speed awareness course

sarahg1969

Iceweasel wrote: »

This thread has lost it's way.

The OP should attend the course wherever it is as it's the penalty free way out. Apart from his travel costs.

I agree. Unless the offence occurred, say, 5 months and 3 weeks ago. Unlikely I know, but it may be about to time out. There may be a very short window for them to take this to summons. Of course, a SAC is definitely preferable to the summons, unless the OP is absolutely convinced of his innocence.

Jack_Regan

alastairq wrote: »

Not per se...but Careless driving is.

Thus, like the Highway Code, it is evidence of......

Specifically defined motoring offences, by their very nature are more difficult to prosecute.

IE, a defined offence requires defined evidence.

That is the 'beauty' of the Careless driving regulation...it is vague, therefore covers so many more eventualities...ie,harder to wriggle out of?

Lum said you can be done for inappropriate speed in its own right. You've just repeated what I said.

Lum

Jack_Regan wrote: »

Lum said you can be done for inappropriate speed in its own right. You've just repeated what I said.

Seriously, stop being so pedantic.

Let me try and re-word this for you, though the "morning" caffeine hasn't kicked in yet, so I'll probably still fail.

Doing an inappropriate speed for the conditions, even if below the posted speed limit, could result in you being prosecuted for an offence. An example of such an offence would be Careless Driving.

There? Happy?


The point being that if the OP stands up in court and testifies the way they have here, that they were going too fast to stop, this is not going to be looked upon kindly by the magistrates, and certainly won't be any form of mitigation.

For the record I know how annoying it is to have to make that split second decision when they go amber. When I was young and stupid(er) I used to regularly drive the East Lancs road, back when it was still a 70 limit. If you wanted to actually do 70 through the traffic light infested section you had to get very very good at knowing the stopping distance for your particular vehicle, and in my particular case (Mk4 Escort 1.6 "sport") there was very little margin for error. On days when I didn't feel up to making that sort of decision I'd slow to 50 as I approached the lights and annoy the crap out of everyone.

Jack_Regan

Lum wrote: »

Seriously, stop being so pedantic.

Let me try and re-word this for you, though the "morning" caffeine hasn't kicked in yet, so I'll probably still fail.

Doing an inappropriate speed for the conditions, even if below the posted speed limit, could result in you being prosecuted for an offence. An example of such an offence would be Careless Driving.

There? Happy?


The point being that if the OP stands up in court and testifies the way they have here, that they were going too fast to stop, this is not going to be looked upon kindly by the magistrates, and certainly won't be any form of mitigation.

For the record I know how annoying it is to have to make that split second decision when they go amber. When I was young and stupid(er) I used to regularly drive the East Lancs road, back when it was still a 70 limit. If you wanted to actually do 70 through the traffic light infested section you had to get very very good at knowing the stopping distance for your particular vehicle, and in my particular case (Mk4 Escort 1.6 "sport") there was very little margin for error. On days when I didn't feel up to making that sort of decision I'd slow to 50 as I approached the lights and annoy the crap out of everyone.

So why say what you did in the first place?

Do you now accept that was wrong?

Lum

Because on an internet forum I frankly can't be bothered to go over every fullstop and semi-colon and analyse every possible interpretation of my words like I'm writing coursework for an English language degree. Life's too short.

For the record, my interpretation of your words was that you were saying inappropriate speed below the limit was invulnerable to prosecution, hence arguing with you until I figured out what you meant.

This may sound like a stupid interpretation, but there seem to be many people out there who genuinely believe that by sticking to the number on the sign they are both safe and legal.

alastairq

Prosecution is prosecution.....?

Careless driving would be an example of a possible charge.

To take this particular situation to it's extreme. Picture a Transit van

Above is the quote from Lum, a bit further back in the exchange.

Do I detect a slight mention, by Lum, of ''Careless driving?''

Sure do, sure do!

Jack_Regan

alastairq wrote: »

Prosecution is prosecution.....?



Above is the quote from Lum, a bit further back in the exchange.

Do I detect a slight mention, by Lum, of ''Careless driving?''

Sure do, sure do!

Not here you didn't.;)

Lum wrote: »

Inappropriate speed can, by itself, be an offence. It's a lot harder to prosecute than speeding or red light offences, however.

Lum

And this is where we get into pedantics and semantics. Here is how I intended that sentence to be parsed:

Doing an inappropriate speed, while doing everything else correctly, can still be an offence.

The offence in question may be careless driving.

Can we go back to helping out the OP now?

alastairq

Jack_Regan wrote: »

Not here you didn't.;)

my broadband must be good today...I have that quote from #46..

kingstreet

Presuming the OP has a NIP for a traffic light offence and assuming he's been offered the opportunity to attend a right light course, not a speed awareness course, the nearest provider of red light courses participating in the national scheme may well be the location identified to the OP.

If he does not attend the awareness course within four to five months of the date of the alleged offence, the camera partnership will then look to have a summons issued, unless the OP is one of the lucky ones whose case "falls through the cracks" and is forgotten before the six month deadline for an information to be laid before magistrates.

If the OP has not already done so, a visit here;-

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=5

may be a good idea for advice on motoring prosecutions.