Have I had a lucky escape?

[mario64]

So I was driving back to London along the M11 this evening. For the most part I was doing a steady indicated 75, but around the junction with the M25 I got caught behind a car doing 65 in the outside lane. When they pulled over and the road cleared I opened the taps a bit. Not a huge amount, but enough to mean I was doing 90 when the Discovery behind me lit up their blue lights.

I pulled left and started to slow (all three lanes were clear) only for the police car to overtake me and disappear off into the night.

Have I had a lucky escape or should I expect a letter through the post?

[roadsmash]

mario64 said:

So I was driving back to London along the M11 this evening. For the most part I was doing a steady indicated 75, but around the junction with the M25 I got caught behind a car doing 65 in the outside lane. When they pulled over and the road cleared I opened the taps a bit. Not a huge amount, but enough to mean I was doing 90 when the Discovery behind me lit up their blue lights.

I pulled left and started to slow (all three lanes were clear) only for the police car to overtake me and disappear off into the night.

Have I had a lucky escape or should I expect a letter through the post?

You’ll probably be fine.

Just wait and see.

[ruggedscotty]

you will be fine - they saw you saw the situation didnt blame ye for doing what you did but it was still enuf of a speed for them to give ye a wee fright. probably didnt want to expose themselves to any covid risk and checked your car reg and no flags...

just watch yourself and dont get to frustrated behind the slow

[drmike37]

Probably thought they’d just st you up a bit, and couldn’t be bothered with the paperwork?
Sounds like it had the desired effect!!

[ColdoRS]

I've had that before in pretty much the same situation.

I took it as a bit of a warning from a decent, down to earth copper.

[donkmeister]

mario64 said:

I pulled left and started to slow (all three lanes were clear) only for the police car to overtake me and disappear off into the night.

Could have been a friendly reminder to keep left...

(Had my first jaunt round the M25 yesterday for the first time in 5 months... Would have loved a big cow catcher on the front of my car to push the MLMs over!)

[Alucidnation]

Glue your letterbox shut, just in case.

[CoolHands]

How did a Discovery police car catch you up without you noticing?

[ruggedscotty]

CoolHands said:

How did a Discovery police car catch you up without you noticing?

easy that.... at 155 more interested in whats in front than behind....

[Old Merc]

You got away with it, there are Police with hearts out there. It happened to me on the M4 on my way to Castle Combe. I wasn't going mad but definitely over 70 when I saw the police car behind me. That`s it I thought as I slowed to the centre lane, the police car came along side with the co driver waving is hand at me to say "Slow down". Then they shot off.

[QBee]

If he carried on with his lights on, he probably had something more important to do.

[A500leroy]

Was it BIB or traffic wombles, they seem to use Discos more than BIB.

[Trevor555]

A500leroy said:

Was it BIB or traffic wombles, they seem to use Discos more than BIB.

I didn't think they had blues?

[remedy]

Old Merc said:

You got away with it, there are Police with hearts out there. It happened to me on the M4 on my way to Castle Combe. I wasn't going mad but definitely over 70 when I saw the police car behind me. That`s it I thought as I slowed to the centre lane, the police car came along side with the co driver waving is hand at me to say "Slow down". Then they shot off.

I had exactly that situation in the mid 2000s going to a car show in Brum. I was going up the M5 at about 8am on a lovely Saturday morning keeping good lane discipline but also keeping it between 85 and 90.
As I pulled in from the outer lane to the middle I saw a hulking great police merc right up my chuff. Where he came from I have no idea. No lights but he was there. I st my pants but didn't brake. Just let off the throttle and came down to about 80. When it was clear I pulled into the left lane and he came alongside with the passenger indicating I should slow down. I gave him thumbs up, he did the same then it took off like a scalded cat.

Thank you sir, wherever you might be now.

[rxe]

Old Merc said:

You got away with it, there are Police with hearts out there. It happened to me on the M4 on my way to Castle Combe. I wasn't going mad but definitely over 70 when I saw the police car behind me. That`s it I thought as I slowed to the centre lane, the police car came along side with the co driver waving is hand at me to say "Slow down". Then they shot off.

I've had this a couple of times. Most notably when I was running for a Euro tunnel crossing - I was doing about 90 for about 20 miles in convoy with a Range Rover. I should have realised because the Range Rover was driven very well - no tailgating, no silly antics. My driving was meticulous - lane discipline, resisting the temptation to go up the inside of dawdlers. I was also very on the case of the SPECS cameras ..... On one particularly clear section I booted it, and the blue lights came on behind. I slowed, and he came roaring past, 2 coppers in the front, he vanished into the distance.

My working assumption is that you will get away with a bit more if you don't drive like a tt. Seems to work for me.

[WJNB]

ruggedscotty said:

you will be fine - they saw you saw the situation didnt blame ye for doing what you did but it was still enuf of a speed for them to give ye a wee fright. probably didnt want to expose themselves to any covid risk and checked your car reg and no flags...

just watch yourself and dont get to frustrated behind the slow

Can you re-write please as no understand a word.

[roadsmash]

WJNB said:

ruggedscotty said:

you will be fine - they saw you saw the situation didnt blame ye for doing what you did but it was still enuf of a speed for them to give ye a wee fright. probably didnt want to expose themselves to any covid risk and checked your car reg and no flags...

just watch yourself and dont get to frustrated behind the slow

Can you re-write please as no understand a word.

Weird, I understood it perfectly.

[OzzyR1]

mario64 said:

So I was driving back to London along the M11 this evening. For the most part I was doing a steady indicated 75, but around the junction with the M25 I got caught behind a car doing 65 in the outside lane. When they pulled over and the road cleared I opened the taps a bit. Not a huge amount, but enough to mean I was doing 90 when the Discovery behind me lit up their blue lights.

I pulled left and started to slow (all three lanes were clear) only for the police car to overtake me and disappear off into the night.

Have I had a lucky escape or should I expect a letter through the post?

I had almost exactly the same around a year ago, M11 southbound, Sunday evening, heading towards London but ten miles further back near Stansted.

The M11 opens from 2 into 3 lanes there, I had been sitting behind someone in the dual section doing around 60 for around 4 miles, crawling past widely spaced lorries in the inside lane but not pulling in after he had overtaken one, content to approach the next at his 2mph speed differential.

A queue of about 30 cars had built up behind us and when I got advantage of the new lane, I booted it past him, probably just into treble figures, silly in retrospect. Looked in the mirror after about 20-30 secs to move into the middle lane (had been watching the adjoining A120 junction for joining traffic up till then), and realised the 2 cars directly behind had overtaken the same chap then pulled into the middle lane sharpish to make way for the unmarked Discovery that was now bearing down on me at a rate of knots with a blue-lit front grille.

Was in the middle lane and slowed to 75-80mph by then so waited for him to pull in behind me but he just steamed past and disappeared.

[mario64]

Thanks everyone for the replies. If the intention was to scare me stless then it certainly worked!

I had noticed that there was a car behind me, but they were following at a very sensible distance so in the dark I didn't notice it was a police car. Retrospectively, the distance should have been a clue as M11 drivers tend to tailgate.

[Pro Bono]

When I was young drink driving was commonplace, and it shocks me now to recall how little we cared about it. In those days different districts had different licensing laws, so we'd drink 4 or 5 pints at a pub that closed at 10:30 then drive to one in a neighbouring district that closed at 11 and have another few pints there, before driving home. Surprisingly, there were very few mishaps, though clearly due to good luck rather than good management.

But I remember getting a lift home with a friend one night who was well over the limit. About half a mile from home he was pulled over, and we both knew that this was the end of his licence. I was feeling guilty myself, as he'd been doing me a favour.

He stopped the car, and the police stopped behind us. The PC got out and my friend wound down the window to accept his fate.

But as the PC was reading him his rights and getting the breathalyser ready we heard the radio on his car squawking away. He went to answer it, then came back and said to my friend "This is your lucky day, leave the car here and go home." He then shot off with lights and siren.

He'd obviously had some sort of urgent call for assistance, but we couldn't believe our luck. And we did actually park the car up and walk home - though I'm afraid the deterrent effect didn't last long.

That was in the days before mobile phones, but I've often thought since that if someone was in that situation the best thing to do as you were being pulled up would be to phone the police reporting an attempted murder at a nearby house (not really before I'm righteously condemned!)