Safe Speed Forums

Hi -

On Monday I was pulled for speeding. The Officer (who was on his own) had a hand held detector and claimed I was clocked at 53 mph in a 40 zone. I had entered the zone at 40 and hadn't sped up much between the signs and the place where the copper was hiding (about 100 feet up the road from the signs).

He wasn't visible to me for one thing, but he mentioned that both I and the driver in front were doing the same speed, but that he could only stop me, and that another driver was also "tanking it a bit" coming the other way at the same time.

The officer had to clock me, get in his car and drive after me to catch me, some 3/4 of a mile up the road. So I wonder what speed he must have had to do to catch me in that time.

What proof do I have that he clocked me doing that speed, and not one of the other two drivers, or even another driver completely?

He gave me a £60 fixed penalty notice, but didn't caution me, just explained where to take my licence to have the police add points to it, and how to pay my fine.

What can I do about it - given that as far as I'm concerned I was NOT doing 53 mph at the time he said I was?

Thanks for any advice - Corb!

For a start, plead not guilty. If you were not speeding, you should not roll over for it.

Others may offer more advice, but meanwhile get over to Pepipoo and start a thread with the above in it, answering all the points in their FAQ.

1) Doesn’t matter I’m afraid. The operators can do anything they want

2) They can exceed the limit in the execution of their duty (even without blues and twos)

3) For a laser speedmeter: they don’t. Thanks to inherent flaws of alignment and ‘slip effect’, the laser beam could have slipped along your car (adding to your recorded speed), slipped across the road (generating a false speed) or picked up another vehicle altogether.

See this link (it'll save me some work):
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6405