Help - appealing speeding fine

Jimbo_78

Hi there,

a couple of weeks ago I drove down south from Scotland to Manchester. I have family there and was using a sat nav to reach my destination. By following the sat nav instructions I came off the motorway on a different route than I'd been before and was totally lost.

Having exited the motorway I came onto a slip road that merged into a single carriageway where there were speed cameras, I never knew this having never driven in the area before. I was flashed by the camera doing 58mph on a road that is apparently 50mph?

I emailed police in Manchester who said I was speeding and there were markings on the road and photographs of my car on the road. They stated it was a 50mph road however when I examined the photographs the markings on the road say 60. Do you think this provides grounds for appeal?

Please advise,

cheers.

DaveF327

Traffic signs take precedence over road markings (and sat-navs for that matter). After you passed this sign, there would have been a big at some point for them to enforce this limit.

Was the road lit by street lighting? This may provide a defence, but I'd need the exact road location to research it before I can go into more detail. It wasn't the A580 East Lancs Road, by any chance?

Hammyman

Jimbo_78 wrote: »

Hi there,

a couple of weeks ago I drove down south from Scotland to Manchester. I have family there and was using a sat nav to reach my destination. By following the sat nav instructions I came off the motorway on a different route than I'd been before and was totally lost.

Having exited the motorway I came onto a slip road that merged into a single carriageway where there were speed cameras, I never knew this having never driven in the area before. I was flashed by the camera doing 58mph on a road that is apparently 50mph?

I emailed police in Manchester who said I was speeding and there were markings on the road and photographs of my car on the road. They stated it was a 50mph road however when I examined the photographs the markings on the road say 60. Do you think this provides grounds for appeal?

Please advise,

cheers.

If the signs on the pole say NSL, then take it to court. If the signs don't say that, then take the points and pay the fine.

If it transpires that the signage was for 50MPH, the fact you don't know the road is irrelevant as a defence and if anything, you should have been paying MORE attention to the road and therefore seen the signs.

Good luck.

DaveF327

Hammyman wrote: »

If the signs on the pole say NSL, then take it to court. If the signs don't say that, then take the points and pay the fine.

Not necessarily true! If the motorway ends without any speed limit sign displayed at all, then the national speed limit applies as it did on the motorway. Speed limit signs are generally only posted at boundaries between different speed limits, but not necessarily where a road changes from dual (70) to single (60) carriageway. Councils (or the Highways Agency) may decide to paint a reminder on the tarmac, but that's entirely voluntary.

Let's get more details on the location, then we can start finding holes in procedures.

Jimbo_78

Thanks for your advice. I did come off the East Lancs Road however continued on and the incident occurred at A6 Broad Street, at Slip Road to Charles Street, Salford.

I currently have no points and getting caught by this speed camera was a first in about 14 years driving. I accept I was probably culpable however it was a confusing road especially how it became single carriageway. The main reason I thought I could appeal is because in the police photographs which they produced as evidence you can see my car and road markings say 60 and I was doing 58mph. However there may have been other signs elsewhere that I missed.

Cheers.

kwaks

Link to google maps?

Scan of the ticket?

If the signage for the limit is insufficient, combined with the confusing road markings, you may have a case.

Strider590

Jimbo_78 wrote: »

I currently have no points and getting caught by this speed camera was a first in about 14 years driving.

Welcome to the club buddy, don't let it get to you.
Fingers up to all those do gooders who say "ive never broken the speed limit in my life", everyone speeds occasionally and often on roads with confusing signage/markings. Their time WILL come, mark my words!

Having a few points on our license in a way proves we're not criminals.... We're tax paying, insurance paying, law abiding citizens!!! because those who aren't get away scot free! :mad:

Those who like to drive at 40mph everywhere, they're the worst offenders... Holding up traffic and causing dangerous overtaking in the NSL zones and then speeding through 30mph zones, past schools etc. Yet they never seem to get caught! :mad:

ttlowton

The camera that caught you speeding is a Gatso in a 50 limit and is at least 15 miles from the M6 so not sure what that's got to do with it, at the point you passed the Gatso the limit had been 50 for the last 6/7 miles of your route so I dont think you have much to appeal about
Good luck,
T.

Mark_Hewitt

The key thing is did you pass *any* speed limit sign between leaving the motorway and getting caught? If no, then you have grounds for appeal.

The markings on the road have no legal meaning whatsoever and so can be completely ignored.

Idiophreak

Jimbo_78 wrote: »

The main reason I thought I could appeal is because in the police photographs which they produced as evidence you can see my car and road markings say 60 and I was doing 58mph.

If nothing else, you could probably make a few quid selling the photo and story to the Daily Mail

Mark_Hewitt

If the road markings say 60mph, then that's grounds enough for appeal I would have thought? In any case '60' signs are unusual, you normally only see them on dual carriageways as the NSL for single is 60.