Speeding fines

[The Lone Gunman]

I had a similar experience only that my speed was 31mph on the 30mph limit part of the dual carriageway. It was newly installed camera and installed incorrectly. The Police and CPS were determined to win the case in order stop a precedent.

The case was heard by a District Judge, the CPS sent two barristers and two police and one “expert” I was on my own. After three hours I had cross-examined the police and the “expert” I proved the photographic evidence of the readout was inaccurate. The DC then made a statement; “ We can’t have every Tom, Dick and Harry coming to court and disputing a speeding fine. Regardless of the photographic evidence I believe your were doing 31mph.”

The case cost me a day’s work and a £460 fine.


PS I am sure that I would win the case on appeal but that would cost me about £10k in legal fees.

I would suggest a letter to Clarkson and a few other papers.
2 pronged attack. You proved you were innocent yet were still found guilty. If the tech is not infallable and a copper can tell what speed you were doing anyway then why are they spending so much money on these speed cameras and other devices?

[Platypus]

Because it doesn't save you when some sneaky plod has backed his pig wagon up some farm track on a bend on a rural road that sees maybe 5 cars a day. B*stards!

They publish when and where they're going to be lurking in the local paper.

[Platypus]

Not Rubbish. They were deemed to be illegal under the Wireless Telegraphy Act (1949) as they "intercept" a message sent by an electronic device (the radar signal).

These days you need a GPS device that warns you where the static cameras are. It's my understanding that static cameras don't use radar to activate therefore a radar detector is no good.

Google for Road Angel. Perfectly legal.

[expat]

Well, if you manage to kill a child next time when you drive 40mph on a 30mph road, feel free to come back to us and tell us how the law has treated you unfairly. The speed limit is there for a reason... maybe because there have been too many accidents on that stretch of road?

Not all road accidents are due to speed. The location of road accidents is distributed in part randomly. So a given stretch of road may happen to see 3 road accidents in the course of 1 year, without there being any special reason related to that piece of road or to speeding: next year it may well have 0 accidents. Just a piece of random variation, as you would expect in real life.

Notwithstanding, that road will be designated a black spot, and is liable to get a speed camera installed. Naturally when there are 0 accidents the following year, that will be taken as evidence that installing the speed camera worked.

This is more farcical when you consider the wide range of incidents that are classified as road accidents and taken into account: for example a pedestrian falling off a footbridge over the road is a "road accident" on that road.

None of this is to argue that speed does not cause accidents, only that you cannot deduce from the presence of a speed camera that this stretch of road is dangerous by reason of drivers speeding.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I wonder why people think it's their god given right to break this law and not others? I speed and if I get caught, I say fair cop, I was unlucky and pay the fine. I rarely speed in 30/40 areas and it's not hard to keep an eye on your speed - I know limits can seem daft at times but why do people think it's such a hardship? On most journey times the actual difference is trivial.

[EternalOptimist]

I wonder why people think it's their god given right to break this law and not others? I speed and if I get caught, I say fair cop, I was unlucky and pay the fine. I rarely speed in 30/40 areas and it's not hard to keep an eye on your speed - I know limits can seem daft at times but why do people think it's such a hardship? On most journey times the actual difference is trivial.

Because people see it as being aritrary and ineffective. People are expected to use their judgement when driving and get whalloped when they judge it wrong, but they are not allowed to use their judgement when it comes to speed limits. So it just feels wrong.

[DimPrawn]

I wonder why people think it's their god given right to break this law and not others? I speed and if I get caught, I say fair cop, I was unlucky and pay the fine. I rarely speed in 30/40 areas and it's not hard to keep an eye on your speed - I know limits can seem daft at times but why do people think it's such a hardship? On most journey times the actual difference is trivial.

I wonder if people who feel they know better about speed limits feel the same way about orangey/red traffic lights, no overtaking lines and no right/left turn signs?

[Churchill]

I wonder if people who feel they know better about speed limits feel the same way about orangey/red traffic lights, no overtaking lines and no right/left turn signs?

Not the same, at all, and you know it.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Not the same, at all, and you know it.

What's the difference between speeding when it's quiet and running a red light when there's no-one coming the other way?
They are both (Red light and speed limit) arbitary and illogical at the time of application, both illegal. If speeding's ok, why not ignore red lights at discretion?

[RichardCranium]

I wonder why people think it's their god given right to break this law and not others?

Because of the number of instances I have seen where it looks more like a revenue earning exercise than a safety-related one.

Another example (I gave others earlier) was the mobile camera on a roundabout on the edge of Swansea. The road becomes a dual carriageway and steeply dips under the large roundabout. At the start of the dip, the speed limit goes DOWN to 30; you cannot see the 30 sign until quite close and at the start of the downhill. You have little chance of slowing down and you wonder "If I stamp on the brakes, will I get rammed from behind?". And right there, in the centre of the roundabout, is the mobile speed camera pointing down through the centre of the roundabout at just that point in the road.

I went for the "F*** it" option and stamped on the brakes and left the poor bugger in the car behind to deal with it - he must have been a local and knew it was coming.

There is no way on earth that is a "safety camera".

This is the same police force (South Wales) that put the cameras out during the RAC Rally ... and sent the fines to the competitors. Not just between stretches (where rally drivers have always speeded) but the actual race sections.

Safety. Yeah. Right.

It's just another tax.