Caught at 101mph
Discussion
Yup, cruising along, roof down, in the good old US of A at around the ton, and of course, I forgot that police cars over there can catch you even when they are travelling in the opposite direction.
Lok in my mirror to see a state trooper sliding across the median in a huge cloud of dust, lights ablaze, and I hope that they are acrually after the car behind me that had been slowly gaining on me.
No such luck. So, I pull over, am politely asked if I knew that I was doing 101 (my GPS had me touching 107 it turned out. Very surprisingly, the speedo was under reading by about 2-3%).
I was very contrite, apologised, and explained that I was leaving the country shortly. The upshot was that they dropped the speed to 99mph (which dropped it out of the "reckless driving" category), and gave me a 200 USD fine.
Overall, this seemed pretty fair, so, no complaints from me.
Lok in my mirror to see a state trooper sliding across the median in a huge cloud of dust, lights ablaze, and I hope that they are acrually after the car behind me that had been slowly gaining on me.
No such luck. So, I pull over, am politely asked if I knew that I was doing 101 (my GPS had me touching 107 it turned out. Very surprisingly, the speedo was under reading by about 2-3%).
I was very contrite, apologised, and explained that I was leaving the country shortly. The upshot was that they dropped the speed to 99mph (which dropped it out of the "reckless driving" category), and gave me a 200 USD fine.
Overall, this seemed pretty fair, so, no complaints from me.
NorthernBoy said:
Yes, no points, no record, no court appearance, just a fine for doing something I shouldn't have.
They had caught me fair and square. £115 is not a negligible sum, but seems about right for the offence.
To be contrasted with the £800 and 6 points I got for 85 on the A414...
that's exactly the point I was making ie no fuss, no bother, ok I did wrong but I was punished in a reasonable manner - enough to make me think about it, and on I go not at all disillusioned with policing but rather with a fair impression of reasonable responsible policing...or at least that's what I would think!
minimax said:
Yes, no points, no record, no court appearance, just a fine for doing something I shouldn't have.
They had caught me fair and square. £115 is not a negligible sum, but seems about right for the offence.
To be contrasted with the £800 and 6 points I got for 85 on the A414...
that's exactly the point I was making ie no fuss, no bother, ok I did wrong but I was punished in a reasonable manner - enough to make me think about it, and on I go not at all disillusioned with policing but rather with a fair impression of reasonable responsible policing...or at least that's what I would think!
And it even had the effect of slowing me down for the rest of the journey. I thought that as I'd been treated fairly, it'd be taking the piss to speed off into the sunset again.
Which, again, is to be contrasted with how I felt after the ridiculous fine for my 85mph in the UK (on the same day that Princess Anne was fined £500 for letting her dogs attack a child). I pretty much walked out of the courtroom that day (that's right, it cost me a day off work too) thinking that, after the magistrates had clearly told me that I was now a bad person, a good fraction of the moral imperative that kept me on the straight and narrow for the previous 30 years had just been removed.
As you can probably tell from other posts, I am now likely to treat our judicial process with suspicion, be unsurprised with the idea that police lie, and, generally feel disinclined to put myself in harms way to help others out.
A great result all round. The net result of the UK prosecution has been to make me more lawless, less helpful, and pretty much determined to ship as many hundreds of thousands of tax offshore a year as I can, instead of shovelling it into the system here.
Whoever thought this was a good idea must have been on crack.
The pirate said:
But if you had said fair cop and paid the first fine, you wouldnt have had to go to court and pay the bigger fine etc.
Never argue with the law, they are always right, no matter how wrong. I learnd it the hard way myself too
I was not offered anything other than a court appearance. No offer of a fixed penalty. I turned up, was contrite, asked if they'd consider sending me on a driver reeducation course instead of whacking me with points, and still got hammered.
I think I might get a US license this year, and drive on that. Never again will I have to slow past schools!
princeperch said:
presume on the a414 it was in the 50 limit?
edited to add, it prob was the 50 limit on the 414 towards harlow, a drivers road if ever there was one?
>> Edited by princeperch on Saturday 9th April 18:08
It was. I was just bringing the wife's Lotus back from Hethel after they'd worked their magic on the engine and chassis. Late on a summer night, no traffic around, dry road, and so on, and so forth. You know the sort of situation, on a great bit of road where you are pressing on. Just the sort of speeding that, obviously, I should be hugely hammered for. After all, some children might have been playing on that deserted stretch of rural dual carriageway.
It is completely fair that someone who let their dogs attack those children is fined hugely less than me..
and me 
the stretch of road you got done on is a good drivers road. The cameras (I guess it must be one of the gatsos you were nicked on if you got a summons) are well marked and obvious on one side, but on t'other the first one especially is a git, and I hazard a further guess this is the one you may have got nabbed on. It used to be partially obscured by foliage and the problem with the first one is you can be tootling along at 80 and all of a sudden round the bend is the 50 - if you dont ease up enough and forget the scam is there itll have you - and 2 of those 4 cameras are ALWAYS working.
Shame their there really, but I guess they have had an impact on the number of shunts and fatals at that junction, so that can only be a good thing. If you want a similar drivers road, try the new a10 bypass and do it at night. Watch out for plod with laser during the day though....
Shame their there really, but I guess they have had an impact on the number of shunts and fatals at that junction, so that can only be a good thing. If you want a similar drivers road, try the new a10 bypass and do it at night. Watch out for plod with laser during the day though....
You are spot on with the locatioon. Limit dropped, gatso behind a tree, did not back off enough (foot off the gas, covering the brake, not applying it).
As I said, I was pressing on. It was late, I wanted to get home, and I was on warm dry roads in one of the best handling cars ever to grace our tarmac. A car that will stop in a fashion tha makes the highway code distances look as out of date as the 70p pint.
No doubt I was speeding, but I still feel all this time later, that 800 pound and six points is just taking the piss.
Next time, I'll probably let my turkish mate 'fess up to having been in the driving seat (obviously only when he was really there), rather than being the good, meek little citizen that the police require.
If he happpens to have moved on before the summons arrives, not much I can do about it.
This being he case, I do not see that he will be inclined to be taxed, insured, or to stop when he rns someone over.
As I said, I was pressing on. It was late, I wanted to get home, and I was on warm dry roads in one of the best handling cars ever to grace our tarmac. A car that will stop in a fashion tha makes the highway code distances look as out of date as the 70p pint.
No doubt I was speeding, but I still feel all this time later, that 800 pound and six points is just taking the piss.
Next time, I'll probably let my turkish mate 'fess up to having been in the driving seat (obviously only when he was really there), rather than being the good, meek little citizen that the police require.
If he happpens to have moved on before the summons arrives, not much I can do about it.
This being he case, I do not see that he will be inclined to be taxed, insured, or to stop when he rns someone over.
juliet447 said:
State troopers are hard as nails, you have to be ex-mil and 9 times out of 10 they are ex-USMC, sounds like you got away with it fairly well - I know someone who was doing 90mph and he got 400USD fine if I recall (florida), about 15 mins after hiring a C5 LOL.
She was actually really cute. If I hadn't had the wife with me, I'd have had to have taken a photograph.
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