Speeding ticket

shaun_from_Africa

A large majority of car speedometers over-read by anything up to 10%, and if this was the case with the car concerned, it means that the speedo would have actually have been showing about 40 mph when passing the speed camera.

I would be very surprised to find that any instructor would allow a pupil to drive at an indicated speed over 30% in excess of the posted limit, and I would be think that the suggestion given by scotsman should be seriously considered.
The instructor could well have been rushing to get to their next appointment, so I would certainly insist on seeing the photograph (if there is one available) or at least try to find out exactly what time the offence happened and what direction the car was going.

newfoundglory

I would definitely suggest you request a photo, stating that the driver cannot be identified without one. Also, I wonder if the time quoted by the police is GMT or BST (GMT +1), which would also potentially put things out by an hour. Also the exact timings of the lesson would also need to be taken into account here, as well as the time calibration of the camera if it was close to the hour/half hour etc.

My view is that to be caught doing 36, would mean the driver would probably have been doing more than than in reality - possibly up to 10% faster than the speed quoted. I think its highly unusual for a driving instructor to allow a pupil to be doing almost 40mph in a 30, and I think even most of us more experienced drivers would realise we were speeding at that point regardless of whether we had an instrument in front to tell us!

If photo evidence isn't conclusive, I suggest going over to pepipoo.com for advice and using the unusual circumstances to fight the ticket or pass it off to someone else.

Yorkie1

Marissa_Daisy wrote: »

Q: If I am a supervising driver will my licence be affected if the learner breaks road traffic laws?

A: Part of the role for supervising drivers is to enable learner drivers to make safe and responsible decisions while driving. Supervising drivers should ensure that the learner fully understands the traffic laws before taking them on the roads. The supervising driver is judged to be in control of the vehicle; as a result mobile phone, insurance and drink drive laws all apply to the supervising driver as if they were driving the car. For speeding offences the points will be endorsed on the learners licence and they will have to pay the fine.

Re. the highlighted bit - these offences apply to the supervisor because of the way the law is written. The mobile phone law specifically refers to supervising drivers, the insurance is because the supervisor is 'using' the car at the time, and the DD relates to their ability to legally supervise / take over driving at any time.

Speeding is different type of offence for which the supervisor has no direct legal responsibility, hence why the learner will get the offence (assuming all other evidence stacks up as referred to here).

mikey72

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

A large majority of car speedometers over-read by anything up to 10%, and if this was the case with the car concerned, it means that the speedo would have actually have been showing about 40 mph when passing the speed camera.

I would be very surprised to find that any instructor would allow a pupil to drive at an indicated speed over 30% in excess of the posted limit, and I would be think that the suggestion given by scotsman should be seriously considered.
The instructor could well have been rushing to get to their next appointment, so I would certainly insist on seeing the photograph (if there is one available) or at least try to find out exactly what time the offence happened and what direction the car was going.

I haven't had a car made since about 1990 where the speedo doesn't agree with my sat nav.

newfoundglory

mikey72 wrote: »

I haven't had a car made since about 1990 where the speedo doesn't agree with my sat nav.

How accurate is your satnav?

I have two tom-tom's, both of which are known to report differences of between 5 and 10% for my car.

agrinnall

mikey72 wrote: »

I haven't had a car made since about 1990 where the speedo doesn't agree with my sat nav.

What cars are you driving? I haven't had one that doesn't read higher than the satnav speed, which I believe is pretty accurate when checked against speed warning signs that display your speed when coming into a restricted area.

pitkin2020

OP think of it this way, if she wasn't out with the instructor but with you in your car where you were supervising her without dual controls and you constantly told her to slow down. She then goes through a speed camera and gets flashed would you be happy to accept responsibility for something you couldn't control??

Whilst she maybe learning she still has to follow the rules of the road and its not like it was her first lesson she. She has made a costly mistake but one she will hopefully learn from and won't speed, more importantly once she has passed her test she won't speed or she'll face losing her license, as a parent that has to be a good thing!!

pitkin2020

newfoundglory wrote: »

How accurate is your satnav?

I have two tom-tom's, both of which are known to report differences of between 5 and 10% for my car.

we've never had a car speedo agree with a sat nav speed and no one I know has either. Thats across atleast 20 vehicles and 10 sat navs that i'm aware of and they range from your cheapie sat nav to top of the range Tom toms. Even my garmin handheld GPS doesn't match with the cars speedos.

Car speedos aren't accurate anyway there is a small % of difference from what the speedo shows to the actual speed, which you can only measure accurately with distance and time.

mikey72

agrinnall wrote: »

What cars are you driving? I haven't had one that doesn't read higher than the satnav speed, which I believe is pretty accurate when checked against speed warning signs that display your speed when coming into a restricted area.

97 106
96 Ducato
04 Zafira

all pretty much spot on.

mikey72

pitkin2020 wrote: »

OP think of it this way, if she wasn't out with the instructor but with you in your car where you were supervising her without dual controls and you constantly told her to slow down. She then goes through a speed camera and gets flashed would you be happy to accept responsibility for something you couldn't control??

Whilst she maybe learning she still has to follow the rules of the road and its not like it was her first lesson she. She has made a costly mistake but one she will hopefully learn from and won't speed, more importantly once she has passed her test she won't speed or she'll face losing her license, as a parent that has to be a good thing!!

When my daughter was learning she had to follow my rules, if I had had to constantly tell her to slow down, it would soon have been followed by "stop and get into the passenger seat, you can drive when you can listen"
If the learner isn't ready to drive and obey the speed limit, the instructor should be down a quiet road, with no distractions, getting that right first.
That's what they're being paid to do.
Teaching people how to drive correctly.