[Travel] Speeding Ticket

WATFORD zero said:

And I thought I was doing well with 2 speeding tickets in 45 years and somewhere between 1.75 and 2 million miles

*edit* And seeing H's full confession above,

1982 speeding doing 43 in a 30, coming into Henfield from Shoreham, Policeman with radar gun on bend immediately after 30 sign, pulled in at Henfield police station 30 yards further on. Was slowing from 60 to 30, fair cop

2004 went through temporary 50 limit on M25 doing 60. Wasn't concentrating, fair cop

1985 Not speeding. Borrowed Mrs Wz (then Miss) brand new company Golf GTI to pick up paper from 7 dials. Parked outside, got paper, came out to find Police Bikes front and back of me.
"Is this your car, sir"
"No"
"Do you know the registration ?"
"No idea"
"Who's car is it ?"
"My Girlfriends"
"Do you know how dangerous it is to be on zig zag lines at a crossing ?"
"I wouldn't still be on the zig zag lines if you hadn't put your bikes front and back"
Being a smartarse, fair cop

Did take a while to convince Mrs Wz that it was being a smartarse that got me the ticket and not 'driving like a boy racer' in her car or 'looking like a thug'. (I'd shaved my head for the first time the week before )

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Harry Wilson's tackle said:

I appreciate that the facetious comments on this thread may be unacceptable to those who have been injured or killed by a speeding driver.

My perspective is of someone who has been done maybe 7 times in 40 years, mostly by police leaping out from behind a bush with a handometer, or parked up a side street in a snoop van. Typically doing 37 in a 30 zone. Never pissed. Never hitting anyone.

I was done 3 times in a few weeks in Northampton. To put this in perspective, a mate of mine has been done for speeding only twice in 45 years.
On both occasions this was by sneakily parked police van.
On both occasions this was in Northampton.
He has only been to Northampton twice in his life.
(It is widely rumoured the old bill were on a money making scam with this).

That leave me 4 tickets to explain....

I was first done in London in the early 90s. Hand held, on The Mall.
I was asked to show my license at Faversham nick. I did this.
Some months later I was summonsed to the Old Bailey (I kid you not) for driving without a license.
The policeman who nicked me was livid when he found that I had surrendered my license and the dozy oaf at Faversham had put it in a drawer.
The case was adjourned. Two weeks later I had to go back and the case was dismissed.
The London copper told me the plod in Faversham had literally been put back to plod, on foot patrol duties.

On another occasion on the M25 I slowed to 40 in response to a sign. I carried on for 10 miles as cars sped past at 80. The sign to show the speed limit ceased after point X had not been switched on.

And let's not start on 'road closed' events. Signs either go up 10 miles in advance, or a few hundred yards away making a big detour necessary, or the road isn't closed at all. It is entirely random in rural North Kent. Most drivers ignore road closed signs in the first instance.

Finally potholes. Why paint round some of them but not others? (Let's not start on actually filling the fuckers). It isn't that far off having a traffic management officer chucking bricks at cars from behind a bush.

Forgive me for giving the impression that I take driving safety with a pinch of salt. I don't.
But I do have a degree of cynicism over how it (and other aspects of road safety) has been managed over the years.
Clarity, logic, fairness, perspective, signage . . . Motorways are largely decent but A and B roads are shambolic.

So I reserve the right to not be entirely po-faced in contrition about my transgressions.

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1066familyman said:

Sorry, I'm a bit confused.

So aside from most of them being Northampton Police's fault, and the one on the Mall from Police doing their job, is the other one the fault of the faulty motorway sign?


I think that then leaves two? Are they covered road closures and potholes? If so, I'm intrigued, and would love to hear those two stories as they sound much more interesting than the other ones. I'm also curious as to how potholes and road closures connect to speeding.

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alanfp said:

Not done one myself, but I hear this comment from everyone I know who has done one.
Sounds like whoever's idea it was to create them did well. Credit where it's due.

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jessiejames said:

Northamptonshire police are one of the worst for speeding. They have a zero tolerance on M1, and I think one of the highest number of catching speeding motorists.

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jessiejames said:

Last SAC I went on was about hazard perception. We watch a 3 minute video and then had to say how many hazards we saw. He said that he can put us into groups with the answers we gave. Those who spotted the less were newish drivers spotted between 3 and 7, next set 8 to 15 were your normal good drivers, that left just 3 of us. Me and another guy spotted 15 to 20. Officer said we were either coach or lorry drivers because we could spot the hazard earlier being high up, but we would have trouble passing the hazard perception test, due to spotting the early. The last one was a mid twenties lady, she spotted 40 hazards. He said she had been involved in a serious accident and thought every thing she saw was a hazard, it turned out she had to be cut free from a car accident 2 years previous.

6 months later on my DCPC Course we all done the HP test. Yes I failed, along with over half the class 7 out of 16

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Harry Wilson's tackle said:

To be fair (thug/not thug) I got away with speeding a couple of times when pulled over by a patrol car, when wearing a nice suit and on my way to a 'medical conference', with 'Dr' on my license.

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