£10K motorway speeding fines
You've probably heard the headlines; PH digs deeper to find out what's really going on
You'll be wanting to keep an eye on these
The fines won't be issued at will on the side of the road for those caught driving at 80mph on the motorway. Instead, they're simply an increase in the range of fines currently available to magistrates as part of a punishment for serious offences, often combined with custodial sentences. Already, magistrates look at factors such as the seriousness of the offence and your earnings before deciding the amount you'll be fined. This is not changing - instead, the total amount you could be fined for the most serious offences (especially if you're a high earner) could be increased from £2,500 to £10,000.
Essentially, if you're a footballer caught at 140mph on the M6, you'll be hit a little harder than you would have been previously.
Headline grabbing fines the new maximum
The standard fixed penalty notice for speeding is staying the same at £100 and three points - so if you're snapped by a camera at slightly over the speed limit, the new proposals won't affect you unless you land yourself in court. And, this isn't just the Government continuing its war on motorists. Cyclists could be hit with fines of up to £800 for 'unauthorised cycle racing in a public place', and drunks could be slapped with a £4,000 fine for being drunk and disorderly.
While the Ministry of Justice says fines are not - and will not become - a replacement for time inside, they have admitted that the amount of fines collected hit a record £284m at the end of 2012/13, and the end of this financial year is likely to see even more money raised through such penalties.
BRAKE QUOTE
But James McLoughlin, from road safety charity Brake, backed tougher penalties for speeding drivers.
He said: "Speed is one of the biggest killers on our roads and, through the support we provide for victims of road crashes, we bear witness to the devastating effects of speeding.
Where does he get such complete b
ks from ?http://www.abd.org.uk/pr/813.htm
Good to see the tabloids keeping it real as ever.
This is of course purely about safety and deterring breaking limits
There are 5 bands of fines used by courts for all offence types, which happens to include motoring ones.
The court can fine you up to the maximum within the band to which your offence fits.
All that is proposed is the maximum amounts in each band are to be raised.
This applies to all offences, not specifically motoring ones.
But James McLoughlin, from road safety charity Brake, backed tougher penalties for speeding drivers.
He said: "Stupidity is one of the biggest killers on our roads and, through the support we provide for victims of road crashes, we bear witness to the devastating effects of stupidity.
There are 5 bands of fines used by courts for all offence types, which happens to include motoring ones.
The court can fine you up to the maximum within the band to which your offence fits.
All that is proposed is the maximum amounts in each band are to be raised.
This applies to all offences, not specifically motoring ones.
Yes, I had read the article, just like I listened to it on bbc news this morning, on the radio on the way into work.
My comment steered towards the motoring element because, guess what, we're on a motoring website so I tailored my comment accordingly. Dum dum durrr.
I abhor taking the sarcastic / insulting route on a forum, especially to someone I don't know (or maybe I do, there's plenty of people I'd class as 'zzzzzzzzzzzz'!) but when I get undue criticism of a comment I made which was meant to be in jest then it's only polite to return the favour.
Speed in itself does not kill, what kills is people who do not know how to apply speed properly.
The M40 as an example can be quite safe when everyone is doing the right thing its just when someone does somthing dumb that problems occur.
Observation is one of the biggest problems - looking ahead far enough and behind.
I would rather they enforced regular yearly eye checks with your RFL applaction, if you have a driving licence as I think there are people who really do need glasses.
However, I suspect that would not have got the "Oh my god! Profit, profit, profit, profit, cash cow, motorist" responses from all the hard of thinking.
I've got no problem with them punishing people for driving dangerously, and kicking them hard in the wallet is an effective way of punishing rich assholes that don't think the law applies to them, but "dangerously" is the operative word here. There's nothing dangerous about doing 100 on an empty motorway in a modern car that's in good condition. There's plenty dangerous about doing 50 on a single track country backroad with no sight lines, despite it being nominally a 60 limit since it was never surveyed properly.
As ever, people would respect the speed limits more if they believed they were grounded even slightly in reality as opposed to being made up at random.
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