Contest speeding ticket

custardy

Manxman_in_exile said:

I'm afraid I would be very skeptical that any "speed limit recognition" system currently available would be sufficiently reliable to allow a driver not to take any notice of the prevailing limit.  Can it read temporary road work limit signs for instance? As the OP has found out, it's daft - and quite probably dangerous.

As others have said, ask for photos "to help identify the driver" and don't use the word "evidence".  Depending on the camera system used the photo might show the current limit at the time of the alleged speeding.  Whether you get a photo or not, do not miss the time limit for responding.

FWIW OP, I suspect it's far more likely that your "speed limit recognition" system is unreliable rather than that the speed cameras are wrong, and I'd be surprised if it was worth contesting.

Watched a motoring video just yesterday with a Fiat 500 using a speed limit recognition system and displaying the wrong speed.

AdrianC

Knapper said:

Just take the Speed Awareness Course and pay your pound of flesh (£90-£120) depending on region.

It's a huge money making scam and we're stuck with it.   The course is 4 hours of drivel and questionable material but swallow your pride and sit through it and job done.  No points on your license and no conviction.

If you go into the course with the attitude that you are infallible and omniscient, then it will be four wasted hours. And you'll be back again soon... Oh, wait. No, you won't, because you can't do it again for three years. Next time, it'll be straight to points.

Turn up with an open mind. You may realise you don't remember everything from your driving lessons perfectly. And, if nothing else, take it as an eye-opener about your fellow road-users...

mobileron

Most people on the courses dont have a clue how to drive  thats why there at the meet,i found it very informative. When asked 90% didnt know the national speed limit.

TooManyPoints

Indeed. How many times do we see hre (and elsewhere) "It was a dual carriageway so I naturally assumed the limit was 40mph"?

Biggus_Dickus

AdrianC said:

Knapper said:

Just take the Speed Awareness Course and pay your pound of flesh (£90-£120) depending on region.

It's a huge money making scam and we're stuck with it.   The course is 4 hours of drivel and questionable material but swallow your pride and sit through it and job done.  No points on your license and no conviction.

If you go into the course with the attitude that you are infallible and omniscient, then it will be four wasted hours. And you'll be back again soon... Oh, wait. No, you won't, because you can't do it again for three years. Next time, it'll be straight to points.

Turn up with an open mind. You may realise you don't remember everything from your driving lessons perfectly. And, if nothing else, take it as an eye-opener about your fellow road-users...

Good points;...in addition, it is actually possible to ‘fail’ a speed awareness course if you are deemed not to have embraced (for want of a better word) the procedure.

My brother successfully completed a speed awareness course a number of years ago (motorway offence) but one the attendees displayed an overtly negative attitude throughout the whole procedure and flunked the course;...the flunker, having paid £90 for the course, would have then faced the obligatory £100 fine  plus 3-points.

Moral of the tale: don’t be a gobby pillock. 🤔

 

 

 

 

Car_54

Biggus_Dickus said:

AdrianC said:

Knapper said:

Just take the Speed Awareness Course and pay your pound of flesh (£90-£120) depending on region.

It's a huge money making scam and we're stuck with it.   The course is 4 hours of drivel and questionable material but swallow your pride and sit through it and job done.  No points on your license and no conviction.

If you go into the course with the attitude that you are infallible and omniscient, then it will be four wasted hours. And you'll be back again soon... Oh, wait. No, you won't, because you can't do it again for three years. Next time, it'll be straight to points.

Turn up with an open mind. You may realise you don't remember everything from your driving lessons perfectly. And, if nothing else, take it as an eye-opener about your fellow road-users...

Good points;...in addition, it is actually possible to ‘fail’ a speed awareness course if you are deemed not to have embraced (for want of a better word) the procedure.

My brother successfully completed a speed awareness course a number of years ago (motorway offence) but one the attendees displayed an overtly negative attitude throughout the whole procedure and flunked the course;...the flunker, having paid £90 for the course, would have then faced the obligatory £100 fine  plus 3-points.

Moral of the tale: don’t be a gobby pillock. 🤔

The £100 penalty is in no way "obligatory". It may well have been too late for that (or the police might not have decided not to offer it), so he would be off to court and a much higher fine, plus victim surcharge and costs.

Biggus_Dickus

Car_54 said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

AdrianC said:

Knapper said:

Just take the Speed Awareness Course and pay your pound of flesh (£90-£120) depending on region.

It's a huge money making scam and we're stuck with it.   The course is 4 hours of drivel and questionable material but swallow your pride and sit through it and job done.  No points on your license and no conviction.

If you go into the course with the attitude that you are infallible and omniscient, then it will be four wasted hours. And you'll be back again soon... Oh, wait. No, you won't, because you can't do it again for three years. Next time, it'll be straight to points.

Turn up with an open mind. You may realise you don't remember everything from your driving lessons perfectly. And, if nothing else, take it as an eye-opener about your fellow road-users...

Good points;...in addition, it is actually possible to ‘fail’ a speed awareness course if you are deemed not to have embraced (for want of a better word) the procedure.

My brother successfully completed a speed awareness course a number of years ago (motorway offence) but one the attendees displayed an overtly negative attitude throughout the whole procedure and flunked the course;...the flunker, having paid £90 for the course, would have then faced the obligatory £100 fine  plus 3-points.

Moral of the tale: don’t be a gobby pillock. 🤔

The £100 penalty is in no way "obligatory". It may well have been too late for that (or the police might not have decided not to offer it), so he would be off to court and a much higher fine, plus victim surcharge and costs.

Just for the record it was a ‘she’, btw. 😑

Knapper

AdrianC said:

If you go into the course with the attitude that you are infallible and omniscient, then it will be four wasted hours. And you'll be back again soon... Oh, wait. No, you won't, because you can't do it again for three years. Next time, it'll be straight to points.

Turn up with an open mind. You may realise you don't remember everything from your driving lessons perfectly. And, if nothing else, take it as an eye-opener about your fellow road-users...

Thanks but been there and done it.  Whilst the courses have some limited "fun" aspects to it like putting up a picture and trying to spot the road hazards etc most of the course is mundane drivel run by jobsworths who have run the course so many times they feel infallible to any criticisms of it.   Some of the material is highly questionable and doesn't stand up to scrutiny imho but you can't waste too much of the courses time pointing it out because for one, the course has a mandated set of content it has to rush through in the allotted 4 hours before the next bunch of victims are wheeled in for the next course and for another they require subservient acceptance of the course and its content from the victims otherwise they can inform the authorities that you don't agree and then you'll go back to getting points.

Let's not dress this up for what it isn't.    It is a huge money making business that makes £millions for a relatively small number of private firms who are raking it in and making hay whilst that sun shines.  The police forces get a cut of the proceeds from them.

The courses are highly unlikely to permanently change anyone's driving behaviours.

What the experience mostly teaches you is to be more alert for speed cameras and private speed detector vans whilst you are driving.

These private firms are not remotely invested in making you a better driver.  They are invested in making £millions very easily.

The course I attended had some 25 people in it each of which had paid around £90 for the privilege.

The course is 4 hours long.

That means the private firm made £2250 for that 4 hours or £562 per hour.  Even brain surgeons don't get paid that much !

If they do 2 courses a day, and 5 days a week, and do that for 48 weeks of the year, they are raking in over £1 million per year.

As they say, nice work if you can get it !

My personal crime was driving along a desolate empty road at 6:30 in the morning, not a soul to be seen, no pedestrians or other cars on a 30mph road with a steep hill for which 4th gear is too much and 3rd gear too little. A private detector van was parked in a lay by just over the brow of the hill waiting to clock people.  The stretch has a path and crossing over to a child's playground which is the justification for such entrapment but at 6:30 in the morning there are of course no kids to be seen.  It's all about the money.

Car_54

Biggus_Dickus said:

Car_54 said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

AdrianC said:

Knapper said:

Just take the Speed Awareness Course and pay your pound of flesh (£90-£120) depending on region.

It's a huge money making scam and we're stuck with it.   The course is 4 hours of drivel and questionable material but swallow your pride and sit through it and job done.  No points on your license and no conviction.

If you go into the course with the attitude that you are infallible and omniscient, then it will be four wasted hours. And you'll be back again soon... Oh, wait. No, you won't, because you can't do it again for three years. Next time, it'll be straight to points.

Turn up with an open mind. You may realise you don't remember everything from your driving lessons perfectly. And, if nothing else, take it as an eye-opener about your fellow road-users...

Good points;...in addition, it is actually possible to ‘fail’ a speed awareness course if you are deemed not to have embraced (for want of a better word) the procedure.

My brother successfully completed a speed awareness course a number of years ago (motorway offence) but one the attendees displayed an overtly negative attitude throughout the whole procedure and flunked the course;...the flunker, having paid £90 for the course, would have then faced the obligatory £100 fine  plus 3-points.

Moral of the tale: don’t be a gobby pillock. 🤔

The £100 penalty is in no way "obligatory". It may well have been too late for that (or the police might not have decided not to offer it), so he would be off to court and a much higher fine, plus victim surcharge and costs.

Just for the record it was a ‘she’, btw. 😑

"Gobby"?  "She"? Surely not.

Car_54

Knapper said:

What the experience mostly teaches you is to be more alert for speed cameras and private speed detector vans whilst you are driving.

My personal crime was driving along a desolate empty road at 6:30 in the morning, not a soul to be seen, no pedestrians or other cars on a 30mph road with a steep hill for which 4th gear is too much and 3rd gear too little. A private detector van was parked in a lay by just over the brow of the hill waiting to clock people.  The stretch has a path and crossing over to a child's playground which is the justification for such entrapment but at 6:30 in the morning there are of course no kids to be seen.  It's all about the money.

"Private" speed detector vans? Are you sure?