Money Moral Dilemma: Should my friends share the cost of my holiday speeding fine?

MSE_Kelvin

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

 While on holiday abroad with three friends, we hired a car. We were in a country notorious for being strict on speeding, so we were extremely careful to obey the limits. However, coming down a hill, I slipped over the limit. There were police with a radar gun waiting, and they pulled us over and issued me with a fine for a hefty amount. Should I pay it as I was the driver, or is it fair to ask my friends to help cover the cost, as it was an innocent mistake rather than irresponsible driving?

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The_Unready

Absolutely not! You need to pay it yourself as a reminder not be be so reckless in the future.

Isthisforreal99

No such thing as an innocent mistake when it comes to speeding. Cleary not careful obeying the limits as claimed. When coming down a hill I usually find the brake slows the car down.

kimwp

It's annoying because it was a mistake, but it was your mistake, so you should pay.

swingaloo

Your mistake, your fine but I think you have some pretty miserable mates if they dont chip in a bit.

When visiting my father in law in France some years ago he was driving us back to the airport and committed some violation regarding a white line at a junction and was given an on the spot fine for that. He was doing us a favour so we paid his fine. Would have felt awful if we didn't

ButterCheese

You were the sole driver of the vehicle and were in control, so you should pay the fine.  It would be a nice thing to do for your friends to chip in, but morally they are not really obliged to I don't think.  Basically when you agree to drive a car, you are stating that you are volunterring to be in control of the car and take responsiblity for anything that happens (e.g. speeding fines).

Some people might think that your friends contributing any money or not is a test of true friendship.  I'd like to think that if similar happened to me, my friends would offer something.  But then again, I have friends who I know would offer money, and I have friends that I know would not!

CapeTown

You say it was an innocent mistake but it wasn't.  What would have happened if you had knocked someone down and killed them accidentally.  Is that an innocent mistake too. Would you expect to share the jailtime with them. You were driving.  You went over the limit. Your fine, you pay.

Ed264

You don't say how far over the limit you were. If the country has a zero tolerance policy, 51kmh in a 50 limit would result in a fine, and I'm sure every contributor here has done that at some time. If you were 10kmh over the limit, then that's just stupidity. I think it's reasonable for your mates to chip in.

keithyno.1

Unlike some of the holier-than-thou replies posted on here up to now (you'd think the people posting them had NEVER gone over the speed limit whilst driving in their entire lives...yeah, right!), I think it IS fair to ask your friends to help cover the cost of the fine. 

I'm guessing the four of you split the car hire cost equally between you? It sounds like you volunteered to take the risk of driving in a foreign country which presumably you weren't familiar with - from the sound of it you didn't get behind the wheel intending to drive like Max Verstappen and just had a momentary lapse of concentration going downhill and slipped over the limit (your words). Any driver who says it's never happened to them is telling an out and out lie.

So yes, ask your friends to chip in with a quarter of the fine each. The saying, "All for one and one for all" springs to mind. But if they refuse, well there's not much you can do about it other than put it down to experience. You might want to consider if you'd go away on holiday with them again though!

Davecu

A minibus full of us, going skiing, decided not to bother getting a motorway vignette as we were only travelling for one junction in Austria after driving across the border from Germany. Unfortunately, the police were waiting at the end of the slip road as we exited the motorway. I was driving and got fined €120. As it was a group decision, everyone contributed to the fine. On the plus side, I paid with my Tesco credit card and got Clubcard points on the transaction.

bgy3jlh

All of the detail about being abroad and hiring a car seems irrelevant. If you were in the UK driving your own car and got a speeding fine would you ask your passenger to cough up? I'd like to think not.