johnny:
smeeserver, don’t worry too much, it’s just a fine and no points.
if the road has a lower speed restriction due to repairs then they cannot issue any penalty points unless it is a motorway under repair, all other roads is a fixed penalty, you might find it’s cheaper to plead guilty and pay the fine if it’s not too much or ask for the photo evidence and try to dispute it, if your found guilty after that the fine is bigger.
Eh? Oh, if that’s the case then my life will be a lot better… Fines I can afford, unfortunatly. Points are painful ;( Especially if it’s my licence that goes with it.
I’ve been away this weekend helping a freind move, did a 500 mile trip around Wales with a 5m long car and a 1m long trailer. I know I’ve got it in the wrong order, but with borrowing a trailer I didn’t get the choice on sizes. Easiest way to reverse it is unhitch it…
As for speeds, I stuck at 60 on DC/Motorway, 45 elsewhere, and 5-10mph under the limit for villages. I shall have to do this again as the fuel consumption changed from £50 / 350 miles to £50 / 550 miles!
Past a fair few speed cameras, but I slowed right down for all of them…
I shall keep you advised of what happens though. The union (TGWU) have a “DriverCare” package that I’m probably going to upgrade to. If you’re covered they pay the fines when you get a fine. Obviously this time as I’m joining after the event then they can’t help with the fine, but they can help with other things.
jammymutt:
Just out of curiositiy but when i see cranes in laybys in the middle of nowhere sometimes where do the drivers sleep?, is there some secret compartment built in to the mast we dont know about?.
I was told most of them go in to b&b but how do they get there when the crane is in the middle of nowhere?.
If they’re resting in the cab they’d have to sit up on the city cranes as it’s just one seat. Some of the larger cranes with the low slung cabs you can stretch out on the seats like I can do, but otherwise its sitting upright. Which can be painful
smeserver:
Well, it’s been two months and I’ve not heard anything. I think my licence may be safe again.
:
If you were going to be prosecuted then you (or the vehicle owner) would have had to have received the Notice of Intended Prosecution within 14 days, so it’s safe to say you won’t face prosecution.
Even if you had, then you would have been acquitted, as you were travelling at 37mph in a 40mph limit, and this could have easily been verified by checking the distance your crane travelled in the 0.5 second interval between the two photographs taken (that’s what the white lines painted across the road at camera sites are for)
smeserver:
I’m scared of the sodding things though now, and I’ll slow right down passing one.
I can see where you’re coming from.
One question for the enforcement authorities, in what way does the above quote aid in road safety?
Speed cameras have done for road safety, what Thalidomide did for morning sickness, the results are just as dangerous and lethal.
Not a very nice analogy, but very true.
I was flashed in Birtley last October by a camera Van, crafty git was sitting at the end of a 30 mph limit where you tend to speed up to enter the dual carriageway up to the A1, anyway, I asked for a photo and they sent a copy of it, showing the back of my car with my reg so I accepted the fixed penalty
3 Days after sending off the Cheque I got talking to a mate who had been flashed in exactly the same spot, but he elected to go to Court and contest it on the grounds he did not know whether it was him or a mate that was driving (Well thats what he told the Magistrates) He claimed he’d been using the car to move a friends belongings and there were 2 drivers, in defence he stated that as both took turns at driving he did not know who was driving and as the picture only showed the rear of the car, it was similar to a case where the police took no action against 2 joy riders as the police could not prove which one was at the wheel when it hit 2 pedestrians killing one outright.
The Magistrates agreed that as the photo did not identify the driver it was insufficient evidence to warrant a safe prosecution and the case was dismissed.
Although I disagreed with the principal of using a death to get off with a speeding fine, I did agree with the point of insufficient evidence thereby having the case thrown out of court.
The CPS actually refused to bring the case of Death by Dangerous Driving against both Joy Riders 2 years ago, because each claimed it was the other that was driving, however, it has now emerged who was driving and they are appearing in Court in Leeds because of the Outraged publicity that the case had up in Newcastle / Gateshead.
So It now leaves you to wonder “What if I admit to driving but, there was also another driver in the car that may have been driving at that particular time?”
They have up to six months ,from the date of the offence, to issue you with a notice of intended prosocution if it was a speed camera
My brother is a court clerk and deals with this all the time…
mojo:
They have up to six months ,from the date of the offence, to issue you with a notice of intended prosocution if it was a speed camera
My brother is a court clerk and deals with this all the time…
“I have recently been flashed by a Gatso camera, what happens next? The Police have 14 days to send you a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP). They also get an allowance of a couple of days for the post to deliver it. So if its more than 17days since you were flashed they are too late to prosecute you, unless you were driving a company car, hire car or someone elses car. In these circumstances they are allowed more time to track you down. See below for further details.”
However, the law has been amended to allow the police to send the NIP by normal post, and it would appear that as long as they have a record of the NIP being issued, then that is sufficient evidence. They have six months to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN), because they are exempt from the 14 day rule.
Have just found this, I think the confusion is between NIP’s and FPN.s
Vince
You have got me thinking now.
The date of the offence was November, the request for details was signed by Police and dated Febuary,
I think your right about it kicking round the office for a while,
as iI only got sight of it last week.
To me, that seems as though the Police have left it too long to issue the NIP.
I will stress again, that I am not an authority on speeding offences. All I know is what I have read on the internet. And this seems to say that the NIP must be issued within 14 days.
I have seen some very good sites offering advice to those facing a speeding charge on the net. But I cannot guarantee the information on any of them, naturally.
Either way, I’m in your corner and hope you don’t get nicked for it.
a driver i worked with got flashed so he chucked that card away the next day put his card in with the previous days date on and when he had been flashed was at 2.30pm he made sure the from 2.20 to 2.40 he was driving at 30mph. he has contested at court and it is on going but it did help that the previous week he had had is tacho calibrated so it was prefectly right then when he got ticket he got it calibrated again and it was still bang on so that his defence the he has the calibration certificates. it is still on going case i dont know if he will get away with it i will let you know.
Topical thread this been watching it all week and got in from work tonight and found that I have just received from a company I was driving for three weeks ago an NIP the:-
“Notice Issue Date 29/03/2005” for an offence commited at 19:01 hrs 10/03/2005
I make that 19 days this is clearly outside the 14 day rule surely ?
They cant say they couldn’t identify the vehicle as it was signwritten I have not responded yet as the company I was driving for have sent me the NIP and they should have sent it back to Police with my details
What do you lot think I should do? I dont mind a fine but I could do without the Points (as they don’t always mean prizes)
