Caught doing speed

[anonymous-user]

I've been caught by a mobile camera on the A14 near Newmarket doing dead on 80. There's no excuse; I was keeping up with the traffic that morning and my speed when I saw the camera was above 70 so I expected it. They must have caught loads as the lane I was in were all tootling along at a similar speed.

This morning the NIP arrived asking for licence number etc. I'm hoping for a SAC; do I write a covering letter saying I think this would be beneficial or it's it purely up to the discretion of the plod?

In fairness a couple of friends who have attended them did come back saying it was surprisingly useful and did change their view of speeding, so I'm not against it.

[HTP99]

I thought you meant that you were caught doing drugs!

[73mark]

HTP99 said:

I thought you meant that you were caught doing drugs!

+1

[anonymous-user]

I was shooting up some ecstasy crack whizz pills at the time, hence why I took my eye off the speedo.

[Hol]

Phil303 said:

I was shooting up some ecstasy crack whizz pills at the time, hence why I took my eye off the speedo.

You shouldn't be wearing budgie smugglers when you do it. There is nowhere to hide your stash, if you get raided.

[Hol]

Phil303 said:

I've been caught by a mobile camera on the A14 near Newmarket doing dead on 80. There's no excuse; I was keeping up with the traffic that morning and my speed when I saw the camera was above 70 so I expected it. They must have caught loads as the lane I was in were all tootling along at a similar speed.

This morning the NIP arrived asking for licence number etc. I'm hoping for a SAC; do I write a covering letter saying I think this would be beneficial or it's it purely up to the discretion of the plod?

In fairness a couple of friends who have attended them did come back saying it was surprisingly useful and did change their view of speeding, so I'm not against it.

Did those friends do anything different, to get on theirs?

I have never been in your situation, but from what I have read, it is allocated based on speed.

[ookware]

A letter asking for a course won't help and is more likely to have a negative effect than positive.

It is based on speed and previous course attendance. At that speed you should be eligible, just have to sit and hope they offer it.

[anonymous-user]

A quick check of the guidelines would suggest i'm within the speed catchment for possible a SCA. I've never attended one before and don't have any points so fingers crossed.

[andy118run]

Phil303 said:

I've been caught by a mobile camera on the A14 near Newmarket doing dead on 80. There's no excuse; I was keeping up with the traffic that morning and my speed when I saw the camera was above 70 so I expected it. They must have caught loads as the lane I was in were all tootling along at a similar speed.

This morning the NIP arrived asking for licence number etc. I'm hoping for a SAC; do I write a covering letter saying I think this would be beneficial or it's it purely up to the discretion of the plod?

In fairness a couple of friends who have attended them did come back saying it was surprisingly useful and did change their view of speeding, so I'm not against it.

I was on the 3 lane, westbound stretch of the A14 in that area (about a mile before the petrol station) around mid September when I passed one of these cameras in excess of 70. My heart sank and I expected a letter but there was nothing. Luck of the draw I guess.

[anonymous-user]

This was last week. It was a small white VW Caddy-sized van, not one the bright orange Transits that are easier to spot.

If nothing else comes of this I now know my speedo is pretty accurate; it was sat on 80 at the time so I assumed my speed was in the high 70s.

[Nigel Worc's]

Phil303 said:

This was last week. It was a small white VW Caddy-sized van, not one the bright orange Transits that are easier to spot.

If nothing else comes of this I now know my speedo is pretty accurate; it was sat on 80 at the time so I assumed my speed was in the high 70s.

You can look on a sat nav with a GPS speedo to get that info, much easier and cheaper than waiting to be nicked.

At an indicated 80 on a vehicle, I'd expect your real speed to be 73/74 mph.

[Jon1967x]

The last few cars I've had, the speedo has been bang on - maybe 1mph different to a gps reading. I get the feeling modern cars, especially ones with nav are all like this.

[Nigel Worc's]

Jon1967x said:

The last few cars I've had, the speedo has been bang on - maybe 1mph different to a gps reading. I get the feeling modern cars, especially ones with nav are all like this.

Not my experience at all, and I believe, not legal to be like that, I think you'll find they are obliged to over read now.

[anonymous-user]

Nigel Worc's said:

Phil303 said:

This was last week. It was a small white VW Caddy-sized van, not one the bright orange Transits that are easier to spot.

If nothing else comes of this I now know my speedo is pretty accurate; it was sat on 80 at the time so I assumed my speed was in the high 70s.

You can look on a sat nav with a GPS speedo to get that info, much easier and cheaper than waiting to be nicked.

At an indicated 80 on a vehicle, I'd expect your real speed to be 73/74 mph.

No, I'm sure it was sat on 80 give or take a mm as I glanced and thought 'If that's a camera, how much over am I doing?' and was relived to see it was only 80.

The car has built in sat nav which was on at the time but it doesn't give the speed (old car & old tech). I do miss that feature.

[otolith]

Nigel Worc's said:

Not my experience at all, and I believe, not legal to be like that, I think you'll find they are obliged to over read now.

They are obliged not to under-read and often err on the side of caution as a result.

[CallorFold]

I had "the letter" through a couple of weeks ago, although thankfully it wasn't me driving...

Anyway, one of the letters inside asked me for drivers details, and there was a tick box for if I wanted to do the Speed Awareness course.

Basically, it was offered to me outright before sending anything back/giving any details.

[Jon1967x]

Nigel Worc's said:

Jon1967x said:

The last few cars I've had, the speedo has been bang on - maybe 1mph different to a gps reading. I get the feeling modern cars, especially ones with nav are all like this.

Not my experience at all, and I believe, not legal to be like that, I think you'll find they are obliged to over read now.

I had my cruise at 70 on a dual carriage way ended, the short stretch of 60 had a camera and the NIP came saying I was doing 70..

Its the little cheeky one here, a type I'd never seen before
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.2484156,-2.84048...

If you're into BMW cars and coding, you can see some of the setting to enable and disable true speed correction in the depths of the cars - hence my belief.

My Aston has two speed readouts - one on the Garmin OEM Nav and the main instrument panel - both say the same within 1 mph.

They have to be on the safe side, but if you have a GPS signal then there's no excuse for reading 4 mph higher than the true speed like they used to. Not sure why you'd think it was illegal to report the correct speed?

Edited by Jon1967x on Monday 3rd November 17:10