After 25 years of accident-free motoring, my brother gets 6 points in two days.
 

5mph over legal limit on two occasions.

Only a couple more nips and the dangerous fecker will be off the road and his livelihood destroyed. Quite right too. :rolleyes:

5mph. Jesus thats tough.

He shouldn't speed then.

Thanks for the sanctimonius lesson - so you've never strayed over the speed limit then?

Most speedos aren't even that accurate!

Maybe, maybe not. But I wouldn't complain if I had indeed been speeding. We all know the law, it's called a speed 'limit' not a speed 'rough guide'.

IMO

He isn't complaining, I am. He was keeping up with traffic flow on an unfamiliar road and was watching the road, which, I understand, is the correct place for your eyes to be when driving. :)

As you imply, though, he's a complete danger to society and should be off the road.


In fact, he's had them for three months and the first time he mentioned it was yesterday.

We agree on that then!

5 mph over the limit? Man that sucks big time :(

Yup, by law, speedo's can show you going faster than you really are by up to 10%.

Let's assume the speed limit was 70mph and his speedo has the max 10% error allowed. His speedo would be showing 77mph for him to be doing an actual 70mph. To be caught doing 5mph over the limit, his speedo would be showing 80+mph.....pretty obvious at first glance that you are speeding.

**** happens....I got 3 points and a £60 fine for doing 32 in a 30 on a quiet road and late at night. I was about 3 feet away from the NSL sign. The polite Policeman even told me the distance I was from the sign. Here in Teesside, the Police have a Zero tolerance policy....1mph over the limit and you will be done.

Exact same for me ..:( ........................and on the same strech o road..! 36 in a 30 (2002), my previous misdermeanour 8 years previous, was 3 points for the same . and on the same strech...but that was quite a bit faster and i deserved it . Thing is in those 8 years i consistantly did 40 2/3 times a day every day on this road...:confused:

That sucks! i was done for being 4mph over the 40 limit so i can relate. Twice in such a short period of time is bad news.

Shame more effort is not put into dangerous cars and drivers - but that would mean more Traffic Police and more cost and more effort for less revinue and that is not on this governments agenda.

Well done for identifying the area!! My bruv travels around mending and servicing pumps. He has obviously fallen foul of the zero tolerance. I feel really sorry for him, cos I know he's a good, courteous and attentive driver. He hasn't had any endorsements since he accumulated a whopping six points for three iffy tyres when he was a lad.:D:D

What a feckin' disgrace. God help us all if New Labour are re-elected.

:(

well its a hassle but theres no way he will tot up 12 points unless he's an idiot.

he just needs to drive everywhere at/within the limit...thats a hassle but quit possible....the stuff about " i cant because i watch the road" is crap.....if you cant drive at the limit because you cant take your eyes of the road to look at the speedo (which still leaves the road in your vision anyway unless you speedo is in the footwell) then you are a useless driver.

T

Like I said... as far as he was concerned he was just making progress within the general traffic flow. I'm not sure you'd notice 5mph in the general run of things. I accept what you say that claiming to be watching the road rather than the speedo isn't really a valid excuse for speeding, but it seems a bit harsh, considering that he does a lot of driving all over the country and gets completely stung in Teeside. I wonder how many hundreds more were done on those two days.

I think you need to look into some traffic history here.

Until fairly recently, the signs were exactly that and the traffic engineers would freely admit it.
The police would only do you for speeding if you were doing other stupid things that they can't prove so easilly.
IOW, if you drove safely at high speed (and wern't black) then they would leave you alone.

you are mistaking "what you used top get away with" with "the law"

Indeed. It may be an unwritten rule that you are allowed to get away with going a few mph over the limit, or that everyone does 80 on the motorway so that's the real limit, but it's not the law and you cannot object to speeding if you are over the limit as specified by the LAW, surely.

I beleive, though have not been able to confirm, that the speed limit signs went up way before they were made law and were intended as guidelines from the start.

With the ever improving safety and handling of vehicles why haven't they ever been reviewed, hmm?

There is one noteable event that marks the start of the current trend of speed limit enforcement as well as the change from derestricted to NSL and that was Vauxhall using the M1 as a test track. I wonder what would happen if a boycott of Vauxhall was started until NSL returned to it's derestricted status :)

"With the ever improving safety and handling of vehicles why haven't they ever been reviewed, hmm?"

because that old idea suggests that if cars can stop quicker, handle better and are safer to crash you should let them go quicker......

it ignores that people drive worse and there are many times more cars on the road than there used to be.

T

Bubba - your brother will soon feature on here as the subject of someone's rage that

LOL... Yes, It's a real melting pot on here. Nice corner, by the way. It's a good job he was only in his Astramax van and not a scoob. He may have cracked the sound barrier past a school.... Just for't' laugh. :D

Tigg's point is quite fair about increasing speed limits. The increase in traffic over recent years is enormous and that is important when considering the lower speed limits in constricted areas. The other point about drivers is also relevant. The limits have to cater for the vast range of drivers' skills and some drivers who are considered fit to drive normally may well not be able to cope at the higher speeds in a constricted part of the road whereas they are perfectly safe at the speed limit.

I thiink there is a case for raising the limits on the motorways however and I think that 85 would be a reasonable compromise.

I think it is really hard luck to get 6 points for such low speed offences. I certainly think his penalty should have been at least reduced in this case.

Darts aint etc.,

You must live your life by numbers!

Les

Sorry, that argument doesn't wash when I'm on a totally empty country road constrained by an artificially low 50 limit (see: most of Oxfordshire)

If people drive worse then fix the cause not the symptom, ie. fix the drivers.

What's the basis for that statement Tiggs? Once upon a time there wasn't a test of any description and even the test taken nowadays is much more severe than the one I took 17 years ago. Surely the overall standard of driving is better, at least on "Day 1" of someone's driving life.

its my opinon based on too many issue that i cant be bothered to explain.....and as limits are set at the point i would like them i dont need to :D

Sorry to hear he got forced to contribute 120quid to reducing Labours public debt :Whatever_

What really pisses me off with this whole speed camera issue (other than the idiots who miss the point of the argument & say "well u shouldnt be breaking the law by speeding") is that theres certain areas I'd love to see speed traps but dont.

I drive through lots of built up areas (children out playing etc), and generally most people stay within the limits - but you get the odd tw@t in his Nova tearing along at 40-50mph. These are the sorts of drivers who really should be targetted by speed traps as theyre a genuine danger, but as its all about easy money now they prefer to hide on much safer roads where theres a higher volume of traffic, so a constant flow of revenue catching all those maniacs for doing 44 in 40..... :Whatever_

Fair do's if you can't be arsed. That's everybody's right :D

I can understand people being upset by some limits. A recent bit of road near me has suddenly dropped from a 50 to a 30 for no obvious reason. By that I mean nothing has changed there with respect to road surface, road layout, adjoining roads, etc. and I certainly know of no accidents along there (although I don't know everything to be fair :D)

That issue aside though, I grumble about some limits and some seem pointless but I choose to stick within them on A,B and unclassified roads. I may choose to exceed them on M roads but I certainly wouldn't complain about being done for it.

I think what upsets some people is the disproportionate amount of emphasis put on speeding motorists (with no distinction made between those doing 2mph and those doing 20mph over the limit) when other, more severe crimes are relatively unpunished.

Hopefully he will now watch his speed and conform to the law of the land - as voted for by the majority of normal people.

5mph above the posted limit may seem harsh (and I feel for that view!) but, we MUST remember that the Speed Limit is a LIMIT

It is NOT a TARGET!!

Try doing 60 in a 70, 40 in a 50, 50 in a 60 and 20 in a 30 ..... you will find it quite relaxing and soothing - amazingly, you will also not need a detector or a solicitor!! :D

Then, everyones a winner!! :D

Pete

You must obviously hate your job and your family then.

Me, I like to get home before 7PM. It doesn't happen very often but it's nice when it does.