97mph to avoid being tailgated ends in court

[flow99]

Has anyone had experience of pleading mitigating circumstances in relation to avoid tailgating?

Driving on A303 dual carraigeway, and whilst overtaking an erratic Rover driver, I gently accelerated (4 adults in 320 diesel bmw) to 97mph to complete the maneouvre quickly and get away from the follwoing car which was sat tight to my rear. Then I get caught by a bl**dy safety camera in a lay-by with a registered 97mph. Sufficent for a Court Summons.

Whilst I accept speeding, the excesssive speed was underaken to get away from the tailgater, which is clearly apparent in the three photographs forwarded in evidence. The car / driver is not too obvious as so close to back of my vehicle.

Is there any scope in obtaining reduced sentance due to mitigating circumstances?

Also, is there a time limit on issuing the summons? Offence was 10 February, received the NIPS in March, but only received the Court Summons on Saturday.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[cptsideways]

Interesting one worth a try especially if the evidence is there, though not a technical get out unfortunately. Ask if the "safety cameras my ass" team are pursuing the dangerous driver - get the papers involved too & get them interviewing Wiltshires CC.

[esselte]

flow99 said:

Also, is there a time limit on issuing the summons? Offence was 10 February, received the NIPS in March, but only received the Court Summons on Saturday.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

If you are the RK and didn't recieve the NIP until March then that's 18/19 days after the event.What was the post mark on the envelope?Did they post it within the 14 day period?

[flow99]

esselte said:

flow99 said:

Also, is there a time limit on issuing the summons? Offence was 10 February, received the NIPS in March, but only received the Court Summons on Saturday.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

If you are the RK and didn't recieve the NIP until March then that's 18/19 days after the event.What was the post mark on the envelope?Did they post it within the 14 day period?

Not the RK, so NIP was through third party responses, so probably do not have any complant there, but was also questioning time from offence to notification of summons at over 6 months.

[SplatSpeed]

your screwed

they will state correct response is slow down and let tham pass

sorry

[Bing o]

Ring the Court and ask when the information was laid (lay'ed?) - they have 6 months from teh date of the offence to lay the information.

In your case you'll find that it was laid a few days befor your six months was up...

Re the tailgating, is it possible that your path to the inside lane was blocked by MLM's? No idea if that will help though, it is an absolute offence.

[TheCarpetCleaner]

It does appear that only speeding drivers get caught but almost all other road offenses go unpunished.

The amount of times per week I have to slam my brakes on to avoid someone pulling out in front of me on roundabouts / sideroads in dry clear conditions where I am doing the speed limit or below where the person has NOT EVEN LOOKED before going is phenomenal just to name one thing, and I am not even going to get started on roundabout discipline and outside lane hoggers

Hey ho, maybe I will start to drive like them as "thats what I have insurance for init"

[Bing o]

Having been to Mag court once (for the evil crime of 76 in a 50) I'd be tempted to go all Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman on them, and condemn the Court and the Scameras for fining you for speeding, whilst ignoring the dangerous muppet behind you, in a shouty, irrespectful, fist thumping manner.


You'll probablky end up with a ban, but you'll feel better than I did when I walked out after being Mr Meek...

[flow99]

Bing o said:

Having been to Mag court once (for the evil crime of 76 in a 50) I'd be tempted to go all Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman on them, and condemn the Court and the Scameras for fining you for speeding, whilst ignoring the dangerous muppet behind you, in a shouty, irrespectful, fist thumping manner.


You'll probablky end up with a ban, but you'll feel better than I did when I walked out after being Mr Meek...

Very tempting, but I'll think on that one, as was trying to avoid the ban!!

[tamore]

i'm about to go a bit off topic, but for the record i think the OP is stuffed on this one.

surely the technology is available to tell if a car is tailgating over a certain distance. say 1/4 mile? if distance to car infront is less than x with speed of above y (to stop fines being dished out to crawling traffic), and that distance is decreased or stays the same at the end of the 1/4 mile, then details taken and punishment dished out.

then scrap the speed cameras. i'm sure the result would be much safer roads. sure, the roads won't be accident free, but they never will be.

[Cooperman]

TheCarpetCleaner said:

It does appear that only speeding drivers get caught but almost all other road offenses go unpunished.

The amount of times per week I have to slam my brakes on to avoid someone pulling out in front of me on roundabouts / sideroads in dry clear conditions where I am doing the speed limit or below where the person has NOT EVEN LOOKED before going is phenomenal just to name one thing, and I am not even going to get started on roundabout discipline and outside lane hoggers

Hey ho, maybe I will start to drive like them as "thats what I have insurance for init"

Sorry to sound awkward, but if you have to 'slam your brakes on' several times a week due to other drivers, could it be that you are not paying sufficient attention to what is going on around you? If you drive with concentration and observation, then it should be very rare to have to 'SLAM' your brakes on, as opposed to braking firmly but progressively, in the advent of someone else's driving errors. An advanced driving course could help you with this.

[vonhosen]

tamore said:

i'm about to go a bit off topic, but for the record i think the OP is stuffed on this one.

surely the technology is available to tell if a car is tailgating over a certain distance. say 1/4 mile? if distance to car infront is less than x with speed of above y (to stop fines being dished out to crawling traffic), and that distance is decreased or stays the same at the end of the 1/4 mile, then details taken and punishment dished out.

then scrap the speed cameras. i'm sure the result would be much safer roads. sure, the roads won't be accident free, but they never will be.

So you want tailgating cameras as well ?

[tamore]

vonhosen said:

tamore said:

i'm about to go a bit off topic, but for the record i think the OP is stuffed on this one.

surely the technology is available to tell if a car is tailgating over a certain distance. say 1/4 mile? if distance to car infront is less than x with speed of above y (to stop fines being dished out to crawling traffic), and that distance is decreased or stays the same at the end of the 1/4 mile, then details taken and punishment dished out.

then scrap the speed cameras. i'm sure the result would be much safer roads. sure, the roads won't be accident free, but they never will be.

So you want tailgating cameras as well ?

you want to read the last line of my post as well?

scrap = get rid of.

[BertBert]

vonhosen said:

tamore said:

i'm about to go a bit off topic, but for the record i think the OP is stuffed on this one.

surely the technology is available to tell if a car is tailgating over a certain distance. say 1/4 mile? if distance to car infront is less than x with speed of above y (to stop fines being dished out to crawling traffic), and that distance is decreased or stays the same at the end of the 1/4 mile, then details taken and punishment dished out.

then scrap the speed cameras. i'm sure the result would be much safer roads. sure, the roads won't be accident free, but they never will be.

So you want tailgating cameras as well ?

They have them in Germany don't they? It's interesting, my gut response was "yes". That's because other people tailgating me p me off and make me brake test them. Other people's speed rarely p's me off!

Bert
PS I was only joking about the brake test, I usually try to get them in front of me so I can do it to them.
PPS only joking on the do it to them bit!

[vonhosen]

tamore said:

vonhosen said:

tamore said:

i'm about to go a bit off topic, but for the record i think the OP is stuffed on this one.

surely the technology is available to tell if a car is tailgating over a certain distance. say 1/4 mile? if distance to car infront is less than x with speed of above y (to stop fines being dished out to crawling traffic), and that distance is decreased or stays the same at the end of the 1/4 mile, then details taken and punishment dished out.

then scrap the speed cameras. i'm sure the result would be much safer roads. sure, the roads won't be accident free, but they never will be.

So you want tailgating cameras as well ?

you want to read the last line of my post as well?

scrap = get rid of.

But that isn't going to happen until we have ISA.
We might well get tailgating cameras in addition though. I'm just surprised that you are so against automated enforcement of one, but in favour for the other.

[vonhosen]

BertBert said:

vonhosen said:

tamore said:

i'm about to go a bit off topic, but for the record i think the OP is stuffed on this one.

surely the technology is available to tell if a car is tailgating over a certain distance. say 1/4 mile? if distance to car infront is less than x with speed of above y (to stop fines being dished out to crawling traffic), and that distance is decreased or stays the same at the end of the 1/4 mile, then details taken and punishment dished out.

then scrap the speed cameras. i'm sure the result would be much safer roads. sure, the roads won't be accident free, but they never will be.

So you want tailgating cameras as well ?

They have them in Germany don't they? It's interesting, my gut response was "yes". That's because other people tailgating me p me off and make me brake test them. Other people's speed rarely p's me off!

Bert
PS I was only joking about the brake test, I usually try to get them in front of me so I can do it to them.
PPS only joking on the do it to them bit!

They're on trial here.

[BertBert]

back to the OP's question. It's pretty rare that speeding up is the right response to a tailgater (or any other risk situation on the road). It could be however that if you were committed to the overtake on the DC, then the tailgater comes up quick behind, that slowing down would be more dangerous than speeding up or keeping to the speed limit. It would be a stronger argument if what you did afterwards was to return to L1 and slow down to get the tailgater past.

Is that likely to get the Mag's sympathy in mitigation? Doubt it, but properly put, it might not have a negative effect, so maybe worth a punt?

Bert

[Bing o]

vonhosen said:

I'm just surprised that you are so against automated enforcement of one, but in favour for the other.

Why? One activity is dangerous and intimidating, and the other isn't...

[soprano]

Doesnt the highway code recommend slowing rather than speeding up in such a situation? You will essentially be telling them you have done the exact opposite to what you should have

For that reason i'm not sure that it is going to mitigate anything....

[flow99]

The other really annoying element of the incident was that the road had been very empty; at the time of the incident, only 3 cars on the road, the Rover being overtaken, me and the tailgater.

Also not near any junctions, so hardly a blackspot to justify the camera, other than getting convictions.