I have a question someone may be able to answer.
Yesterday I drove through a Gatso speed camera, one I pass at least once a week, and it flashed me. I was driving at the limit posted, 50 mph, and there was no other vehicles in my carriageway. On examining the dash cam video footage it shows my GPS speed as 49 mph, Close examination of the video frames show that when the first flash went off I was at least 20 feet short of the lines in the road. I was astride the lines when the second flash occurred. Does this mean it was not me that triggered the camera? There was a Transit van that appears to be travelling fast in the opposite carriageway, but it doesn't trip the camera on that side. Why I say it was travelling fast was it was sailing past the cars in lane 1 and most drivers slow to just below the limit to pass the cameras. This is on a two lane motorway.
As I have driven for 50+ years, without so much as a parking ticket, a speeding ticket would be a Christmas present I wouldn't enjoy receiving!
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I've been a test train driver recently and one of the things has been train positioning and approach to stations. The GPS is not 100% accurate.
That said, you can't have been far over the limit. It could have been another car, as you say.
Several things here. In England the police have 14 days to issue you a Notice of Intended Prosecution - if they don't do this you can use it as a defence but you must comply with the request to send them your driving licence.
If you do get a NIP be sure to tell your insurers right away - my wife got her insurance cancelled over a silly 5mph speeding offence because she waited several weeks after the points were put on her licence. We could not get her reinsured until after a lengthy process in which we proved the insurers wrong. They barely educate their own staff these days and we were victims of the 'computer says no' culture.
Personally I would not contest a speeding fine unless it was an obvious mistake. The reason being that going to court can be costly, especially if you lose. And face it. If you're anything like the average driver, keeping up with the flow of traffic, then you're likely to be speeding more often than not.
We have to take the odd ticket on the chin sometimes.
Someone has to pay those lovely police retirements at 50 don't they !
Good luck, Jocko.
I'll start a crowd fund for you if you go inside and you can borrow the book on Prison Cell Workouts that I'm getting for Christmas.
I'm about to dedicate a post to you. Look out for it.
It really exists !
I dislike gyms and don't want loads of kit around the house.
I could face a fine based on my income which is way out of proportion to the momentary lapse in concentration I had over a long and stressful journey (lots of tailgaters and people stepping out in front of me in Bradford.) Ultra zero tolerance bearing in mind that one can go out with malice aforethought, commit a criminal offence and be offered a caution.
I am taking my own advice and being philosophical about it. I may be well paid but (with two lads on very long courses at university) my outgoings are steep and don't see much of my own money - I drive an old car and live in an officially deprived post code. My effective tax rate is around 60% as my boys get minimal help and I have to pay a lot to them.
One has to divide this expense up over the years I didn't get caught slipping over by a few mph.
"We put the money we take from you towards more safety cameras." said the Casualty Prevention Unit on their NIP.
Yippedy-doo !
No. More police officers please. To educate the jay-walkers and to book the ultra-lethal pushy tailgaters.
Know what you mean about money. I sat down with a financial adviser recently to start looking at how to structure my monies come retirement (still a few years away) and when we went through income (after tax, pensions, NI etc) and compared it to outgoings there was just £100 left a year. I've kind of felt that this was the case, but to work through it an item at a time, and see that result is enlightening and depressing. Basically, all this work is just to pay bills.
I best watch out for those speed cameras! An NIP for me based on income would see me having to sell guitars...
Fingers crossed it's not too steep, Kevin!
I can only hope of semi retirement really.
Older police officers and the ACPO ranks on the other hand... They get lottery sized pension payouts and don't tell me that they paid for it. The PC I know who retired recently would need £1m in the bank to generate what he gets in lump sum and yearly payout. Off on his T5 year-long camping tour of Europe aged 49 and a mere 30 years of contributions.
That's where the speed camera money goes.
***Chill Kevin. Chill !***