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

FrugalThrills

As the driver you are responsible for the speed of the car. It is not so much a question of never, ever going over the speed limit, more one of you got caught out, suck it up. Home or abroad there's no difference. If this had happened in Britain would you think your friends should contribute?

hash2025

This happened to me and some friends recently. We all contributed as we agreed that the driver is taking all the risk when he is driving on behalf of all of us. That includes the risk of any accident (and resulting costs) and also risk of any fines. Plus being a passenger is much easier and driving all the time is tiresome. The more some one drives then there is more chance that something might happen.

MattMattMattUK

I cannot actually believe that anyone would actually ask this question, in the words of McEnroe "You cannot be serious!".

aaRennie

If it was a spot fine then just pay up. If not just do what most visitors to UK do, go home and forget it, who's going to chase you??

MattMattMattUK

aaRennie said:

If it was a spot fine then just pay up. If not just do what most visitors to UK do, go home and forget it, who's going to chase you??

Quite a few countries, with all the added extra costs that incurs. 

CapeTown

aaRennie said:

If it was a spot fine then just pay up. If not just do what most visitors to UK do, go home and forget it, who's going to chase you??

I have stupidly managed to get 2 speeding fines in France - both of them managed to find their way back to me for payment.

Oldgit1

Speeding is black and white - you are either under or over the limit. If over it is purely your fault, whether mistake or not, therefore just you to pay. Totally unfair to ask the others as they didn't make any mistake,

pixiebel81

keithyno.1 said:

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!

Actually if you read the OP again it says "we were extremely careful to obey the limits."

primrose_penguin

I would not ask your friends to pay towards the cost of the fine. You say you knew the strict rules of breaking the speed limit in that particular country, and you were the one driving. I take it your other friends when they drove kept to the speed limit so if they did you should. Yes it was not intentional but a lot of things in life are not done intentionally but then you have to pay for the consequences. If your friends offered to help you pay the fine then that is different. If they don't then put it down to an expensive learning curve.

TELLIT01

Responsibility for controlling the car is entirely down to the driver.  Surely every driver knows that a vehicle will speed up when going downhill and acts accordingly.