The other day the OH and I were going to linconshere, somewhere we had never been before. We were using a sat nav that needed to be updated but never had any problems with it. We were driving down a road, sat nav said speed was 40 and there was a camera for 40. He checked the speed, doing 38. No signs anywhere to say anything different. There was a sign for the camera but no speed on it. The rest of the traffic was doing the same speed. He drove past the camera and it flashed.
As there was no speed signs to say a change in speed or the speed at all I really don't see that this is fair.
He has been driving for 3 years and never had any points til recently. A speeding ticket a month or so ago. He was doing 34 down a 30 road at 11pm, did that good driver course. Since it's been too close to then he can't do it again. He is a good, sensible driver but just had some bad luck recently.
Is there anything that can be done about the 2nd speeding ticket? I presume you can appeal but will it actually do anything and will it lumber us with loads of court costs? Some advice would be great please.
Have you recived a ticket yet? When i stayed in cardiff i went through one and it flashed, i was doing the speed limit. Never got nothing in the post but did notice with the camera that it went off every day at the same time, even when no one went through it. I presume that they do a self testing at a set time but not to sure.
Have you recived a ticket yet? When i stayed in cardiff i went through one and it flashed, i was doing the speed limit. Never got nothing in the post but did notice with the camera that it went off every day at the same time, even when no one went through it. I presume that they do a self testing at a set time but not to sure.
Haven't received it yet but it was on Thursday. Hopefully it won't happen then. They really should warn people about that!
Sometimes the cameras flash but are a) Not loaded, b) memory on the hard drive is full so will not record the offence. If your oh has been unlucky then the ticket can take anytime up to about 4 weeks to be processed as some cameras are busier than others and get processed faster by the local authority.
Regrettably just because you didnt see a speed sign isn't an alibi as at some point on joining that stretch of road there would have been one, I suspect that your speedo is slightly out as can happen as no speedo is truely accurate.
I'm currently shitting myself too about a ticket as they've recently changed the speed limit on a dual carriageway from 50 to 40 but I only noticed the signs today.
I drove down that road on saturday at 50, didnt see any signs so im hoping they all got changed on sunday. Otherwise, i have THREE speeding tickets waiting for me as i went through ALL THREE cameras at 50. BAhhhhhhh!
Under the Road Traffic Act you must be served with a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) within 14 days of the offence. Note - this means that the NIP must be ISSUED within 14 days, not delivered to you within that time. It will always be issued to the registered keeper of the car, who must then identify the driver at the time of the offence, so if you are not the registered keeper of the car it could possibly be several weeks before you get the NIP. The key thing here is that the initial NIP must be ISSUED in that 14 day period, if it is not then they cannot prosecute you.
You are always entitled to contest the matter in Court, but be aware that not knowing what the speed limit was, or having a defective speedo, is no defence. (In fact a defective speedo is another offence!)
Whatever you do - follow Janny's very sound advice - Do NOT lie about who was driving. You can go to Court and plead mitigating circumstances, a recently changed speed limit that is not well signed COULD fall under that catagory, but be aware that this is mitigation only - you will still receive points on your licence and if the Court isn't impressed by your mitigation you could end up paying a much larger fine PLUS Court Costs as well :-(
My advice would always be to drive at least 3-5 mph under the speed limit just incase your speedo is not acurate, and remember that if there are streetlights but no speed sign then the limit is 30!
Good luck Despina Rose and Ms HKM - Keeping my fingures crossed for you!
If you have a sat-nav use it to check your speedo (GPS speeds are very accurate but are only calculated for the horizontal speed component so do the checking on a level straight road not up a 1 in 3 hill!).
In general you will find speedos over-read. My current car reads 32mph at an actual 30, 44mph at an actual 40 and 79mph at an actual 70. Armed with this I at least can make the best legal progress possible rather than having to guess what the speedo error is.
Under the Road Traffic Act you must be served with a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) within 14 days of the offence. Note - this means that the NIP must be ISSUED within 14 days, not delivered to you within that time. It will always be issued to the registered keeper of the car, who must then identify the driver at the time of the offence, so if you are not the registered keeper of the car it could possibly be several weeks before you get the NIP. The key thing here is that the initial NIP must be ISSUED in that 14 day period, if it is not then they cannot prosecute you.
You are always entitled to contest the matter in Court, but be aware that not knowing what the speed limit was, or having a defective speedo, is no defence. (In fact a defective speedo is another offence!)
Whatever you do - follow Janny's very sound advice - Do NOT lie about who was driving. You can go to Court and plead mitigating circumstances, a recently changed speed limit that is not well signed COULD fall under that catagory, but be aware that this is mitigation only - you will still receive points on your licence and if the Court isn't impressed by your mitigation you could end up paying a much larger fine PLUS Court Costs as well :-(
My advice would always be to drive at least 3-5 mph under the speed limit just incase your speedo is not acurate, and remember that if there are streetlights but no speed sign then the limit is 30!
Good luck Despina Rose and Ms HKM - Keeping my fingures crossed for you!
Thanks for the help everyone.
Just to clarify - the satnav said the speed was 38, the speedo matched. He doesn't have a faulty speedo.
Problem is that is not always necessarily true, three roads near mine have streelights and no speed limit signs, two are 40, one is 50.
Hopefully it either went off at a certain time, didn't have film in or wont actually get checked out til too late.