Speeding Ticket

Mercdriver

There is more than one factor involved in an accident, not just speed. Have excessive speed and an idiot behind the wheel who thinks he is bigger and better than the law (a few of them in this thread) and overestimates his/her ability then they will get caught out eventually. Unfortunately some other family will pay the ultimate price because a) the driver thought he was the dog's wotsits at driving; b) suddenly finds he isn't as good as he thought or c) something happens that he would have need a crystal ball to predict and then d) he has f*** all time to do anything about it because he was driving too fast.

But you guys, just keep telling yourself that it will never happen to you. I hope that if anyone dies as a result of your selfishness that its you and not some poor innocent. Yes modern braking systems are fantastic. But that's not the weakest link in driving. The grey matter behind the wheel is.

brat

Mercdriver wrote: »

There is more than one factor involved in an accident, not just speed. Have excessive speed and an idiot behind the wheel who thinks he is bigger and better than the law (a few of them in this thread) and overestimates his/her ability then they will get caught out eventually. Unfortunately some other family will pay the ultimate price because a) the driver thought he was the dog's wotsits at driving; b) suddenly finds he isn't as good as he thought or c) something happens that he would have need a crystal ball to predict and then d) he has f*** all time to do anything about it because he was driving too fast.

But you guys, just keep telling yourself that it will never happen to you. I hope that if anyone dies as a result of your selfishness that its you and not some poor innocent. Yes modern braking systems are fantastic. But that's not the weakest link in driving. The grey matter behind the wheel is.

There's a huge difference between 'exceeding the speed limit' and "driving too fast" for the circumstances.

You can drive far too fast within the speed limit, and you can drive perfectly safely in excess of the limit.

I'm pretty sure that most automated speed tickets are issued to people who were driving safely at the time.

fred246

150 people were killed recently when a plane crashed. It made international news. Every day 3500 people are killed on the roads. The bodies are either transferred directly to mortuaries or via hospitals. The loved ones grieve. After a few days of refrigeration the bodies are buried or burned. The whole thing is kept private. The media generally aren't too interested. Not enough death in one incident. The loved ones set up charities like Brake to warn of the dangers. Unaffected people ignore them and smirk.

Car_54

fred246 wrote: »

150 people were killed recently when a plane crashed. It made international news. Every day 3500 people are killed on the roads. The bodies are either transferred directly to mortuaries or via hospitals. The loved ones grieve. After a few days of refrigeration the bodies are buried or burned. The whole thing is kept private. The media generally aren't too interested. Not enough death in one incident. The loved ones set up charities like Brake to warn of the dangers. Unaffected people ignore them and smirk.

That would be truly alarming. The true figure is less than five per day. The latest available stats show 1,713 deaths in the whole of 2013.

That's still too many, but you don't help the case by spouting wildly inaccurate figures.

brat

Car_54 wrote: »

That would be truly alarming. The true figure is less than five per day. The latest available stats show 1,713 deaths in the whole of 2013.

That's still too many, but you don't help the case by spouting wildly inaccurate figures.

He's right. Every year about 1.25 million are killed in RTCs. That's about 3,500 per day.

You're restricting your figures to the UK.

However, I don't accept his insinuation that there is no interest to reduce these avoidable fatalities. Road fatalities have reduced by about 95% (per unit distance traveled) in the last 60 years, and the trend is still progressing. That has to be recognised as a tremendous effort.

The recent over emphasis on speed enforcement as a road safety tool has IMO had a negative impact on fatality reduction, and this may be evidenced in the significant loss of trend of fatality reduction during the years that the speed camera experiment expanded.

rudekid48

musafir05 wrote: »

Jesus will protect this mythical child.

Nothing would protect you from the mythical father of the mythical child if it happened on the mythical street where I mythically live :cool:

Big_John_246

I took my advanced driving some years ago and was taught by an ex police driving examiner, he told me on more than one occasion that you can be 5 mph over any speed limit because of the accuracy of the Speedo.

RS2000.

Big_John_246 wrote: »

I took my advanced driving some years ago and was taught by an ex police driving examiner, he told me on more than one occasion that you can be 5 mph over any speed limit because of the accuracy of the Speedo.

Some years ago that was correct, but 35 in a 30 would still be exceeding the limit today.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Big_John_246 wrote: »

I took my advanced driving some years ago and was taught by an ex police driving examiner, he told me on more than one occasion that you can be 5 mph over any speed limit because of the accuracy of the Speedo.

Not quite a myth, you can be over the speed limit because:

a) speedos by law are supposed to be accurate within 10%
b) the police normally work to ACPO guidelines which set prosecution at 10% + 2mph

What this tells you is that the policeman who tells you you can drive at 5mph over a 30mph limit is telling you to risk that your speedo is definitely over-reading - you will get prosecuted at 35mph.

Speedos vary by car and some are quite accurate - this current car is about 2mph out at 30 but my last car was less than 1mph out.

Actually though, what you learn on advanced driving is that sticking to the speed limit as indicated on your speedo is the correct thing to do then you never ever worry about having to look for speed cameras and hidden cars and vans - all the nonsense about speed cameras being a dangerous distraction then disappears and you drive along blissfully relaxed - especially as you pass the lunatic that has overtaken you dangerously in a 40mph limit, gets caught behind the queue of traffic ahead and then makes a poor lane choice (sometimes I cannot suppress a cheery wave though that is definitely not in RoadCraft).

RS2000.

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Not quite a myth, you can be over the speed limit because:

a) speedos by law are supposed to be accurate within 10%
b) the police normally work to ACPO guidelines which set prosecution at 10% + 2mph

What this tells you is that the policeman who tells you you can drive at 5mph over a 30mph limit is telling you to risk that your speedo is definitely over-reading - you will get prosecuted at 35mph.

Speedos vary by car and some are quite accurate - this current car is about 2mph out at 30 but my last car was less than 1mph out.

Actually though, what you learn on advanced driving is that sticking to the speed limit as indicated on your speedo is the correct thing to do then you never ever worry about having to look for speed cameras and hidden cars and vans - all the nonsense about speed cameras being a dangerous distraction then disappears and you drive along blissfully relaxed - especially as you pass the lunatic that has overtaken you dangerously in a 40mph limit, gets caught behind the queue of traffic ahead and then makes a poor lane choice (sometimes I cannot suppress a cheery wave though that is definitely not in RoadCraft).

Will that be IAM?