robski

I was travelling along the M62 the other day, and unbeknown to me I had managed to exceed the speed limit, and was travelling at about 90mph.

I was in the centre lane, and alongside pulled a nice white car with lots of bright transfers on it

Oh bugger I thought, Im gonna get it this time. I started to slow (just lift off, not brake) and when space permitted moved to the inside lane, the police car moved to the centre lane at this point, then into the slow lane in front of me. He sat there for few secs at 70, then accelerated away. I figured he wanted a race ,so I sat at 70.

I seriously thought I was gonna get a ticket that time, but got away with it, so it made me start to wonder, has anyone actually been pulled for doing less than 90 and given a ticket?

Oh, and thanks to that police officer, I was driving sensibly honestly officer!

robski

fast bloke

The mad traffic cop on Motorway Life a couple of weeks ago had his sensor set to ignore anyone travelling below 95MPH. Nice man.. Over here in Norn Ireland they do you for 80 every time they spot you.

You should have raced him anyway...

Blow Dog

Rob,
A good chance that he was watching you for a while and noticed that you were driving quite sensibly.

Cem

church_monster

Got pulled at 87mph on the M4 by a nice chap in a Green Senator (no markings, just a big pop up sign in the back window saying **POLICE STOP**), I pulled over and was confronted by Geoff Capes' older brother (well looked like him any way) I was accelerating at the time and his remark was "it looks like I've just stopped you before you went into warp !!" Anyway after a ten minute lecture on the merits of sticking to the speed limit he bid me good day with a bollocking........WHAT A VERY NICE MAN ! ........ So it looks like you have to meet a real ******* to get done under 90.

Peter Ford

I read a story in the newspaper a while ago about a traffic cop that was using a handheld gun and as a car went past it registered over 600mph. Turned out that his radar gun had somehow managed to lock onto a low flying fighter jet on a training flight! Later on, it was found out the fighter jet had detected the radar from the policemans speed gun, and interpreted it as a threat, and had armed the planes weaponry! Luckily the pilot noticed the error and disarmed his weapons.

banshi

Think yourselves fortunate chaps, wife was pulled by an unmarked Beamer on the M6.

85 mph, very polite constable but not let off. Told her to wear a shorter skirts if she is speeding

B
must start usung that spell checker

[This message has been edited by banshi (edited 04 December 2000).]

robski

not the old speed gun on the aircraft again!

ok, anyone lower than 85?

banshi, was there any other reason why he may have picked on her, busy, tailgating etc etc

robski

Peter Ford

Sorry, has the radar gun/ aircraft thing become one of those urban myths- like the myth that there is a car that can do 300 miles per gallon but a petrol company is sitting on the patent because it would mean the end of there buisness.

Back to the plot- I was stopped for doing about 80 on the A40 last year, but I was let off with a stern warning. The policeman I should be careful because being young, other officers would not be so kind.

[This message has been edited by Peter Ford (edited 04 December 2000).]

Darren Thompson

Got done on the M63 at 83 MPH at 03.45 in the morning going to a call out no talking just straight to a ticket and 3 points.

Darren.

Mark Underwood

Robski

You were driving sensibly!!! The old white car with transfers did what is called "Policing By Presence"...you slowed down and moved over.

Gary Foster

Always wondered what it must be like driving a police car on the Motorway.

Must have some strange wacky view of the world, there you are driving along whilst all the other cars around you seem to be travelling at 69 Mph exactly. No - one overtakes, everyone seems to be trying to hide in the inside lane. Weird.

Gary

Ps maybe behaviour like this is just confined to myself

Milky

I've been told by a few traffic cops that they won't pull anybody under 84 (why I don't know), unless they need to top up there figures or in a bad mood.

Darren.
95% under 85 on motorways.

Stuart Knight

iTrader: (2)

Many years ago I got pulled and done for 84.3 mph on a dual carriageway at lunchtime, very little traffic, good weather conditions. 3 points £40 fine.

robski

I must say, I wasnt in the scoob, I was in the Mrs Civic, so maybe that helped!

Or maybe he saw the 206 that kept getting in may way and felt sorry for me.

Think I will try to stick to low 80s in future, based on what people on here have said.

Maybe Stuart H can give us some feedback as well?

robski

CharliePsycho

121.12 on an 'A' Road (I wasn't, it was more like 80, but the copper was timing from a spot 2 miles away, so he could have been timing an aircraft for all the view he had)

Summons last week, solicitor reckons even if I have photographic proof, magistrates will ban me anyway.

Interestingly the area they timed me is one of the most popular areas to be done, that's why I was only doing 80

Anyone know what the going price is for P1 with 15k on it??

Stuart H

Personally speaking I don't tend to pull anyone under 85. Between 85 + 90 you'll get yourself a bollocking, between 90 + 95 you'll get a fixed penalty, any more than that and you're in court.

Obviously, this depends on the standard of driving (how tasty the driver is if female ) and the type of car. Doing 95 in a Fiat Uno is going to attract my attention more than a scoob. The action also varies depending on how gobby the driver/passengers get. Not everyone works the same way though.

Oh and for those people who think that we should be out catching 'proper' criminals (as someone is bound to say it on this thread eventually), you try telling that to parents who've had their child killed by a speeding motorist. I've done it and cleaned up the mess afterwards, and I tell you, it ain't fun.



[This message has been edited by Stuart H (edited 04 December 2000).]

Nick

"any more than that and your in court."

It's a shame to see that even our Boys in Blue can't spell either!

Aero

3p's and 40q for 97.47 (peak mph of 110)by vascar in an undercover omega...
Polite yet stern telling off. The policeman said 'my driving was good, just too quick...' I was expecting to look up and see alistair 'htt' stuart in a helicopter.

The worst thing recently is the chap who hit a kid by a playground. He was doing 30 in a 30. The courts found against him as he should have slowed down when he saw the kids ,and he (his insurance) was ordered to pay 3.5m(GBP).
He wasn't nicked at all for anything.
That is at least driving without due care and attention, and reasonably quite a bit more.

The police have to work the best they can in the woefully inadequate framework we have.
It's because of this poor framework that everything seems so open to interpretation...

Gary Foster

Lol @ Nick , old ones are always the best etc

What are the kids doing on a motorway in the first place thats what I want to know !, next thing we'll be banging up train drivers for running over kids on train lines.

I blame the parents etc etc

Gary

Stuart H

Nick,

Many apologies for my minor error. Having just got out of bed when I typed the thing I wasn't quite awake.

I wasn't aware I was being assessed on my grasp of the english language while posting on ScoobyNet.

(PS - Ignore the icon at the top, I clicked the wrong button)

[This message has been edited by Stuart H (edited 04 December 2000).]

CharliePsycho

Forgot, 79.9 on the A361. Just outside Barnstaple (North Devon) - Vascar. 3 points £40.

Should have gone to court as it was dark and the reason they noticed me was that I had no rear lights. - So officer, how did you verify my client passed the sign if he had no lights? Could you identify the sign for us? Given it was dark, how did you identify the sign when you passed it given that you could not see it between the 2 positions?

My solicitor nearly slapped me when I told him about it... Never, ever, ever admit it...

Hodge

Stuart,
From your posts I would consider you one of the more reasonable ones.
It's never nice to meet death and passing that info on is not a job I would want either.
Having said that recent surveys have indicated that fewer than about 8% of accidents were speed related so this obsession with speed as a safety thing is purely to hide the effective indirect taxing that motorists are being subjected to. This is my personal bugbear re-gatso's and blanket speed restrictions. Inappropriate speed is a danger, speed in itself isn't.
I'd much rather meet a copper who can make an informed decision as to whether my speed was inappropriate or not rather than be constantly looking out for camera's.

So onto "proper" crime. Proper crime IMHO refers to there being a victim of a deliberate act. Are you necessarily a victim if it's an accident? Are we perverting our priorities in order to fill quota's, invent statistical platitudes and make money for the Government?

Hodge
PS I have been stopped before but I've only ever been "done" by Gatso, so I guess I should count myself lucky.

DavidRB

Stuart H: And if I see you doing it again, there'll be points on your license.

Hodge: Don't be an anorak, Stuart's just doing his job. You can't expect him to do his own thing, or openly disagree with his employer. We all know the arguments, but direct it to the politicians, or the chief of police.

CharliePsycho

It has long been said 'Speed kills' and statistics are said to prove it.

But speeding whilst there is an accident and speed causing an accident are 2 entirely different things.

No I am sorry, stupidity kills...

The classic case is person steps out infront of car, said person is wearing stereo and didn't look... Bang... Said person is dead...

Is the person any more dead for being hit at 45 or 50 or 60 (in fact the limit in that area was 60)

Now the real solution might be a forty zone, oops still dead, OK 30, hmm 60% chance of living. OK 20mph (IMHO this should be the limit outside schools) But we cannot blanket the country in 20mph zones.

So what about Motorways? What is the difference between a muppet losing it at 70mph and losing it at 90mph?? What does this action do to other users on the motorway?

Think of it as Evolution In Action. (Speeding whilst being hit by an asteroid, I bet that is SP3000000 )

My point? The money spent on Police speed vehicles (at some £100K a shot) and Gatso's could be better spent on road schemes and putting police on the beat catching the toe-rags killing children with knives...

DAVE-W

This topic will always get people voicing their own interpretation of what's acceptable or not-so be it.

Personally, I don't agree with the SPEED KILLS message.

It is the INAPPROPRIATE USE OF SPEED which kills i.e. driving beyond the limits of yourself, your car, the environment, the weather, the road conditions and so on...

BUT like I said - my opinion.

David

church_monster

Not on a points basis for speeding, but does anyone know the current position on getting pulled with a Radar detector visible in the car ? If it's off can you still be extradited .... I mean indited ?

DAVE-W

At the moment I believe its still legal to both carry and use a radar detector.

Things may change soon though if the motoring press is correct

David

Mick

iTrader: (1)

On the speed kills front 40 /30 /20 - look on the bright side: you'll probably have decelerated to 20 mph 'safe zone' by the time you impact with the child in many cases

Absolute speed really is NOT the point!

Unfortunately the government seems to have to legislate for the lowest common denominator. Old Mr Hedges 90 yrs old, never been involved in an accident (but seen thousands in his rear view mirror!) really shouldn't be allowed to do more than 70 mph upon her Majesties Highway in his Morris Minor!

banshi

Originally posted by robski:

banshi, was there any other reason why he may have picked on her, busy, tailgating etc etc

No. Motorway not empty but quiet, nice sunny summers day (I was a few miles behind saw her in the officers car) She'd had the sunroof open and was singing along to the CDs and didn't spot him...oh there's the reason, you should hear her singing

Dave: agree we all have a job to do and Suart appears to have the correct approach to his. I could give you chapter and verse on a number that don't.

B