pslewis

I am guessing it's pure bull****

And what you say is correct - a coppa can say you were speeding, fighting it in court is just going to confirm the the Magistrates that you are a **** ....

A friend of mine is a Magistrate ................... he tells me what NOT and what TO do - telling the court that the coppa is telling porkies is NOT the way to act. Giving a reasoned response is the way to get out alive!

Pete

pslewis

Yeah right ..................................

Pete

hedgehog

This is almost true, it requires the opinion of two police officers or the corroborated opinion of a single police officer (i.e. an officer and a laser or similar) to determine that you are exceeding the posted limit.

I don't know if this is fact but I have been told that they have, in recent years, been unwilling to test "opinion" that you are speeding without some form of corroboration in court as it is believed that a suitable defence exists. Hence why they always measure your speed on some device.

It is also the case that ANY speed measuring device must be used to confirm the "prior opinion" of a police officer that you were exceeding the posted limit. With this in mind the vans where they point the laser and camera down the road and some bloke eats donuts in the front are technically illegal. That I am aware of there has never been a test case based upon this and so it is unlikely to make a suitable defence, however this is a question worth asking on pepipoo.

As pointed out, however, there are a very many suitable defences and it is unnecessary and unreasonable for anyone, except the most extreme anti-motoring individuals, to expect you to roll over and accept punishment for something you didn't do. To do so holds the police, the courts and the law in contempt.

On another point, the programme which showed the high speed wall was a BBC show (It was, and may still be, available to download from the pepipoo site) and it demonstrated a stationary wall moving at 58mph according to the laser speed device. A similar demonstration in a court room in the USA is one reason why such devices are not authorised for use in some states.

M1BJR

Excellent thread, nice to share the info, and I 've learned a lot.
(Like I'm going to be very knackered tomorrow LOL!)

Enjoy, and nice meeting you all.

GREEN SCOOBY

Well here we go again with sp lewis, no matter what kind of question you ask, the bloke is just waiting to answer it with a nasty comment. no matter what! How has this bloke not been banned from this forum? It just brings the whole Scoobynet forum down when he is around posting his usual 200 posts a night trying to **** people off, because he has nothing better to do with his time! (14400 Scoobynet posts to him and 800ish to me when we joined around the same time, and not one of his has been friendly advice,just good old abuse) What a shame for scoobynet.


P.S. PS, say what you want, I wont reply.

ndwall

Unfortunately this won't help in your case but it makes interesting reading: http://new.edp24.co.uk/search/story....ategory=search

Not that I suggest anyone does it as PS Lewis will get his auto response out "watch them kids in a 30 playing on the road"

sgcooby

Actually 30 is the limit in a 30 zone. You can get a ticket doing 31 by law. Hopefully a lesson has been learned.

sgcooby

The 10% plus 2mph is not law its only a guidline you can, by law, get done for anything over the posted limit. I have a work mate who got done for 33mph. Mind you he gave the copper some cheek.

perky555

iTrader: (1)

drag nit out over the 6 months time out period, worked for me.
try www.pepipoo.com they told me how to do it.

EBRWRX

I completed my NIP about 6 weeks ago. No doubt they'll do exactly what they did when I got caught stealing a cream egg from boots 27 years ago. Once I've forgotten all about it the letter will drop on the doorstep.

I've already done some research on pepipoo and I'll be watching very carefully for the exact wording they use on the prosecution document. One word out of place and I'm contesting it.

For the benefit of PS Lewis (I'm guessing it stands for ***** Short) it's not the getting caught speeding I object to and I am more aware than most on here about the implications of speed. I don't need to go into details on that. Like most drivers I drive according to the conditions of the road and the time of day.

I don't consider 42 mph in a 30 on a well lit deserted road late at night in perfect conditions to be reckless or negligent or a danger to pedestrians. I do consider the virtually unmarked police van, except for one thin fluorescent strip to be grossly unfair, especially when all the others around here are so plain to see. The same situation in broad daylight with loads of people around and hands up officer you've caught me fair and square.

I still have three gripes with the whole speeding thing:

1) An automatic 3 points for a first speeding offence in 22 years of driving - this is bollocks and with the possible exception of serious violent crimes has no basis in law. A warning as to future conduct would be sufficient and this could be placed on record. As far as I'm aware most insurance companies are now starting to discount the first 3-6 speeding points as they can't keep up with it.

2) The lack of discretion. In the good old days if you got pulled over by plod, let's say for having a dodgy light and doing 80 on a motorway, you were likely to be let off with a quiet word or a 5 day wonder as long as you were civil to the officer, had clearly not been drinking, and didn't try to pull the wool over their eyes (a failed bulb is a failed bulb and 80mph is 80 !).

3) The lining of the coffers and lack of accountability. As far as I am aware the money is supposed to go to central funding apart from covering administrative costs. I wish I could believe it was the case but coming from Essex I am less than convinced.

SPEEDING KILLS but I'm sure spending your whole driving life looking over around you for Gatso's, radars etc is far more dangerous. Sadly there is no-one in authority prepared to enter into a serious debate on these issues and PSL's 31mph is speeding argument is simply not practical.

There are some simple trade-offs here. For instance I'd be more than happy to exchange a 20mph limits around all schools, nurseries etc with careless driving charges for those caught with variable speed limits on all motorways up to 85mph if the road/traffic conditions and time of day permit.

Mass.

There ya go Mr pslewis.................Put that in ya pipe an' smoke it!!!

Leslie

As we all know now, whatever the laser gun says is not necessarily the accurate readout of the speed you were actually doing.

It depends on how the man holding it pointed it at you, whether it was square on the the car and motionless. It is vastly subject to human error, and that is even before we consider the calibrated accuracy of the device.

The trouble is, you cant prove it, it is all wrong that you have to be dependent on the ability of the man with the gun to use it correctly. These devices should not be legally allowed for speed measurement.

Les

Crazy Chick

I read that too - they also showed an empty street breaking the speed limit as well.

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Just reading through this thread i am amazed by the amount of people on here who have never exceed the speed limit.

I also keep on reading about these thousands of kids who are playing on the road waiting to be hit by a car.

Why can't the police spend more money on teaching the kids the highway code. If i was to run out infront of a car i would expect to get hit, weather it was doing 30mph or 50mph. The best way to stop a child getting hit by a car is to keep the kid off the road anyway!!!!!! Anyone who does not have the ability to cross the road in a proper mannor shouldn't be allowed out without a responsible adult anyway.

*Rant over*

Isoproturon

As usual, you are talking out of your ****. 10%+2mph is a GUIDELINE.

Isoproturon

Who says he was caught by a camera ? Police officers don't use cameras, they use laser or radar guns... and as far as I am aware, it isn't absolutely necessary for a sign to be present to be in a position to use one of those. Cameras yes, radar/laser guns I am not sure about.

mad_dr

Hi there, I don't disagree with everything you said but by the above, aren't you really trying to say:

"1) An automatic 3 points for the first time you were caught commiting the offense?"

Because the Police can make a (perhaps fair, perhaps unfair) reasonable assumption that it's not the first time you've broken the speed limit in your life. It just happens to be the first time you did it while a copper was watching.

All the previous times you exceeded the speed limit you were commiting the "crime" - it's just that was the first time you were caught.

By the way - I'm not a holier-than-thou type - I drive at a speed that I believe to be appropriate for the road and conditions (so if it's icey, I rarely go over 140mph).

EBRWRX

That's a fair argument but I could get a first warning for ABH and they could reasonably suspect me of beating the crap out of loads of people beforehand. God knows half the Chavs around here could do with a slap. I wish they'd go back to Basildon

In a nutshell it's the alienation of the driver by the nanny state that I think is getting everyone wound up.

PSL, I believe, is just stretching a point to make a point. We know the facts about speeding but what you have to remember is that in PSL's day it was a miracle for a Morris Minor to get anywhere about 40mph unless it was down Box Hill with a tail-wind.

Leslie

I used to really enjoy driving up and down Box Hill, with or without a tailwind!

Les