Earlier today my dad got a speeding ticket from a policeman who was on his own. The policeman followed him and gave an approx. speed, worked out over distance. The policeman had no other means of recording the speed. Is his method valid, being on his own? Should my dad contest or should he just bite the bullit?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Rob.

 

did he admit his speed when questioned ???

 

Was it a traffic cop!?

 

No, he did not admit it.

 

Not sure if it was a traffic cop or not, although I would have expected a traffic cop to have some sort of speed recording device.

 

try speedcameras.co.uk they have loads of info about these things im sure he can only caution you as no whitness no record of speed
anyone can make up an average speed
best of luck

 

Unless they have video evidence, they dont have a case! Right?

 

Not sure that is correct. My brother inlaw was done last month in a similar way as described. 300 quid fine + 6 points.

 

I tried looking on here: http://www.speedcameras.co.uk/ but it just seems like a search engine or similar, is this the site you mean?

Rob.

 

http://www.speedcameras.org

is that the right one?

 

Thanks Si, that does help. My dad is a bit fed up about it at the moment, but he was speeding, so I will have a word with him tomorrow and tell him what you said. I think he will be better off going along with it rather than oppossing it. I'll just leave it a bit until he cools down a bit!!

Rob.

 

Nice one Si.

I shall refrain from any comments about mobile speed vans being positioned on streets that have not had a single fatality in 100 years Yet these "TAX VANS" are still positioned and catch criminals like me doing a whole 40 mph in a 30 limit.

Actually - isn't there some guideline / directive / law that fixed cameras should only be placed in locations where there have been fatalities and mobile units similarly but on a stretch of road that was straight for a certain distance ?

I only ask as I heard that there mar be some danger of "Doppler slippage" if the beam traverses the side of the vehicle ?

In fact it has been shown that using current technology a stationary vehicle can be logged at 42 mph.

Rather upsets me when I get a £60 TAX and 3 points for driving out of a 30 into a 60 dual carriageway on a right hand bend with PLOD (Americans - this means the Police / FEDS) sat no more than 50 feet in front of the de-ristricted sign.

That wins no friends at all. NOT ONE.

I pay my taxes, I contribute to charities, I buy english goods, where possible. I shun anything French like a true Englishman. I love quality driving experiences so paid for an 05 PPP WRX from a dealer IN BRITAIN. My wife is a govenor at our childs school, she also pays taxes. We pay out to a number of people, Housekeeper, Gardener and Window cleaner who also pay taxes - AND WE PAY MORE TAX/NI ON TOP OF THEIR TAX (in one case only).

And now we are told I have to pay 25% more for my gas?


And why ?????


At risk of falling foul of Tony Bliars new rules about incitement etc.

And let me tell you - he uses this power with impugnity - Ask that 80 year old veteran that was physicaly dragged out of the labour conference recently for mustering up enough strenth to gasp out the word "Ludicrous"

That is all he said

But he was dragged out by the Blair Bouncers and ARRESTED under the anti terrorism act !!!!!!!


The reason You and I pay more taxes is simple

Tony Blair is a **** of the first order who is more interested in feathering his own nest and ther are too many people taking money out of the pot who have either never paid in OR haven't even got a flaming NI no.

Cut to the chase - If you ain't got an NI no. you better have a good reason to be here. If not - ship out time !!

I'll say no more - won't mention a word about increases in Malaria, AIDS, Ebola virus, Witch Doctoring, Child murders, Yardies, Crack Cocaine, Romainian gangstas, Chinese Triads, Liverpudlian Scallies.

Needs sorting out

And it needs sorting out - NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Oh, by the way it's "argument" not "arguement"

 

Well said .

 

I wasn't going to mention it, but the policeman that done my dad earlier sat on my dad's rear bumper goading him on, until my dad gave in and put his foot down, and on came the flashing lights. Not nice really, but what can we do?

 

sounds like entrapment if they were goading him, would be complaining about that

 

jods are you stupid or something? you seem to be "the lights are on, nobody's home" type of guy. everyone exept you understood what si said!

 

at the end of the day if you speed and get caught, thats tuff ****. if you can get away with it, good luck to ya. i'm no stranger to the law or prison either

 

Rubbish in my experience - Not pointing the finger at you as you may be the most honest police officer in the world (I obviously havent met you if this is the case) BUT most police officers are arrogant and think they are the law when in fact they are only there to enforce it.

 

some police are arrogant sum are not but you get that anywhere its the person not the uniform,i myself have been on the recieving end of her madjestys finest and alltho i feel hard done by i was doin wrong.the police have a thankless job if they are arrogant you dont know what they have just been dealin with , we all take our bad moods out on ppl.End of the day who u goin to call when you house is scooby/house is broken in to.

P.S simongawthorpe well done to you,wouldnt want to do you job

 

AFAIK to present the case in court the device used to incriminate has to be Home Office approved and be suitably maintained and calibrated, and the operating officer needs to be suitably trained in its use. If your father intends to go to court rather than accept a fixed penalty then he must write to the officer in question and demand that evidence of all of this be presented to him in good time to allow the formulation of a defense. Your father must also write to the Chief of Police to register a formal complaint of entrapment against the said officer, and a copy of this and any related replies must be included in that defence.

For more much better help than I can offer go to www.pepipoo.com

 

Was he stopped doing your 30-70 test???

G.

 

I am also a Police officer, i'm not a traffic officer but i've worked a lot with them so might be able to advise this point.

Within West Yorkshire Police (can't comment on othre forces)
The speedo's in the car are replaced with specially calibrated versions of the same, so the clock effectively goes up 1 mile intervals rather than lines every 5mph or similar.
Each clock has it's own serial number also so can be evidenced in court.
ALl traffic car's also have cameras which show the police car's speed on it as it travels, so if the Police car is matching the car in front, the speed can be given that way obviously if the speed is a way over the limit then even if an exact speed (to the individual mph) cannot be given it will still be obvious the driver is speeding.

I'm now leaving the thread to avoid further debates, given my honest advice

 

From what you wrote......
I'd bet a pound to a pinch of **** you're a special

 

no they don't, i flew through some lights one night at some cross roads and a t5 was waiting to go the other way until i, well "in my personal opinion was traveling in excess of 80mph" BUT no charges were brought in relation to that as there was no recording device in the car

 

wrong

he will have been timed using the Vascar system. Basically the police officer times the driver over a distance recorded by the system

he presses a button when the car hes following goes past the tree. he sets another button to start the distance marker.

he finishes the timer when the pursuing car has traveled a few miles. once the police car gets to the spot, the distance is calculated, and the time taken for the chased car to travel that distance is used to calcuate an average speed.

all users of it will have been trained and the system is calibrated regularly. there does not need to be 2 officers present or video evidence

all is explained here

http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/speed03.htm

basically you dont have a hope unless they were stupid and didnt calibrate it recently. but thats unlikely. and taking it to court and make it worse...

 

your almost right

but most forces that im aware of use VASCAR (it was certainly what i was caught with lol)

http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/speed03.htm

 

try prooving it

your going to sound like another complaining law breaker ..

 

Vascar is a flawed system, as it is based upon the reaction time of an individual. The justification is that officers are trained to use it and must achieve a certain reaction time in its use. In daily use the equipment can obviously be misused, either through innocent carelessness, or malicious intent to pervert the course. It would be nigh on impossible to prove a Police officer has deliberately misused said equipment to secure a prosecution, but you just know it can, and definately does happen, and probably extremely regularly. This should render the systems evidence inadmissable, but of course we all know that will never happen until someone manages to prove the flaws in the equipment, and its operators

 

If he has denied it than i would suggest contesting it i seriously doubt it will go to court.

 

Did he give your father a speed that he was doing?
Has your dad produced his Doc's and left his license?
Personally I would write to Chief Constable and say that his Officer was tailgating you and that in your opinion he was pushing you to drive faster and at one point you were scared and tried to accelerate away due to this.
Mention that you feel that this officer should be re-trained or occupied due to the poor standard of his work whilst on duty.

I wrote concerning being caught using my phone. According to the officer I was being Summons. Wrote letter and only got a caution and dont do it again off The big cheese.

Its only a letter, and if he feels his Officers standards are at question he may just quash it. Nothing to lose.