After 47 years of blame-free motoring :) - I have just got ....my very first speeding ticket

I drove through a (very short) 40 mph speed area at 45 mph :(    and was caught by the speed cameras :(   I know I should have reduced my speed - its just that this particular stretch of dual-carriageway road, the 40mph limit area keeps moving along the carriageway - and I did have someone else right up my backside :(  No excuse, I know - I've just got to sigh and pay the fine ....AND GET THE POINTS :( grrrr

Margot

Oh dear!  At least you're not as bad as my mother - she had so many she would have lost her licence - we've had to buy her a 'road angel' to remind her of the speed limits....

Maxine

I am SHOCKED
I always looked up to you Margot, pillar of the community, Mother figure. Now all my illusions are shattered, you speed freak you
Lea :)
*Lea walks off polising her Halo as no speeding tickets*
(Although more luck than staying under the speed limit at all times!!!)

I can now hold my head up high and inform insurance companies that "no I do not have any speeding fines"!!!! ;) :D  Got caught speeding on the motorway 12 August 2002 and ended up with 3 points and fine but I have had them for 5 years and 4 days so now they no longer exist either on my licence or for insurance purposes! YAH!!!!! :D :D :D

ROFL

We need traffic school here. When you get a ticket in California you're allowed to go to traffic school once to keep the points off your license. Eight hours of listening to lectures about being naughty on the road but some of the CHIP's (see who used to watch 70's TV) used to be quite funny.

Bummer getting points for the one indiscretion.

We do have that here as well. A friend of mine (no it isn't me) got two speeding fines within an hour of each other by the same camera!!! She took the option of the course which kept one lot of points off her licence.

I brought a snooper which was very good apart from when I fitted it into my car and it did not work. Phoned the company and found out that cars with heat reflective screens lower the chance of the signal getting through to the snooper via the satalite so I needed an arial fitted. They said it was french cars that have the problem mostly :(
They are very good for road safety if you follow me wink wink

What's a snooper and how do they improve road safety?

Well they are advertised as road safety devices but really they warn you off speed cameras and danger points. http://www.snooper.co.uk/snooper-s2.htm This is the one I brought, just the basic model and you can update it via your pc.
When you approach a camera a signal is heard and the unit lights up.
Danger points include places where speed traps are held by mobile speed trap units. The police can only hold traps in designated areas which companies like snooper can find out as its public information and then download updates to your device.

I thought they had made these devices illegal in the UK.  Can't see how that can possibly improve road safety. 

No not illegal as they are not the radar devices which I think you are thinking off. Those devices pick up signals and also give of signals too which can be detected.
The snooper is a gps signal and its a clever marketing way round the law. I think tom tom and may other nav sets have this also built into them too.

It may get round the law but it looks very antisocial to me.

why? I see no problem in using one. The better models will also read the speed limit on the road you are on and will also detect the speed you are travelling and warn you to slow down if you are going to fast.

The road angel already mentioned does the same job too.

Well that sounds better :) but personally I don't understand what they mean when they say it helps you concentrate on your driving.  Reading the road signs and conditions is driving and I don't think I would like to get out of the habit of doing that, what if the technology let you down and neither of you was aware of a limit in force? :rolleyes:

Well I don't rely on it fully but it does help to avoid paying out money for just 5 miles per hour over the limit.

You don't need any expensive gadgets to do that :)

Expensive ok what ever . You win

Oh, sorry Margot :( Did you get offered the chance to go on a course instead of getting the points ?? A girl at work went on one last week - she had been caught doing 38mph in a 30 limit. It cost her £60, but no points and in Essex too :)

Daisy

Well I might be offered the course - at the moment all I have is the form telling me that they have photographic evidence that I failed to comply with a speed limit :(

Actually, if I had got a speed trap warning device (and yes, you are right, they are built into the satnav systems that come built into new cars) I would have had the warning that the speed limit was coming up before I was actually upon it and I might have had time to slow down without the guy behind finishing up driving in my boot :(

I know....as a role model for respectable Pillar of the Community ....I've failed  :(   But there again, I'e always said that I don't want to be the Good Example - I prefer to be the Awful Warning :D :D :D

Margot

I shamefully drove through a red light and got caught but as you said I had somebody right up my back end and decided that slamming on my brakes would cause an accident so carried on. I took it on the chin and took the points :rolleyes:

>I am SHOCKED<
>I always looked up to you Margot, pillar of the community, Mother figure. Now all my illusions are shattered, you speed freak you<
>Lea<

:D :D :D
Me too!! ;)

I am SHOCKED
I always looked up to you Margot, pillar of the community, Mother figure. Now all my illusions are shattered, you speed freak you
Lea
*Lea walks off polising her Halo as no speeding tickets*


Tee hee .. Me too :-)

I can't believe it. In my very bad Victor Meldrum voice :-D

Margot.... you should have tried this! :D

Oh Margot what bad luck :(

I had this same thing happen about 3 years ago.  In an area I didn't know, going from 60 to 30 without warning (round a bend ) and someone right in my boot the police van was about 50 yards on :(  My little boy was in the back seat so I couldn't slam on my brakes, but I managed to slow down to just 36mph by the time they got me.  The idiot behind me peeled off into a side turning before passing the van

I was so upset as I always obey the speed limits :( :(  but my family and friends thought it hilarious   as I was the one person they thought would NEVER get a ticket! :rolleyes:

I just paid up as I was so upset I wanted it finished with, but what really upset me was the fact that you have to incriminate yourself on the forms by admitting you were driving the car, if you refuse to do this you will be prosecuted.  If the charge was eg. murder, this wouldn't be allowed to happen

Father-in-law recently got fined/points for his first ever driving offence & he's 82yrs old. He was caught doing 35mph in a 30 zone & he hasn't shut up about it since.

I have three points, got them in Manchester when visiting my family!  Had been a clean licence holder until then!  This was last year, 60 pound fine and three points.  Hopefully never again, I am always so careful but like a lot of us just sometimes we're a couple of miles over the limit and two or twenty over it's over so flash bang wallop we're accumulating points! x