Safe Speed Forums

are u allowed over the speed limit before u are flashed or fined i.e if u where doing 71 or 72 in a 70 zone would this be enough to fine u or is there some give in the situation.

Varies by police force, but the following are common.

Conditional Offer (3 points / 60 quid)

35 in a 30
46 in a 40
57 in a 50
68 in a 60
79 in a 70

Prosecute (ie. court summons)

56 in a 30
66 in a 40
76 in a 50
86 in a 60
96 in a 70

A few forces push the CO thresholds up by one or two MPH and give you the option to pay between £60-£100 to go an be lectured at for a day as an alternative to points. Well worth it for the saving on your insurance, especially if you are a younger driver.

I beleive Tyneside police have a zero tolerance thing going on and will give you a CO for 71 in a 70.

Also note that your speedo is probably not accurate. They are allowed to overread by up to 10%, most manufacturers aim for 5% to allow for maximum tolerance, your tread depth (or incorrect wheel size) also affects your speedo reading.

It's highly likely you were under the speed limit at the time you looked at the dial.

I have never seen any evidence that anyone has been NIPed for less than 10%+2 over the limit apart from the infamous Lancashire cases which were dropped.



10% plus 6.25mph for speeds over 25mph.

So when you are travelling at 30mph your speedo could read anything between 30 and 39.25mph

Under 25mph there are no regulations.

And the regulations only apply when the car leaves the factory. There is nothing governing accuracy once a car is "out in the wild".

........apart from the fact the speedo isn't allowed to under-read (true for all speeds)

When I were a lad a speedo had to be no more than 10% out at 30mph. I wonder if this still holds good

Lord Whitty: The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, as amended, allows the use of speedometers that meet the requirements of EC Community Directive 75/443(97/39) or ECE Regulation 39. Both the EC Directive and the ECE Regulation lay down accuracy requirements to be applied at the time of vehicle approval for speedometers. These requirements are that the indicated speed must not be more than 10 per cent of the true speed plus 4 km/h. In production, however, a slightly different tolerance of 5 per cent plus 10 km/h is applied. The requirements are also that the indicated speed must never be less than the true speed.

A vehicle meeting these requirements would not be able to travel at a greater speed than that shown on the speedometer and a driver could not, therefore, inadvertently exceed speed restrictions. Her Majesty's Government have no plans to introduce instrument tests

It's now easy to check the accuracy of your speedo - most if not all GPS devices have a speed calculation figure which to all practiucal purposes is precise so long as you are maintaining a steady speed in an area with a decent satellite signal.

My (grey Japanese import) speedo was almost exactly 10% out throughout the range.

Thank u.....

My next door neighbour was NIP'd for 32 mph in a 30 mph zone. In addition, someone else (from the IAM) told me that, in a talk they had by the Humberside SCP, that they were now issuing NIP's with the option of a speed awareness course to all at 31 - 35 mph, and without that option for 36 mph +.

With a proviso - distances worked out using GPS co-ordinates assume that you are proceeding along a level road. Distances using GPS do not take account of rises or falls in height.

If you can hold a steady speed on a motorway, you could time yourself with a stopwatch against the little blue and white posts that occur every tenth of a kilometre (which is why they are numbered 0-9) and work out your speed from that. Don't try it at 30 or 40 mph unless in roadworks.

The VASCAR markers painted on the road (not just motorways) are even easier to work from...

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