girlfriend arrived late to speed awareness course due to crash on motorway

tombardier

My girlfriend set off with plenty of time, leaving about 45 minutes leeway to get to her speed awareness course in Newport (about a 50 minute drive). There was a crash on the M4, and it took her 2 hours to get there. They held the course back for 20 minutes, because they were aware of the crash, but she arrived just a little bit too late, and by law, she has to be there from the start of the course. They're now saying that to re-schedule, she'll have to pay £80 all over again! Surely that's not right. Is there anything we can do?

BTW. She was caught doing 35 when she entered a 30mph zone, and she was slowing down at the time

Trebor16

Have you asked them to tell you which law states that she has to arrive within a certain time of the start of the course?

There were good extenuating circumstances which prevented her getting there on time and I would suggest writing to the police force in question and pointing this out. The hold up is documented and proveable and to have turned her away for the sake of 20 minutes seems very petty.

Also ask them to provide the force policy documents that cover these courses.

DUTR

What do you expect anyone to say? Indeed it was not her fault of the accident, but then it was not the fault of the course hosts either. What happens if she does not opt to retake the course, will she have to face the 3 penalty points etc?
Not sure why you added the last line , speeding is speeding is it not?

vax2002

Just pay the fine and tell them to stick the course where the sun does not shine,
Then drive under the speed limit from now and if they are tailbacks behind, tough.

Invest in a up to date speed camera snooper and use it.

Gloomendoom

Couldn't she just have driven a bit faster to make up the time?

tombardier

Thanks for your replies. I really just wanted to see whether there might be something specific I could use to get out of wasting £80, and whether the person we've talked to was just being inflexible and unhelpful by default. (perhaps they're related to one of the specific repondents of this post?)

There's a difference between driving dangerously, and being caught just on the wrong side of the limit whilst slowing down from 50 in to a 30 zone, being caught on a technicality, which really isn't in keeping with the spirit of the law/justice etc etc blah blah. Just bad luck really.

Tom.

vax2002

You have to tell your insurance anyway, so you save nothing, its just a make money out of you scam, I would pay the fine, save a days wages and move on and invest in a speed camera detector, not one built in to a sat nav, one of those ones that sit on the dash and go of like a fire alarm until you slow down and they come with updates on mobile camera sites, which as they have to be on a tested pre laid 100% level base now that helps locating sites.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

vax2002 wrote: »

You have to tell your insurance anyway, so you save nothing, its just a make money out of you scam, I would pay the fine, save a days wages and move on and invest in a speed camera detector, not one built in to a sat nav, one of those ones that sit on the dash and go of like a fire alarm until you slow down and they come with updates on mobile camera sites, which as they have to be on a tested pre laid 100% level base now that helps locating sites.

the whole point of a SAC is that you do not have any endorsable points and end up having to inform your insurers of them. you do not have to tell you insurers you have been on a SAC.

YOU DO however have to inform of any endorsable points she recieves when they are added to a license.

DUTR

tombardier wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. I really just wanted to see whether there might be something specific I could use to get out of wasting £80, and whether the person we've talked to was just being inflexible and unhelpful by default. (perhaps they're related to one of the specific repondents of this post?)

There's a difference between driving dangerously, and being caught just on the wrong side of the limit whilst slowing down from 50 in to a 30 zone, being caught on a technicality, which really isn't in keeping with the spirit of the law/justice etc etc blah blah. Just bad luck really.

Tom.

You could get out of wasting £80 by letting your GF pay the monies , after all it was she who was 'charged' , £160 is still less than the repercussions of 3 points on the license surely?

tombardier

my money is hers, and hers mine, so I treat our finances as a single issue

vax2002

LA lot of insurance companies ask you to declare if you have had any conviction, have any conviction pending or attended a police speed awareness course in the last 5 years.
So, they are on to it for their ounce of blood