Fatality at Balham?
 

Matt Ashby wrote:

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.

Which would give people wanting to kill people / dispose of bodies a
very good reason to do so on the railways. "Oh, it'll be OK - the
police only have 4 hours to investigate this scene and pick up all the
forensics, so they'll never connect it to us".

You've forgotten one crucial factor: CCTV!

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

Yes, but examining a scene as uncluttered as a train station shouldn't
take more than an hour. What extra evidence do you think could be gained
by keeping the station closed all morning?

Fatality at Balham?
 

David Hansen wrote in message . ..
On 9 Feb 2004 01:57:26 -0800 someone who may be
(Ian Johnston) wrote this:-

Or points to it happening at one o'clock in the morning in the middle
of winter, and them needing a few hours of daylight to do a proper
search of the area?

The steel wheels on steel rails do not really pick up evidence and
distribute it further down the track. If necessary fit some sheets
of plastic under the rails and let the trains pass. Easy peasy, even
with conductor rails.


With all due respect, that's just plain silly. Are you seriously
suggesting that trains could run through a murder investigation scene,
at speed (hint: aerodynamics) for a few hours (or until a quiet time
the next weekend?) without hindering the investigation in any way?

Ian

Fatality at Balham?
 

Roland Perry wrote in message ...
In message , Ian
Johnston writes
Or points to it happening at one o'clock in the morning in the middle
of winter, and them needing a few hours of daylight to do a proper
search of the area?

Or that the "resource" they are missing is floodlighting?

A very, very, very, very poor substitute for sunlight. Remember that
they are looking for tiny things, and although floodlights may look
bright they are either very directional - so things get hidden in
shadows - or much dimmer.

Ian

Fatality at Balham?
 

In message
David Hansen wrote:

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:45:14 +0000 someone who may be Graeme Wall
wrote this:-

They don't need, but certainly get, plenty of cretins complaining
because theor oh-so-important journey has been delayed 5 minutes.

Nice try.

Shock horror! I got a 'Nice try' out of Mr Hansen.

However, the delays mentioned din this thread are rather more than five
minutes.



Exageration for effect old thing.

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

Fatality at Balham?
 

In message
David Hansen wrote:

On 9 Feb 2004 01:49:51 -0800 someone who may be
(Ian Johnston) wrote this:-

If there is a suspicion of
murder, it's now worth looking for very, very much smaller pieces of
evidence than ten or even five years ago. And that takes longer.

Despite such "fingertip search" activities by the police it remains
a fact that they and the "experts" advising them did not recognise
the AWS receiver or the ATP master byte card of the train that
crashed at Southall. Had it not been for railway staff Inspector
Clouseau and their colleagues would have lost these items.



Nice try!!!! But what has that got to do with a murder investigation?

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

Fatality at Balham?
 

In message
David Hansen wrote:

On 9 Feb 2004 01:54:48 -0800 someone who may be
(Ian Johnston) wrote this:-

[snip]
Bear in mind as well that roads are hard to damage and can quickly be
patched up if they are damaged. Neither is true of railway lines,

Debatable.

Debatable?


particularly where pointwork

Hence the substitution of plain line. However, if components are
available, such as suitable switches, then it does not take that
long to install switch and crossing work.


That's a bloody big if. I've not noticed spare turnouts lying about the
network just in case.


or overhead are concerened.

Overhead is quick and easy to install, even if masts have been
destroyed. One may need a speed restriction for a few days until a
proper repair is made, but that is a process that is easy enough to
manage.



So you admit the delays of days are not that unreasonable?

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

Fatality at Balham?
 

In message , Ian
Johnston writes
Or that the "resource" they are missing is floodlighting?

A very, very, very, very poor substitute for sunlight.

What to the police do north of the Arctic Circle? Hibernate?
--
Roland Perry

Fatality at Balham?
 

On 9 Feb 2004 11:18:27 -0800 someone who may be
(Ian Johnston) wrote this:-

The steel wheels on steel rails do not really pick up evidence and
distribute it further down the track. If necessary fit some sheets
of plastic under the rails and let the trains pass. Easy peasy, even
with conductor rails.

With all due respect, that's just plain silly.

You fail to explain why?

Are you seriously
suggesting that trains could run through a murder investigation scene,
at speed

Possible murder scene.

I didn't mention the trains running at speed. Doing so would rip the
plastic.

without hindering the investigation in any way?

I don't think it would hinder the investigation in any way.

When the police have extracted themselves from the chip shop and are
ready to make a start then they could be allowed to do their work,
outside the peak periods.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me using the RIP Act 2000.

Fatality at Balham?
 

In message , Roland Perry
writes
In message , Ian
Johnston writes
Or that the "resource" they are missing is floodlighting?

A very, very, very, very poor substitute for sunlight.

What to the police do north of the Arctic Circle? Hibernate?

Surely everyone hibernates (or gets roaring drunk) up there in winter?

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

Fatality at Balham?
 

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Graeme Wall wrote:

Shock horror! I got a 'Nice try' out of Mr Hansen.

Fair do's - you paid one back directly!