Safe Speed Forums

Well, last friday 11/03/05 i was driving down the A9 maybe about 50 miles away from perth when i had to overtake a slower vehicle within a 60 zone, i proceeded to indicate and overtake got up to est 75mph and pulled back in and slowed down, i then noticed a white van in a layby on the opposite side of the road and as i got closer i realised it was a camera van so i braked a bit more and passed it around the 65mph mark, but i am now concerned that it took a photo of me after i had overtook reducing my speed from 75.
More concerning still is that on monday night 14/03/05 i had just left the gym and was giving a pal a lift home when i was on the dual carridgeway passing inverness college i accelerated to get in front of the vehicle in the left lane to get to the bus station when all of a sudden i noticed the police sitting in the junction for lorimers, they were only noticible when passing the junction and not before so i got pulled and got a £60 fine and 3 points payable in 28 days,i was doing 45mph,and i thought as many others do that it was a 40mph all along that carridgeway from the kessock roundabout, i am aware of how to drive safely and have done a pass plus course to reduce premiums and drive tactically,but am now very worried that i will get done by the a9 van also (i am within the 2 year probationary period 6 points max as i lost my licence previously due to being very young and a loose cannon!) if i lose my licence i will lose my job, if i lose my job i will not get my forthcoming mortgage.
I told the police when they pulled me over about the current situation and my worries and they said to argue to the max about the van as it is controlled by civilians and they will book anybody, "even us" the policeman quoted, to note, the policemen were very decent and down to earth, they said if it comes to that situation to make a plea of mitigating circumstances saying i need my licence for my job, and that i will know in 14 days whether i will get booked by the van, if its outwith 14days i wont get booked apparently.
So 6 days have passed so far,would i have heard by now? are they quite quick to send the letter out?, a friend also said to make sure i see the photo and a true reading of the speed.
Apparently the police are cracking down on speeders in inverness and that the road i got caught on they are catching people doing 80+!!
Let me know your views guys.

Muchly Appreciated
Bar

http://www.pepipoo.com has a lot of advice about the legal side of things. Probably worth posting this on the forums there.

Good luck.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I wonder if there isn't some form of "Shylock clause" somewhere.
Shylock was entitled to his pound of flesh, but not one drop of blood.
In these cases, the £60 and points is the pound of flesh, but the loss of livelihood etc could be likened to the drop of blood.

Just a thought...

Cheers
Peter

Ultimately if you exceed the speed limit habitually sooner or later you will be prosecuted - this applied long before speed cameras were ever invented.
However if a ban is likely to cause you to lose your job, representations to the magistrate, either by letter (and put in some supporting documentation from your employer) or in person - it might be worth investing in a solicitor to put your case, are likely to get a potential ban reduced to a a large total of points instead.

The other things I meant to mention are: your speedometer will undoubtedly be over-reading by up to 10% so your true speed at an indicated 75 may only be 67.5. The ACPO guidelines allow (speed limit + 10% plus 2 mph) to be the speed at which prosecutions occur = 68 mph.
So you may escape prosecution in any case.

Good God man, STICK TO THE LIMITS!!! We all enjoy a good hoon when conditions allow, i'm more than guilty of it myself, but WHY are you taking these risks in your situation?!! Take it easy for a couple of years and learn to drive safely and properly.

Why on earth are you risking this at all?! I know 'slow' drivers can be frustrating, but teach yourself some patience and just bite your lip when behind a slow driver....

Yeah i see where ur coming from pal, i do normally take it easy, im of the unfortunate type tho that if i do a bad thing for only a second i get caught for it.
Im driving everywhere now bang on or slightly under the speed limit, and to be honest i dont even care, im noticing more and more ppl now coming racing up my tail end lookin all frustrated, its quite amusing watching them tbh lol.
Lets just hope it was a scare for me and nothing comes out of it.

Thanks Guys

The average commercial driver will complete 25000 miles per year, many will do more than that. This is one 12millionth of the miles completed in this country.

If 4 million tickets are issued each year by cameras and Bib, as soon as this driver gets three points, he has the next three years to avoid three more. He has a one in three chance of getting a ticket each year.

My own naive statistical analysis would suggest that once such a person gets his first ticket, then he has a 50:50 chance of attaining 12 points during the following three years! (Is this correct?)

Does anyone have access to data of the number of drivers who are being disqualified for totting up, and an indication of how that number is growing with the proliferation of cameras?

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Fixed ideas are like cramp, for instance in the foot, yet the best remedy is to step on them.

Ian

If it were pure stats I would say it would follow the Poisson distribution, though it's many years since I did such stats.

Anyway, over 3 years if the mean is 1 speeding ticket, then P(x) is 1^x * e^-1 / x!

1^x is always 1

e^-1 is 0.36788

P(0) is therefore .36788 (about 36.8%)
P(1) is also .36788 (36.8%)
P(2) is .18394 (18.4%)

remainder is 8%, so there is only an 8% chance of picking up 3 further convictions on normal statistics.

Incidentally P(3) would be .06161 (6.16%)

Thus from having no convictions, the odds of picking up 4 convictions (on pure statistics) would be 1.9% (3 in 158 or 1 in 52.66)

Of course, the stats could either be higher (bad drivers will pick up lots of convictions while over 36.8% will pick up none at all). Or it could be lower because those who already have a conviction will be more careful.