90 In A 60
 

Driving over the Glenshane Pass to Belfast yesterday morning, about 6 cars were backed up behind a Volvo estate doing under NSL as they came down the hill towards the fuel station. Everyone was backing up/breaking hard but no-one was overtaking. Road was wide, clear and visibility for a mile, so as we went past the fuel station, I indicated, pulled out wide and accelerated past all of them. Obviously concentrating on what may be up ahead, when I went to pull back in, checked rear-view mirror only to see a silver Audi A6 with blue flashing lights - damn!

Indicated & pulled over where safe and policeman got out and came up for my licence. Asked where from, where going then went to check me out. Came back and asked how fast I was going? 80? Nope - 90... Oops... But this time you get a warning.

Benefit of having a "UK" licence in Northern Ireland maybe but treated very respectfully and courteously despite the large flouting of the speed limit. Wouldn't have been that lucky in the rest of the UK.

You are a very lucky person.

look it up in the highway code, you are allowed to exceed the speed limit to overtake slower moving cars for up to a 1/4 of a mile but you must pull in and slow down to the limit as soon as safe to do so

I was in a similar boat with the police many years ago, in Belfast. I was on my bike travelling around the outer ring (dual carriageway) which has mostly 40/50mph limits. It was late evening and the roads were empty and decided to open the bike up a bit to about 80. I passed two or three cars, one of which turned out to be a covert Vectra. They gave chase, I had then been doing 90/100 before I actually heard them behind me and I stopped in a safe spot. Long story short, I got a telling off and sent on my way. They even said they could have arrested me because they were doing over 100 to keep up with me.

As said, long time ago and not proud of it. I might have been about 17/18 when it happened. I've seen a few deaths on the same stretch of road.

Where does it say that?

https://www.gov.uk/browse/driving/highway-code

"The speed limit is the absolute maximum permitted in law."

Are you sure about this, mad? I thought it was acceptable to overtake, as long as one does not break the speed limit in doing so.

im'e pretty sure it said somewhere, along the lines of,
you are allowed to exceed the speed limit briefly in order to safely overtake slower moving vehicles, mind you the last time i read the actual book was about 30 years ago. the whole book is not of gov website just the bit's that suit's them for you to read

You're mis informed

Speeding is an absolute offence. There are no reasons or excuses to allow you to exceed prescribed speed limit

Even if it did say it years ago, I suspect overtaking multiple vehicles was not in the equation :)

Hateful stretch of road - count yourself lucky it was a human enforcing the limit, all too often there is a white van out somewhere on the Glenshane; came over it with about an inch of snow on the ground last winter, and the standard of driving was pure mental.

Sooner the road gets a dual carriageway all the way from Randalstown to Derry the better, although DRD in their wisdom will probably make it 50mph all the way.

Many of the traffic branch guys here are OK, but I'd say overall you were lucky.

It is all here though.

http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/download-pdf.html

As stated, speeding is an absolute offence. There is no excuse apart from a life threatening illness/injury.

I did not know that. Can anyone else confirm? So. If traffic is doing 69 on a motorway - I could give it the beans for a 1/4 and exceed the speed limit without fear of a pull?

Speeding....not so sure I agree on most speed limits.........

70 on a motorway is pretty low IMO.

Dangerous driving is a completely different matter....

NI licences are UK, says on it and everyfink.
BTW Northern Ireland traffic police aren't the worst in the world. I got stopped doing 97 on the m2 years ago and got a polite ticking off after being allowed to see how the speed guns work. Didn't even have to show my "uk" license neither. ;) :D

Only place you could do that is on a drag strip - imagine how fast Andy Forest's car could be going from a 69 mph standing start!

With a UK licence, my understanding is that I can't get points in NI, although I could probably get a fine if they could be bothered to track me down and summons me. In the ROI, again no points and again unlikely to get a fine.

Certainly was the case, but it will eventually change now that all licensing is in Swansea.
I was caught speeding in Wales about 12 months ago, they requested my license etc, which was later returned to me stating that they couldn't issue points on an NI driving license, I was still fined though.

The north/south relationship is also changing.

30 years ago I had a NI Licence & got stopped in London. I was fined and points recorded against the time I were to ever get a UK Licence. Couple of years later, I applied for UK licence and had the points on it - damn!

You were unbelievably lucky. I got a speeding course for doing 35 in a 30 zone....

My mate was caught in ROI going too fast, points and a fine as normal put on his NI licence.

Does boredom qualify?

Yep, fair enough, but no points, you'd still have a wee bit of leeway

I mainly stick to speed limits in 20 and 30mph zones but on motorways I'm bad for speeding but I doubt I would do 90 in a 60 zone as it's usually a ban and I can't afford the time off work due to a ban.

If you were really caught at 90mph your speedo would nearly be hitting 100mph so that's pretty bad in that speed zone. so think yourself lucky before you end up with a ban :)