Speed Awareness Course

[yeti]

All,

About to be done for 93mph on the M4 after seeing a photo of my smiling mug on the empty motorway on a Saturday morning. These will be my first points (I'm assuming 3 and £60)

I have just read in another link (to the Times) that for a first 'offence' drivers can/will be offered a Speed Awareness Course instead. Is this true in all cases? As with 4 cars on the road I don't need an insurance premium increase!

Thanks, and sorry if it's repetition.

[Puddenchucker]

It varies from area to area. The area covered by the camrea partnership local to me only offers them for offences in 30mph limits (which makes no sense to me).
However, the ACPO guidelines that I've seen also suggest that speed awareness courses should only be offered for speeds up to 10%+6. So for a 70mph Motorway limit, the cut off would be 83mph.

[vonhosen]

At the moment, Speed awareness courses are at the discretion of the Police. You can't request one, but they 'may' offer one where they deem it appropriate & that is usually for only very small margins over the limit.

The future holds that courts will have such courses as a sentencing option, but not yet.

[Gerry Breen]

vonhosen said:

At the moment, Speed awareness courses are at the discretion of the Police. You can't request one, but they 'may' offer one where they deem it appropriate & that is usually for only very small margins over the limit.

The future holds that courts will have such courses as a sentencing option, but not yet.

Surely it would make more sense to enforce this more for larger margins over the speed limit?

[andmole]

Gerry Breen said:

vonhosen said:

At the moment, Speed awareness courses are at the discretion of the Police. You can't request one, but they 'may' offer one where they deem it appropriate & that is usually for only very small margins over the limit.

The future holds that courts will have such courses as a sentencing option, but not yet.

Surely it would make more sense to enforce this more for larger margins over the speed limit?

You don't expect sense when it comes to speed enforcement do you?

[10 Pence Short]

At 93mph you're only 3mph below the guidelines for hauling you before the magistrates! I wouldn't expect to be offered an alternative to 3 points, but I'm sure it'd be a nice surprise if you were.

[vonhosen]

Gerry Breen said:

vonhosen said:

At the moment, Speed awareness courses are at the discretion of the Police. You can't request one, but they 'may' offer one where they deem it appropriate & that is usually for only very small margins over the limit.

The future holds that courts will have such courses as a sentencing option, but not yet.

Surely it would make more sense to enforce this more for larger margins over the speed limit?

The speed awareness course is instead of points/fine/conviction etc.

If you do higher speeds, you are going to get punished instead.

[BMWBen]

vonhosen said:

Gerry Breen said:

vonhosen said:

At the moment, Speed awareness courses are at the discretion of the Police. You can't request one, but they 'may' offer one where they deem it appropriate & that is usually for only very small margins over the limit.

The future holds that courts will have such courses as a sentencing option, but not yet.

Surely it would make more sense to enforce this more for larger margins over the speed limit?

The speed awareness course is instead of points/fine/conviction etc.

If you do higher speeds, you are going to get punished instead.

But why not ALSO force them to go on a course - they are more dangerous and more in need of training aren't they?

[Hooli]

BMWBen said:

vonhosen said:

Gerry Breen said:

vonhosen said:

At the moment, Speed awareness courses are at the discretion of the Police. You can't request one, but they 'may' offer one where they deem it appropriate & that is usually for only very small margins over the limit.

The future holds that courts will have such courses as a sentencing option, but not yet.

Surely it would make more sense to enforce this more for larger margins over the speed limit?

The speed awareness course is instead of points/fine/conviction etc.

If you do higher speeds, you are going to get punished instead.

But why not ALSO force them to go on a course - they are more dangerous and more in need of training aren't they?

because that would involve admiting setting limits is wrong & that inappropiate speed is the problem?

[yeti]

Thanks all - I guess it's 3 points for me then and lucky I'm not up in front of a magistrate for this ghastly and sadistic crime.

The awareness course might have been a nice way around the points that's all.

[Jasandjules]

yeti said:

Thanks all - I guess it's 3 points for me then and lucky I'm not up in front of a magistrate for this ghastly and sadistic crime.

Stick to minor offences like rape, murder, arson, robbery etc.. in future, if you keep speeding, there'll be trouble ahead for sure.

[FredericRobinson]

I've been on a Humberside one for being caught at 79 on the M180 I don't think there was anyone there who'd been done at more than 81.

[deeps]

FredericRobinson said:

I've been on a Humberside one for being caught at 79 on the M180 I don't think there was anyone there who'd been done at more than 81.

Assuming that's a 70 limit, that's truly sickening. What a complete and utter farce and waste of everyone's time.

All involved in this sort of legalised scam should be judged on their own behaviour, as if they wouldn't do 79-81 on a motorway when conditions dictate! Like hell they wouldn't!

How can anyone with an ounce of common sense believe that that sort of speed justifies a speed awareness course! This is getting plain ridiculous! I have to stop thinking about it, it does me no good.

[deeps]

yeti said:

All,

About to be done for 93mph on the M4 after seeing a photo of my smiling mug on the empty motorway on a Saturday morning. These will be my first points (I'm assuming 3 and £60)

Scamera van on a bridge? If so did you see it? If so did you react to it?

I asked the Wilts Scamera Partnership recently (via a FOI request) how many M4 collisions on their patch were caused by excess speed above the limit. They indirectly replied ZERO.

I drive that stretch most week days, and when the scam vans are spotted all the brake lights come on, sometimes panic braking, and the flow slows for a short period under their bridge, then as if by magic off we all go back up to a normal 75 - 85 when the scam has been passed. I imagine 93 on a quiet Saturday morning was a safe, reasonable, appropriate speed.

Why can't they do something usefull? Go clean a hospital or something?

[yeti]

I daresay they saw me before I saw them - just wasn't looking at bridges and what was on them. The speed was measured at almost 500m away so no time to react - I just eased off, panic braking wouldn't have helped even though the road was pretty empty. I was by no means the fastest car there so I guess a lot of people got caught that morning.

Hard to feel how that contributed to road safety - I had to get a friend to the airport and continued my journey at around or slightly less than the same pace. What was acheived by the safety partnership? My insurance goes up on 4 cars... That's it. Oh, and they made £60 for no effort at all.

Long term forecast - I will get a detector to stop this happening again.

[andy_quantum]

I've now got 6 points courtesy of 2 SP30's, neither were particularly interesting speeds, whilst I'll argue all day long that I never hurt anyone and probably use every cliche thats posted on here, both times I was over the limit and got caught. Cant argue about that.

6 points makes a real difference to how I drive, if I had 9 I wouldnt bother going out.

[Mad Moggie2]

yeti said:

All,

About to be done for 93mph on the M4 after seeing a photo of my smiling mug on the empty motorway on a Saturday morning. These will be my first points (I'm assuming 3 and £60)

I have just read in another link (to the Times) that for a first 'offence' drivers can/will be offered a Speed Awareness Course instead. Is this true in all cases? As with 4 cars on the road I don't need an insurance premium increase!

Thanks, and sorry if it's repetition.

As others have said.. it does vary from prat to prat with some not offering at all.


Even where offereed - it varies with some only offering at 10%+2 in a 30 mph.

Lancs/Staffs offer across the range but cut off at 10%+5 across the spectrum. Theirs is a 6 hour course - COAST focussed. Others simply offer the Hazard Aware DVD game.

But at 93 mph - you are currently looking at 3 points/£60 fine.

There are calls now to scrap the proposed £40/2 points for "margin" and impose 6 points for 30 mph in a 20 mph ... 44 mph in a 30 mph.. 53 mph in a 40 mph.. 74 mph in a 60 mph and 94 mph in a70 mph zone .. per the News yesterday.


Agree it's money making on an empty motorway though. Check the timetables We always know where the submarinated one's lurking

[dcb]

andy_quantum said:

6 points makes a real difference to how I drive, if I had 9 I wouldnt bother going out.

Hear ! Hear !

Let's not forget the economic consequences
of driving points.

Surely UK Gov wants us out and about driving,
buying fuel, getting cars serviced, spending
money when we get there etc etc

This won't be happening if a driver
gets banned or gets close to being banned.

[FredericRobinson]

It was a dry, sunny Sunday morning. Don't get yourself worked up on my behalf, it was better than a morning at work.

[Peter Ward]

dcb said:

andy_quantum said:

6 points makes a real difference to how I drive, if I had 9 I wouldnt bother going out.

Hear ! Hear !

Let's not forget the economic consequences
of driving points.

Surely UK Gov wants us out and about driving,
buying fuel, getting cars serviced, spending
money when we get there etc etc

This won't be happening if a driver
gets banned or gets close to being banned.

Not sure about that. If it were true then:

1. they wouldn't be charging you to park in towns because that will put you off going out
2. they wouldn't be talking about giving you 6 points/prosecution because that will get more people off the road.

OTOH, perhaps the plan is to get more people onto all that cheap, spacious and comfortable public transport? That way they free up the road for those who don't have too many points and make money from the fares. And you probably still have a car so you continue to pay road tax and insurance tax, so not too much lost.