Thetownend.com

crafty fuckers have got me.
a road i use daily had its speed camera altered to nail truckers.used to go through it all the time no probs then one day bang bang,fucking nabbed me the cunting thing.49mph on a 60mph road :evil: .i should have been doing 40mph and holding up cars who then attempt dangerous overtaking manouvres on bends etc.
a collegue has been had too.

today i recieved notice of intended prosecution.
anyone ever been able to dodge this? as i want to keep my licence clean and not give those cunts any of my cash.

the 14 day notice wont come into play, as although i wasn't contacted until 18 days after the alleged offence.they would have contacted my employer-ie the registered keeper in time.
they even put in a letter pointing out how you cannot avoid prosecution.the cunts!

I dont understand

i allegedly exceeded the speed limit by 9 miles an hour

How can you get done for 49mph on a 60 road? Or is it a 40mph zone?

I'm surprised you got caught, i know most cameras have a 10-15mph tolerance to save too many tickets being issued, and all have a 10% tolerance, due to some speedo irregularity in all cars.

I think it's one of those things though and your clean license is no more!

EDIT: I understand the speed limit now. :)

Ah right sorry Arriba your post said 60mph zone mate

it is a 60 road for cars-vans etc.but hgv's on a single carraigeway have a speed limit of 40mph on those roads.

hgv is 40mph on a single carriageway then 50 on a dual i believe.

The leeway for speeding is 10% +2. So you cannot get away with it unfortunately.

i have heard that if you say you will go to court,the cps wont pursue it as the courts are clogged up as it is.and as its only 9mph over the limit they write off anything under 10 mph over the limit.
trouble is if i go to court and get found guilty,would my fine and points be increased to more than i'd get now?

Depends on your money, if it goes to court I think they can charge you a percentage of your annual salary.  My old man got done something stupid and took points as teh cost if they decided to go to court would of been a small fortune

And even 10%+2 is only a guideline AFAIK.

I guess you may get 'lucky' and get invited to attend a speed awareness course. Costs about the same as a fine but is in lieu of points. You have to be invited, you can't request it.

I sympathise and I guess most of us have been done at some point. But i can't see a way around it, you were speeding. I guess legal advice from an expert is the way to go if a clean license is a must.

Have you had a clean record all your driving life arriba?

Are Fire Engines/Ambulances/Police cars allowed to speed Tans?

Only on emergency calls, you can do up to 25mph over the speed limit iirc. If you get flashed you have provide the old bill with a copy of the turnout ticket and an incident number.

i accept i was speeding.but the way they now set these cameras to nail trucks is fucking out of order.people become familiar with the route then they change the camera to get trucks.
people are losing their jobs because of this.they aint driving like idiots and cars with worse drivers in alot of cases could go faster than the truckers are getting done for.
all about making money fuck all to do with safety.the truckers are actually making the road safer because those who drive at 40mph,then get frustrated car drivers behind them who tailgate,then try to overtake in dangerous situations.


14 years clean licence tans

Tans takes the bait again

Arriba think you may just have to take it on the chin mate.

I always had you down as a copper yourself, arriba.

I thought that Dmr

I would love to be a copper

You will prob be alright Arriba, theyll probably send you on a speed awareness course and a fine.

haha. i've been to court 5 times and had community service.
not for 13 years mind

FWIW arriba, and I'm honestly not trying to wind you up- if you know the road then you should;ve been a bit more careful, it's like when be people don't pay for a parking ticket "cos I was only gonna be 5 minutes" and get a ticket.

People know the score.

i've learned my lesson.

guess i'll have to witness some more head on crashes from idiots with no patience.
some of the stuff i've seen beggars belief.
the birds showing me their tits,kisses blown by some hot chicks etc  has been pleasant though.

A lady does that on oxford road to me :D

If you could run really fast you could really confuse the police with speed cameras.

I sympathise to a point that speed cameras are just there solely to pay for the bubbly at the policeman's ball,  but i don't get the argument that you driving your truck at 49mph makes it safer for everyone else than when you are at 40 and that there is some altruistic motive for this.

If you are doing 49 you are still going at least 11mph less than I want to when I get stuck behind you, so you are still in my way.  It also means I need to do get up to around 70 to get past you quickly.  if you are only doing 40 i can probably overtake you safely within the speed limit, I get longer to see the road ahead and my relative speed with oncoming traffic is less.  Admittedly I also have to look out for all the twats in BMWs behind me that will pull out the same time I do and try and overtake us both,  but there isn't much you can do about that and anyway I don't mind having something quick in front of me that can set off the cameras before I get to them.

So sorry you got ticketed, but unless there is some change in the laws of physics that mean that heavy goods vehicles can drive safely at 60+ you can't do much about it.

They fines go straight to the treasury and generally towards new speed cameras doesn't it?

I remember a mate telling me that (in national economic terms) the profit from speed cameras is so small that if it really was mainly a fund raising exercise it would be pretty pointless.

I've never been able to find the figures to back it up, although I imagine that they can't make that much.

you raise some good points.

i have found that if i drive as near to the limit as i can (56mph is what i can do tops)less drivers will overtake in dangerous situations.if i drive at 40mph the impatient idiots grow in number. and like i've said before some of the stuff i've seen beggars belief.
as for not being safe, i'd deffo beg to differ.

trucks driven on straight a roads are perfectly safe at 50-56 mph.there are of course occasions where it is not so but most truckers are familiar with the roads and drive accordingly.

I never realised HGVs had a low limit on single roads at national speed limit! I thought the drivers were just all a bit retarded!

hence, why car drivers become irate when behind trucks and attempt ridiculous overtaking manouvres.

I get pissed off when a HGV driver travelling at 40.0002 MPH, feels the need to overtake another HGV travelling at 40 MPH on a dual-carriage way.

Is it Germany where lorries cannot overtake between certain peak times? That's a great idea...

I think that's panzers, McLovin

Lorries, caravans, cyclists and women drivers should only be allowed on roads between midnight and 5am...................................

I'd leave it out of the court mate, you've been caught by the camera and unless the camera was wrong you won't get off.

Does your vehicle have a tachometer record?

And bald men  :D Your head could be reflective at night.

You know how to wound, Lady................................

yep.i accept i was speeding as i remeber the camera flashing.i just hoped there might be a loophole i could exploit.

:mrgreen:

Modern man didn't you say earlier?

I was lying......................

One loophole is if the camera wasn't calibrated or used correctly.

One of my tutors at college successfully contested a fixed penalty fine using this tact. He took a gamble by researching how the hand held gun had to be used/calibrated and asked the copper directly in court how he would check it over before use etc.

 It turned out the copper didn't expect this, had a 'lapse of memory' and so the charge had to be dropped as the copper couldn't prove he knew how to use the speed gun correctly.

But if you have readings from your vehicle or the camera is a fixed camera you may be buggered. I'm pretty sure the OB will now be more savvy to this sort of claim too.

I just slip the copper 200 baht.  :wink:

 :mrgreen:

Agreed. Muchos annoying.

I've also seen situations where on HGV doing 65 overtakes another doing which is overtaking another. Not only is it illegal, its dangerous and incredibly annoying.

That would make sense seeing most are restricted to 56mph.
Apart from fire engines, which we have had going off the clock as they are not restricted  8)

i've been offered a speed awareness course instead of a 3 point penalty.
 it would cost me £75,i'd have to go to either reading,milton keynes or bicester to do it.it would take up 4 1/2 hours of my time.and i'd have to lose a days holiday from work.

dunno whether to go not guilty and plead mitigating circumstances.(then hope the cps dont push it through)or just pay 60 quid have 3 points and be done with it?

I think that the speed awareness course is the best offer you'll get if you don't want the points.

Maybe you should go on it.

i'd do the course to be honest. its not gonna look as bad as points on your license

Dont let teh fuckers win, just take the 3 pionts and carry on speeding

fucking pain in the arse though.i still hope i could go down the court route and have it thrown out before it even gets there.most cases that go to court end up that way.it's a gamble though

why go to court when you've affectivly been let off

because he's a cunt who thinks he can speed as much as he wants.

and I'm in a bad mood because I've got to clean up my house.

 :D  i will resist the bait

I still think you might learn stuff from going on the speeding course. Didn't Ralphy or someone say they wouldn't speed again?

Although Ralphy is exactly the sort of idiot who'd take loads of emotional appealy bollocks to heart without looking at the actual details.. Oh wait the facts also say speeding is bad. Nice.

I'd snap their hand off Arriba (not in a literal sense).  You never know what's going to happen in the future and as a professional driver you'd still be able to say you've got a clean license.

The fee won't be much different to the fine. Shame about the time off but it seems a fair trade to me

it just fucks me off because i was doing 11 mph less than the limit for a car.i'd say i'm a better driver than most of them and still get hit with a fine and go on a course that will teach me fuck all.
if i got done in my car i'd accept it.just leaves a bitter taste when its been done the way i have.
i pride myself on being a good driver and dont drive like an idiot.
i had a clear road ahead of me,loads of impatient cars behind me, and went a bit faster than the law for hgv's on a straight a road with good vision and safe breaking distances infront of me.
the cunt weaving in and out to try to overtake on dangerous bends like a prick gets fuck all.
it aint justice imo.

Arriba if you go to court you will need the day off anyway.

Just accept you were wrong and take the punishment you see fit. If you really don't want to waste 4 1/2 hours of your time then take the points.

The problem is that big lorry things are harder to drive and take longer to stop. You might think you're a better driver than most but then the majority of people think that. The law isn't out there to get you it's out there to protect other people. You are moving around many tons of shit and great speed, that's a pretty lethal weapon.

It's tough luck, but you won't win any court case trying to claim that the law is wrong.

i agree with all of your post ben.and have been driving long enough to know the vehicles.i passed 3 tests to get where i am.some of the lorries these days have shit hot brakes.and alot is down to that and the load on board etc.

 the amount of abuse from car and van drivers i get,as they get fucked off waiting behind me does my nut.many car drivers have no respect for truckers or the vehicles they are driving.

and i wouldn't try go get off byclaiming the law is wrong either.if i do  go not guilty i'll go for mitigating circumstances.

i'll probably pay the 60 quid and they can shove their course.you have to say sorry and shit like that on the course.i would end up arguing with the twat trying to lecture me

What were the mitigating circumstance? If you have a legitimate reason it may spare you but the court isn't stupid.

I think you're under-estimating the Magistrates, they're not pushovers and they can be equally as high and mighty as you and I.

i'll say i had a twat in a car behind me who kept attempting dangerous overtaking manoeuvers.i'll say i was traveling at the speed i was to try to stop a head on smash.
by going that bit faster i was trying to
reduce the chances of the imaptient driver attempting another dangerous overtake.

this happens almost every day.

But what were the mitigating circumstances?

The momentum on something that heavy must be huge. You say that you'd be less likely to cause an accident if you go faster, but you're missing the other side of the purpose of the rules. In the case that there is an accident, then by decreasing the speed of the heavy stuff you reduce the potential for serious damage/carnage/death.

The abuse bit is immaterial really. Just be a bigger person and accept it. In the end you'll be in the right.

I feel a bit like I'm picking on you arriba. I'm not. I just don't think your position is right. Go on the course. Does anybody know if they have a separate one for heavy goods drivers? It does seem like the situations are different enough from normal drivers to warrant it.

you carry on ben.your points are valid enough.
i didn't say i'm less likely to cause an accident if i go faster did i? :?
its to try to stop others attempting dangerous overtaking if i go a bit faster.
i dont do it anymore since the incident anyway.but the abuse has risen for sure,as have the overtaking near misses by impatient morons.

and i'd do the course if it were for hgv's but i dont think it is.what i've been told from a collegue you have to go in with boy racer idiots and its aimed at car drivers really.say sorry and you've learned your lesson etc blaa blaa blaa.
the reason i went faster wasn't to get anywhere quicker.unlike what virtually all car driving speeding cases are about

They will ask you to describe the car so make sure you have got your story straight before you go to court.

Let us know how you go.

i slept on it and have done a fair bit of research on the net,talked to collegues etc.
i've decided to accept the course.
my car insurance would rise (nominally but enough)if i got 3 points.
and the bit of inconveinience and time to do the lesson will still mean my licence is clean, so the letter is posted.

i would have liked to plead mitigating circumstances.but the courts could impose an even heavier fine.and my mitigating circumstances are not always accepted by the courts anyway.
due to the amount of miles i clock up there is a fair chance i might get another ticket(though it highly unlikely)so staying at scratch is the least risk option.
thanks all who added to the debate, and i'll tell you all how my day in the classroom goes.

I think you have seen sense and done the right thing. Thing to do now is let it go and be thankful you'll still have a clean license. As for the course, I reckon you should turn up late and make the excuse you had to travel at 40mph for most of the way  :wink:

i've just been caught...ARSE!!!

how fast and where whits?

i wonder if leggett got caught on the way to histon, i hope so

I got caught once overtaking this lorry driving at 40mph, bloody hgv drivers ;)

47 in a 40 on bagshot road, in bracknell...don't remember seeing a camera at all, oh well...i've sent off my form just waiting to be offered that course thingyy

the course is a fucking pain and due to your speed i think thats what you will get offered.i reckon you will be able to do it in crowthorne if you live near there?

yeah there was a leaflet with the notice that said if i was between 46-50 then i would be offered the course...sent the paperwork off today so will hear back soon i'm sure..

Did they offer a course on a weekend? or it is only during the week?? getting a day off work is going to be a c*nt!

loads of different days and times to choose from. do it online as thats easiest

A Sat Nav will cost you a hundred pounds,best investmet ive ever made,i have a clean licence,not bad when you drive lorries for a living......it warns you as you approach any camera well in advance,so saving money and no points added,if you drive regular get one.

Read the thread....

Been nicked four times now...in last 6 years....

Two i deserved....two were just shit....

One doing 68 on an overtaking lane on the A36 (not to be confused with a dual carriageway)....one got over turned when some boffin who got caught notticed that there was insufficient signage and took the old bill to court and won....they had to get in touch with fuck knows how many people...scrub the points and write an apology and repay the £60...i took great delight in calling the safety camera office to thank them...