Likelihood of pleading mitigation?
Likelihood of pleading mitigation?
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CAPP0

Original Poster:

20,881 posts

233 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
quotequote all
Scenario:

You're riding a motorbike on a DC with a 40mph limit. You're in the inside lane, sat at approximately the speed limit, give or take. There is a side road turning onto the DC, and there is a Speedcurb camera mounted just a few yards past the junction.

As you approach the junction, a car pulls up, looks, ignores you on the bike, and pulls straight out in front of you. You are already aware that there is a car in L2 sat behind your shoulder and you have around 0.1s to react. You can either brake very hard and hope you can stop, or you accelerate to clear the car behind you and go around the car which has pulled out. Instinct kicks in and you take the latter option.

You may or may not have triggered the Speedcurb, because of the short burst of acceleration which you put in to avoid both cars. If this should be the case, would you have a case for mitigating circumstances? And would the resultant photographs be adequate to support your plea?


tapereel

1,860 posts

146 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
quotequote all
CAPP0 said:
Scenario:

You're riding a motorbike on a DC with a 40mph limit. You're in the inside lane, sat at approximately the speed limit, give or take. There is a side road turning onto the DC, and there is a Speedcurb camera mounted just a few yards past the junction.

As you approach the junction, a car pulls up, looks, ignores you on the bike, and pulls straight out in front of you. You are already aware that there is a car in L2 sat behind your shoulder and you have around 0.1s to react. You can either brake very hard and hope you can stop, or you accelerate to clear the car behind you and go around the car which has pulled out. Instinct kicks in and you take the latter option.

You may or may not have triggered the Speedcurb, because of the short burst of acceleration which you put in to avoid both cars. If this should be the case, would you have a case for mitigating circumstances? And would the resultant photographs be adequate to support your plea?

no

Monty Python

4,813 posts

227 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
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Very unlikely, as the argument will be that you should have slowed down. Proving what the consequences of this might have been will be virtually impossible to prove.

Durzel

12,999 posts

198 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
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The argument would be that you could've slowed down, or even taken steps before such an event occurred to ensure you wouldn't be put into that position (ie. dealing with the person sat behind you beforehand)

Pete317

1,430 posts

252 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
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Durzel said:
The argument would be that you could've slowed down, or even taken steps before such an event occurred to ensure you wouldn't be put into that position (ie. dealing with the person sat behind you beforehand)
When beforehand?
Given that the only way of 'dealing' with the person, without exceeding the limit, is to slow down until they've passed you.

a) When approaching a still-empty junction, on the off-chance that a car might suddenly appear and pull out in front of you?
Bearing in mind that, 1) it might then already be too late for such action, and 2) hindsight is always 20:20.

b) Or by being over-cautious and slowing down whenever someone else gets close to you along the entire length of the dual carriageway, just in case?


Edited by Pete317 on Tuesday 27th October 12:51

Defconluke

320 posts

184 months

Wednesday 28th October 2015
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You choose to speed up, you accept the consequences of getting caught going too fast.
You choose to brake, you hope the other person is insured and you don't get too hurt (assuming you can't stop in time).

I'd choose my health every time but your circumstances could easily be different to mine.