A speeding fine and points on my licence
OK, so in July I get caught speeding by a Gatso camera heading towards Wales 7.45pm Road clear, I'm doing 36 in a 30mph zone. With 18 years of endorsement free driving and no accidents and two weeks later I'm hit with a 60 speeding fine and 3 penalty points. That's ten quid for every one mile per hour I was over the speed limit on an empty road!
So today, I'm on my way to do an honest days work and I head into a village, no children at school as summer holidays, there are two blokes in suits standing next to a phone box and the next thing I know out comes Mr Policeman from behind the Phone Box wearing a florescent green jacket putting his hand in the air for me to stop and proceeds to charge me another 60 for doing 38 in the village. I found myself apologising at first, but then I started thinking whilst he was writing my ticket. I reminded him that he is supposed to be on view. His reply was "I'm wearing this bright coat." I couldn't believe my ears and I came back with "And I'm supposed to see through aluminium phone boxes, am I?"
He then said to me "We have had people in the village complaining about speeding drivers." Well that was about enough... I glared at him and said "We have people in Bicester complaining about their cars and bikes being stolen, it's a shame you don't put some effort into catching them!"
So there we have it, I pay my road Tax for both my vehicles and Pay my Council Tax which funds the Police and now they are robbing me on the way to work where funny enough I pay Income Tax for their salaries too. Yet there is Mr Joy Rider lying in his sack after another night racing another persons pride and joy and then torching it, not even worried about the licence he hasn't got, living on his dole money with the housing benefit looking after his roof.
OK, I appreciate I'm in the wrong for breaking the speed limit but what's gone wrong? Police gone soft, can't catch anybody if they are a car thief or a house burglar. Shame these days anything gets stolen from your property they'll give you an incident number and the thieving mongrel gets away again. Yet, being a law abiding citizen you get robbed 60 just for going slightly over the speed limit.
TOO LAZY TO CATCH THE REAL CROOKS!
I think the Police in this country ought to be brought to justice as to why Police Officers time is wasted hanging around a speed camera, when in truth they reckon they have not got the man power to catch the thieves (apparently there were 5 police officers at the same camera not long after I was pulled over). Any private business would call that bad resource management, personally I think it is lets pick on the EASY TARGETS because WE ARE TO LAZY TO CATCH THE REAL CROOKS.
Question: Who are the real thieves, personally I think Thames Valley Police and probably all the other thieving Highway Police patrols/cameras up and down this country, money from taxes and speeding fines yet very little results when catching real crooks, we dare not mention their salaries too...
Other sites that may be of interest
Your legal defence against speed cameras - Nice to see some good information out there on another gripe site. In this case there's an interesting article originally sourced from The Mail On Sunday that could help out motorists caught speeding.
Comments from visitors
"If we want drivers to slow down for say a school they would never voluntarily do that." This statement is clearly rubbish. Of the drivers passing any school some would be parents or relatives of a pupil there and most other people would anyway take care to drive carefully when children might be around, especially around 9am and 3.30pm.. In any case I'm not arguing against a low limit near schools at these times of day, just not 5mph! It would be almost impossible to drive that slowly; and if you could you'd be spending most of your time looking at the speedo, not the road.
You still haven't explained how speed cameras catch drivers who are under the influence and also under the speed limit; and if a young driver who has been drinking and taking drugs drives recklessly fast around a bend, goes off the road and crashes into a tree with fatal results for everyone in the car, what difference would a speed camera make? There's no point in prosecuting the dead!
Slower is NOT always safer and the economy suffers when drivers are slowed down more than necessary. What do you think the result would be if the motorway was slowed to 30mph? Don't say "if one life was saved it would be worth it". This is a spurious argument; if we only had your favoured bicycles and horses for transport there would still be accidents and deaths; and many more would die following the slow death of the economy.
I won't even start on speed limits which are plainly set too low (even against the advice of the police in many cases); clearly a too low speed limit is a concept which your brain is unable to accept.
I will just say that I have never had a single point on my licence or been stopped by the police for anything; yet I break a (too low) speed limit or two nearly every time I get in my car. Conversely I drive VERY slowly in the lanes in this area and am extremely considerate when passing horses, dog walkers, and even cyclists! I do know where the brakes are, and can actually find reverse when needed!
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grumpyoldwoman - 27-Dec-11 16:23
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Toys well and truly thrown out of pram, I think!
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grumpyoldwoman - 27-Dec-11 14:31
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Yes, some members of Brake have lost loved ones to speeding drivers; but they have also lost loved ones to drivers who had been taking drugs or drinking. How do speed cameras help against them?
Harsh as it may sound, speed limits should be set and enforced by people who know what they are doing; not people who have lost loved ones in an accident and call for the speed limit on that road to be reduced, regardless of whether the reduced limit would have prevented the accident in which they lost their loved one.
The 85th percentile rule (if you know what that is) produces the lowest accident figures; speed limits set above and BELOW it tend to produce more accidents.
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grumpyoldwoman - 27-Dec-11 12:08
It is so easy to avoid speeding fines - don't speed. I think the days when people publicly whine about speeding fines have gone. The last few people I've heard whining in public have had no sympathy whatsoever from other people.
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I can only think that it has been marked down by anti-drivers, maybe a few members of Brake.
Raging kiwi, it would be easier for people to stick to the speed limits if they were not being lowered constantly to far below those which would be properly (scientifically) imposed by using the 85th percentile rule.
Yes you can get fined if you break a speed limit, but it doesn't necessarily mean you were driving dangerously at the time! Surely catching dangerous drivers should be the point of the so called "Road Safety Industry", not making money from safe drivers who broke a purely abitrary speed limit.
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grumpyoldwoman - 27-Dec-11 10:28
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A speed camera will not catch drivers who have been drinking or taking drugs, who are fiddling with the radio, putting on lipstick, having a shave, eating or drinking, not slowing down enough for a dangerous corner or passing too close to pedestrians or cyclists if they are not actually breaking the speed limit.
It will however catch a driver driving safely at 55mph on a deserted stretch of dual carriageway where the limit has been reduced to 40mph, because a local councillor thought it was a good idea, even though the police's accident experts disagreed with him and recommended keeping the limit at 60mph.
Brake gain by campaigning for more speed cameras because then they get more money from their sponsors! Hardly altruistic. They campaign for cameras at accident sites where a speed camera would not have prevented the accident in question.
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grumpyoldwoman - 10-Oct-11 11:30
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MikeP -21-Aug-11 15:45
MikeP - 21-Aug-11 16:56
the one from 13:14 today was by me though
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Mr Clartybum - 21-Aug-11 18:00
MikeP - 21-Aug-11 13:14
MikeP - 21-Aug-11 15:45
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Mika Wallace - 21-Aug-11 16:08
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Slow Down you bad children. - 26-Jun-11 19:31
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Pathetic comments such as; "We have had people in Bicester complaining about their cars and bikes being stolen, it's a shame you don't put so much effort into catching them!" are liable only to annoy the officers who are dealing with you.
I do agree that police time could be better spent elsewhere but the hard fact is that they are on the roads and if you are speeding and get caught then you have no-one but yourself to blame.
Whining about the fact that you are too dim witted to pay attention to the road and speed limit is pointless.
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