friends I spoke to within F1 felt the same. But talk here persists of quota targets for road fines and while confirmation has never been forthcoming, I could cite a dozen cases where people I know have been served fines for exceeding a speed limit by infinitesimal amounts. Lives are not saved by prosecuting a road user for doing 35.1 miles an hour in a 35 mile per hour zone. Lives are more likely to be saved by teaching drivers how to brake efficiently but that has yet to hit the political radar in my country.
Come to that, of far greater concern to me in the case of Lewis Hamilton's incident was the immediate aftermath. The entire event was over in moments. Long after Lewis was pulled over, stationary, clearly going nowhere and threatening nobody, a number of police cars arrived on the scene at what I can only describe as utterly stupid speed given that they were engaging in a high speed pursuit of a stationary car.
One wonders what drivers far less skilled than Lewis had on their minds as they raced to the scene of a non-event. I can further speculate that were these drivers the equal of Lewis, they'd have not been driving police cars at rude speed on Fitzroy Street that night. Had any pedestrian happened onto that roadway as the later police cars arrived, there is not a chance in hell those police cars could have slowed in time to avoid a serious accident. Lewis might have the skills to avert such a crash but then I think he would have been smart enough not to take the risk. Mark Webber, on the other hand… but that is another story.
So yes, Lewis broke the law. He fishtailed a powerful car for a few seconds on a broad roadway without anything but a police car in clear sight. In my mind, pretty bad laws but laws all the same. According to local press he is to be charged on summons. That is likely to result in a fine and my wild guess is that whatsoever the amount of the fine, he's probably not going to loose much sleep over it. The car he drove and which was impounded is to be auctioned and is expected to sell for more than the retail price, though I gather Mercedes intends to distribute the excess to charity.
Meanwhile, I cannot help but think the whole affair might be more meaningful if Lewis' punishment was to be ordered to return here and teach at least some young road users to drive competently. That might just be a good start to actually fixing the real problem the fine-loving government claims to be addressing.