Wrong way during traffic jam on A34

Car_54

Hoenir said:

Plead guilty and accept the punishment. 

He’s not being asked to plead, just to name the driver. When he does, he may be offered a fixed penalty, or even a course.

imulsion

Thanks @maman and @Car_54 for your inputs. I will certainly explain the extenuating circumstances given the opportunity. With hindsight it was a pretty stupid thing to do but at the time it seemed reasonable. Either way I'll be more than willing to pay an FPN or go on a course.

Hoenir

Car_54 said:

Hoenir said:

Plead guilty and accept the punishment. 

He’s not being asked to plead, just to name the driver. When he does, he may be offered a fixed penalty, or even a course.

Saw little point in becoming semantic and saying anything of zero value to the thread. 

cymruchris

A friend did exactly this (albeit a few years ago) and got 6 points on his license and a fine - although I don't recall the value. He pleaded guilty although he did what you did and followed the crowd.

Mildly_Miffed

imulsion said:

Thanks @maman and @Car_54 for your inputs. I will certainly explain the extenuating circumstances given the opportunity. With hindsight it was a pretty stupid thing to do but at the time it seemed reasonable. Either way I'll be more than willing to pay an FPN or go on a course.

I'm not sure what the "extenuating circumstances" are.

You saw some other drivers doing a normally-illegal thing, and made the assumption (incorrect, as it turned out) that they'd been told to do it by the Police.

If they actually had have been, then you'd have had a solid wall of traffic coming down the shoulder the wrong way, rather than what I suspect was actually dribs and drabs - and would have been best served by waiting for the police to reach your part of the tailback and turn you all around in a managed manner.

But, yes, it's almost certain to be a £100 3pt fixed penalty, CD10 endorsement.

prowla

I suppose the potential issue was if emergency vehicles needed to go along the hard shoulder.

TooManyPoints

What you describe as "mitigating" circumstances are nothing of the sort. I cannot imagine the police actually doing what you describe (i.e. turning vehicles around to weave the wrong way through oncoming traffic - even if it was stationary). It sounds highly dangerous. If I saw that happening it is not an assumption that I would make and I would want to be absolutely sure it was an instruction from the police before I did likewise.

You may be a offered course or a fixed penalty tto dispose of this. If you are I would grab it with both hands. 

An unlimited fine? Does that not seem harsh?

Every offence which attracts a fine have a maximum of one of five "levels" on what is called the "Standard Scale." The current Standard Scale is as follows::

Level 1 - £200
Level 2 - £500
Level 3 - £1,000
Level 4 - £2,500
Level 5 - Unlimited

Careless Driving carries a maximum fine of Level 5.

Up to March 2015 the maximum fine that could be imposed in the Magistrates Court for an offence which was subject level five was £5,000 (although a very small number of offences under environmental or health & safety law could see fines up to £20,000 imposed).

The "Unlimited" aspect only applied in the Crown Court and only to offences which can be dealt with in the Crown Court. Along with most other motoring offences, Careless Driving is a "summary only" offence which means, barring appeals, it must be seen to a conclusion in the Magistrates' Court. There is no option for Magistrates to send the case to the Crown Court for sentencing. 

An amendment to the law in 2015 saw the cap in Magistrates' Courts removed. That said, fines are usually income-related and must be within the defendant's ability to pay. It would be quite unusual to see a fine of more than £5,000 imposed in a Magistrates' Court for a motoring offence. 

There may have been higher fines imposed, but the highest I have noticed since the cap was removed is the £86,000 imposed on Ant McPartlin (he of "Ant & Dec") for drink-driving in 2018. Had he committed the offence prior to March 2015 the most the court could have imposed would have been £5,000.

Ant McPartlin fined £86,000 for drink-driving | Crime | The Guardian

LightFlare

the only time I have see anything like this scenario happen the police started at the back and worked forward to the incident

Grumpy_chap

LightFlare said:

the only time I have see anything like this scenario happen the police started at the back and worked forward to the incident

I have never seen this but occasionally read about events in the press where the Police have had to turn traffic back along a Motorway / Dual Carriageway.

It did occur to me that, rather than turn the front round to weave through the queued traffic, the Police would either turn vehicles around starting from the back of the queue or, assuming the opposite carriage way was closed, turn people through an opening in the central reservation.  I also assume that such events would be rather well-marshalled at all points.  It is not only the driving against the design flow on the dual carriageway, but also the awkward turn to then exit at the slip road which is designed against the driver travelling in the contra-design direction.

ris2015

For clarification.
I live by the A34 and it's a car park on most days caused by incidents.
It is a two lane road and does not have a hard shoulder.