Speeding incident.
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Discussion

turbomachine

Original Poster:

189 posts

233 months

Wednesday 27th June 2007
quotequote all
Hi there,
Iam new to pistonheads,
I thought i would tell you off an incident conercing the police that happedned to me before going away to uni last september.

Myself and my brother were in my old escort , my mate( call him X) in his focus and my other mate in his wee fiesta(Y). We were all drving out one evening at about 10.15-10.20pm to go out and play some pool at a country hotel. The cars were in order X, Y, them me. We were traveling on the A83 just outside campbeltown, X was sitting at sensible speed and we proceeded in our convoy. Then X started to speed up only a wee bit. Y didn't and neither did I, with my older brother nagging to keep to the limit- i had only passed my test some 6months.

Then i saw X's brakelights come on, we started to brake accordingly to keep safe distances away from each other, at first i could only see a faint visibility vest i thought there had been an accident on the road or something. But it was the local speed cops out at night with radar gun using and unmarked grey bmw 530d(i looked up the reg on the internetbiggrin) that was hidden up a farm track. The road was straight then rose to a small blind summit and the police were at the top.

The police waved X down and we all had to pull up, they said that they had caught X doing 70mph ( at night using a radar unmarked grey bmwrage) They asked Y what speed was he doing and he said 60 . They then came to me and asked me what speed i was doing and i said bang on 60mph on my speedo. The police were having none off it, the officer walked back to X and as he did he muttered ' aye right' (seems like guilty until proven innocent) with regard to my answer. Mean while the other officer was examing all our cars with a maglite tyres etc. (iam a bit of a bufty) And my car was spotless biggrin. (I had just washed it, de tarred it, blackend the bumpers, waxed it then put tyre slick on my tyres that day)

They didn't believe that Y and myself hadn't been speeding as they mentioned something about equal distances between all 3 cars. So after checking all our cars over the police officer came back to me and asked i was going out to play pool aswell and i said yes. I asked him 'If he had any evidence, and was the speed still on the rader gun (that was in his hand.) He dismissed that, Then my brother asked him when he had last caibrated the radar gun (next question was if i could see the calibration equpiment)

I have never seen a cop react in such a way, he started to shout and at our faces saying ' don't talk to me about calibration'. The cop went mental saying that because my brother had asked him a question whilst speaking to me, he said he could arrest my brother for breach of something and all the rest. His attitude was disgusting. He came over to my passenger door opened it and started to question him name address etc. After he cooled down a bit he gave us a talk baout the dangers of speeding and accidents that had happedned recently. He said thatb they were not going to prosecute ( radar gun at night 3 cars and three sets off headlights for the radar to bounce off)
He then slammed shut my door and that was it!!!

When we finally got to the hotel, we got one game of pool and a pint of draught pepsi then they said we would have to go as it was a week day and they were closing for the night. So we drove back in and the cops were still there- they must have thought we were right idiots, thinking aye right some game of pool


streaky

19,311 posts

280 months

Wednesday 27th June 2007
quotequote all
turbomachine said:
... radar gun at night 3 cars and three sets off headlights for the radar to bounce off ...
I think you need to read up on how radar works (assuming it was radar) - Streaky

turbomachine

Original Poster:

189 posts

233 months

Wednesday 27th June 2007
quotequote all
I thought for radar to be effective, the car that is being measured should be the only moving object in the beam of the radar?

turbomachine

Original Poster:

189 posts

233 months

Wednesday 27th June 2007
quotequote all
I do realise that radar is not effected by headlights, but what about the copper and his sight with 1 set of full beam 2 sets od dipped beam coming at him- will he have moved that gun?

aw51 121565

4,773 posts

264 months

Wednesday 27th June 2007
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10.20pm in September? I'd assume it wasn't bright daylight then.

And this copper made a judgement, in twilight at best, that the first car was speeding then checked with his radar gun to corroborate his opinion? I would suggest not...

It's this kind of behaviour that makes Section 59 (look towards the bottom of Page 2 of that thread onwards for an idea of what I, and others, am getting at) a very bad idea wink . Hmm, 3 smallish Fords in convoy at high speeds, driven by young people? That's one warning issued - get caught again and the cars are confiscated. This thread puts together a better scenario than I could think of (and I tried redface )



Welcome to the forum btw smile .

KB_S1

5,967 posts

260 months

Wednesday 27th June 2007
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Be glad they had Hi-Vis on at all.

I have passed them on that road and the A82 in the pitch black whilst they crouch behind fencing at the edge of parking laybys with their black uniforms on and no Hi-Vis.
Got to say though that the 2 officers who stopped me on the A82 were very pleasant and straight up. Still annoyed they had hidden the car behind trees and shrubs though.

turbomachine

Original Poster:

189 posts

233 months

Wednesday 27th June 2007
quotequote all
This section 59 is a pig, (just looked at the thread)

The thing is I would admit to a police officer if i had been speeding. It was his atitude that i didn't like, and there was no need for it. You may think 3 young boys driving 3 fords at night in convoy = hallmarks of boyracers.

But it wasn't like that at all, and the officers tone and adtitude and the fact he thought i was quilty of speeding was so irritating, generally the police down here are very good and they do a really good job but not that night. I was well cheesed off.

smeggy

3,241 posts

270 months

Thursday 28th June 2007
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If the officer had to use a speedmeter to corroborate his opinion for the first car then he has to do it for all three. An officer cannot rely solely on his opinion, it won’t up hold in court (be warned: two officers can). It seems to me he was trying it on.