Driver Avoids Ban - Incorrect Sign

Driver Avoids Ban - Incorrect Sign

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bad company

Original Poster:

18,601 posts

266 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
Very lucky imo:-

Driver avoids six-month ban over 'inadequate' sign https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68818...

andburg

7,293 posts

169 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
or a great get out

get caught...go to the area at night and replace a 40mph sign with a 50mph one and appeal.

Not sure i believe somebody actually installed a rogue sign, far more likely one sign got missed when removing them.

agtlaw

6,712 posts

206 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
bad company said:
Very lucky imo:-

Driver avoids six-month ban over 'inadequate' sign https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68818...
I doubt the driver with a 28 day ban considers himself to be 'very lucky.'

Plainly, there's more to this than reported.

peterperkins

3,151 posts

242 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
Bound to be tried by a few now, but when they find the culprit it's nailed/glued/riveted/tiewrapped on perverting the course of justice and jail time.

bad company

Original Poster:

18,601 posts

266 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
agtlaw said:
I doubt the driver with a 28 day ban considers himself to be 'very lucky.'

Plainly, there's more to this than reported.
It could have been much worse for him.

Agree there’s more to this story than meets the eye though.

Sticks.

8,761 posts

251 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
agtlaw said:
I doubt the driver with a 28 day ban considers himself to be 'very lucky.'

Plainly, there's more to this than reported.
Yes. One of the many news articles about this stretch of road's signage. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/a20-sidcup-...

Froomee

1,424 posts

169 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
Sticks. said:
agtlaw said:
I doubt the driver with a 28 day ban considers himself to be 'very lucky.'

Plainly, there's more to this than reported.
Yes. One of the many news articles about this stretch of road's signage. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/a20-sidcup-...
From memory this used to be a national speed limit and there is still very little signage on the slip road leading on to the A20. It’s a very odd place to have a 40mph section of road but it’s most likely due to a number of incidents like this:

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/news/amp/i-h...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-22318...


agtlaw

6,712 posts

206 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
Sticks. said:
Yes. One of the many news articles about this stretch of road's signage. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/a20-sidcup-...
That doesn't explain why he pleaded guilty.

andburg

7,293 posts

169 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
agtlaw said:
Sticks. said:
Yes. One of the many news articles about this stretch of road's signage. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/a20-sidcup-...
That doesn't explain why he pleaded guilty.
The glaring omission from this and the BBC article is the speed at which he was caught...

agtlaw

6,712 posts

206 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
andburg said:
The glaring omission from this and the BBC article is the speed at which he was caught...
My guess is at least 60 mph.

Zeeky

2,795 posts

212 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
It appears drivers may have been playing the 10% game and been pushed over the threshold for prosecution by the rogue sign.

The fact that they wouldn't have been prosecuted but for the rogue sign is mitigation rather than a defence.


The force contends that if a motorist was to have travelled through the section signed as 40mph at the maximum permitted speed of 40mph, then sped up to 50mph after seeing the now-removed 50mph sign, their average speed of the section covered by cameras would not have resulted in them being issued with a speeding ticket.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c84nqxvvq37o

qwerty360

192 posts

45 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
My understanding was the police pointed out that, at least for speed cameras, the single sign falsified the speed limit for ~100ft before a camera.

It works out that because they were average speed cameras, doing 40 in general and 50 through the section with false signage results in an average speed of something like 40.02mph over the measured section... I.e. doing the signed limit would leave all drivers well within the prosecution margin anyway.


And of course allowing fake signs to prevent any enforcement would just mean the same people chopping down infra would start putting fake signs everywhere...

Forester1965

1,482 posts

3 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
agtlaw said:
That doesn't explain why he pleaded guilty.
Just thinking out loud and could be nonsense...

Could he have agreed guilty with prosecution on the basis of 1 charge against the 40mph limit (fast enough to 'qualify' for short term disqual), rather than risk NG to all on basis of defective signage?

Dave Finney

404 posts

146 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
There appear to be 3 parts:

1) TfLs new 40mph limit is temporary
2) The 40mph is alleged to be "poorly signposted"
3) there was a rogue 50mph sign

The rogue 50mph sign does appear to be irrelevant in this story.

Surely we need to know,
Are TfL sticking to their claim that "...the 40mph signs are compliant...", or will they admit error and improve their signage?

Maybe the fact that the new limit is temporary meant that less care was taken installing it (as they knew they would be removing it later anyway)?

Also, when will the limit be changed back?

easyhome

180 posts

123 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
TfL have said the limit has been reduced as the road is liable to flooding, I’d imagine temporary is going to be quite some time.

I must admit, I use this section of road a couple of times a month when working in London. First time I came through after the limit changed, was on the way home after a night shift. Muscle memory kicked in and I accelerated up to 70 where it use to change from 50 to 70 then noticed the next sign was 40 and it was average speed cameras.

Sat there at 20 until the NSL sign!

kestral

1,736 posts

207 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
bad company said:
Very lucky imo:-

Driver avoids six-month ban over 'inadequate' sign https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68818...
The article is complete crap.

Terminator X

15,090 posts

204 months

Tuesday 16th April
quotequote all
Good on them, the law should apply to everyone equally.

TX.

siremoon

194 posts

99 months

Wednesday 17th April
quotequote all
TfL have got form for reducing speed limits and then signing the change in a minimalist way. They did it on a stretch of the A217 when the limit was changed from 40 to 30. The 40 limit had been in place for 50 years. They put up a single 30 sign each way and removed the 40 repeaters. There was no publicity about the change aside from a notice in the Gazette (which obviously most people don't read), one day it was 40, the next it was 30.

Clearly there must have been a lot of complaints because subsequently more signs were erected and 30 markings painted on the road.

Southerner

1,411 posts

52 months

Wednesday 17th April
quotequote all
siremoon said:
TfL have got form for reducing speed limits and then signing the change in a minimalist way. They did it on a stretch of the A217 when the limit was changed from 40 to 30. The 40 limit had been in place for 50 years. They put up a single 30 sign each way and removed the 40 repeaters. There was no publicity about the change aside from a notice in the Gazette (which obviously most people don't read), one day it was 40, the next it was 30.

Clearly there must have been a lot of complaints because subsequently more signs were erected and 30 markings painted on the road.
Are there not clear, existing legal guidelines on what constitutes ‘valid’ signage for things like speed limits? Or is that just wishful thinking?

andburg

7,293 posts

169 months

Wednesday 17th April
quotequote all
Southerner said:
siremoon said:
TfL have got form for reducing speed limits and then signing the change in a minimalist way. They did it on a stretch of the A217 when the limit was changed from 40 to 30. The 40 limit had been in place for 50 years. They put up a single 30 sign each way and removed the 40 repeaters. There was no publicity about the change aside from a notice in the Gazette (which obviously most people don't read), one day it was 40, the next it was 30.

Clearly there must have been a lot of complaints because subsequently more signs were erected and 30 markings painted on the road.
Are there not clear, existing legal guidelines on what constitutes ‘valid’ signage for things like speed limits? Or is that just wishful thinking?
That's the key part, the signage that went up will likely have been legally compliant not some over the top affair to make sure the drivers on autopilot notice. In the instance above that actually means less signage as 30mph doesn't have repeaters. Everbody locally already "knows" its 40 so they don't actually look at the sign any more to see its reduced.