Speed Awareness Course

[philbes]

What Police Area of England or Wales were you in that you were threatened with Prosecution for a 42 in a 40 Speed Limit, 

and which Organisation Provides the Speed Awareness Course in that Police Area?

No area prosecutes for 42 in a 40 limit - usual threshold is 46 (10% + 2). Some counties are 47, 48 or even 49. I was caught at 48 - if I had been in the next county I would not even have been contacted.

Edited 2 February, 2016 by philbes

[Michaelski]

Well, with all due respect to roaddetective, & I don’t doubt your sincerity for a moment, but your statement of “You only loose credibility if you get caught out with fairy stories” doesn’t necessarly wash.

You CAN’T get caught out if you initially advise everyone that if they “don’t have the correct attitude” (aka as disputing/challenging or questioning any of their lofty statements) it means that you will be removed from the Course: that you will then receive the statutory fine & the 3 Points, and that your hefty fee for accepting the SAC WILL NOT be refunded. In those circumstances, no-one IS likely to openly challenge or question any statement – irrespective of how obviously stupid they are.

Eg. the stopping distance for cars, as quoted by the Highway Code (as issued in 1940) STILL holds good. Is that a fact? When the HC of 1940 was published:-

virtually every car was fitted with Cross-Ply tyres - so inefficient & ineffective that, you now can’t even buy Cross-Ply tyres, the tyre manufacturers have spent Millions on new technology, and produce much better tyres:

Servo-assisted brakes were practically unheard of – you slammed your boot on the brakes, and hoped that you actually would stop in the same road as when you braked:

ABS was just a series of letters in the alphabet – & when you booted the brakes, you simply hoped that they wouldn’t lock, and that you’d dry-skid for a couple of hundred yards: Etc, etc, etc. But try asking these guys to justify that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And in passing, the No. 2 “Tutor” (the junior jobsworth edition) was totally unable to refrain himself from continually butting in/speaking over the senior & No.1 Tutor, to try to impress his superior knowledge & credentials on the poor, oppressed, steaming masses of captive-audience peasants who were assembled in front of him.

Does anyone who still questions these SAC's still be regarded as cynical?

Edited 2 February, 2016 by Michaelski

[Michaelski]

And to "Philbes".

As our tutors pointed out, even if one is snapped at 31 in a 30 limit, they are STILL breaking the law (albeit by 1 mph), and would be offered a SAC.

There's money (lots & lots of it)to be gained here, & in these circumstances, common sense & prudence goes to the wall.

[Ootohere]

But he was talking Sharn was he not, because you do not get offered a Speed Awareness Course if you were 'snapped' at 31 in a 30 limit,

because would any police force being giving you a Fixed Penalty Offer of 3 Points & £100 at 31 in a 30, or going to court if you challenged it.

 

So what he gave was a spiel was it not.

It is Big Business and possibly some of the Directors & Shareholders in the Businesses are to close to having an interest in the Police offering Speed Awareness Courses.

 

http://ndors.org.uk/faqs

Edited 2 February, 2016 by GoneOffskiroottoot

[RainbowFire]

Some reading....

 

http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/roadsafety/docs/201305-uoba-joining-forces-safer-roads.pdf

[Ootohere]

Can you post Strategy 2016 on please?

[RainbowFire]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+do+i+do+an+internet+search

 

 

This one has pictures....

http://www.wikihow.com/Search-the-Internet

Edited 3 February, 2016 by RainbowFire

[FlyingGecko]

What Police Area of England or Wales were you in that you were threatened with Prosecution for a 42 in a 40 Speed Limit, 

and which Organisation Provides the Speed Awareness Course in that Police Area?

 Correction - apologies, just checked my files, it was 48. But IMHO I was doing 44, I looked at the speedo just as the flash blinded me. I was labouring under the false assumption that they don't get you from the front.

Merseyside police area camera. Course offered and run through Manchester police. The Mancs charge their own customers £79.50. This becomes £88 when Merseyside catch you.

[FlyingGecko]

Nice one, RainbowFire.

[nickgpfc]

Nice one, RainbowFire.

Yes, very good. :clap:

[Ootohere]

Good RainbowFire i will google later,

but since you posted the 2011-2015 Strategy i wondered how the 2016-2020 Strategy was doing.

[Michaelski]

you do not get offered a Speed Awareness Course if you were 'snapped' at 31 in a 30 limit, because would any police force being giving you a Fixed Penalty Offer of 3 Points & £100 at 31 in a 30, or going to court if you challenged it (GoneOffskirroottoot.

You're still in breach of the law, even doing 31 mph in a 30 limit, & (which is what they rely on) JUST WHO is going to risk the wrath of the "Gods" in demanding a copy of the photo: proof of when the camera was last calibrated (if you can actually obtain them), & then taking the chance that by going to Court (especially with Court fees) one is standing a fair chance of the case being dismissed? The Court is there to "rule" on breaches of the law, NOT the rightness of them.

And in support of the "Policy":

One of the very very few Latin phrases that was flogged (literally flogged) into me at school, and which even now I can recall with little difficulty, is “Quis custodiet ipsos custodies” – generally translated as “who will guard the guards”? The words were penned by a Roman poet, some 1900 years ago, but they’re probably even more true now, as when Juvenal first posed the question.

An acquaintance of mine advised me to check out Online, “National Road Safety Support Ltd” – a speed camera partnership which has amassed a surplus in excess of £1.9 Million): where their employees, for their own purposes, quoted the registered address of the Essex Police Camera Enforcement Office, as their own address: where the registered Company address, appears to be the same as the address of Basildon District Council Housing Services – perhaps the Council lend these people their broom cupboard for the convenience of having an address to quote?? & where their Chairman is an ex Chief Constable by the name of Meredydd Hughes.

Try entering either NRSS (or indeed, Meredydd Hughes) into Google & reading all of the various comments, to get even more distasteful, and presumably very well-informed background to this totally unsavoury little “money earner”. They make totally absorbing reading, and to me, it simply underwrites just why an ever-increasing number of drivers don’t trust these “partnerships” one iota.

I do know that in one particular area, the “Speed Partnership” was initially floated to an angelic fanfare of trumpets (at least by the recipients of the lucrative income) & consisted of a number of (highly?) paid Management (their details & salaries unavailable) & 3 Local Authorities who, in addition to facilitating these ”Partnerships” with the means to prosper, also made Grants (from their ratepayers??) to the Company. One of the L/A’s has now (much to the public disgust of the Partnership) pulled out from their contributions – one is left with the possibly inescapable conclusion that with their reduced income from Central Government vis a vis their share of the Course fees that they received, it simply didn’t “pay them” to continue – moral or humanitarian grounds for disassociating themselves can be dismissed?

STILL a cynical attitude?

[SuperbTWM]

"...wearing, no road , no ..." - How and where?

Anybody not wearing a seat belt, tailgating or driving without tax or insurance should be shot at sundown.

 

I do share the OP's frustrations regarding speed limit signs though, specially when driving on unfamiliar roads with idiots up your arse wanting to get by 

[Ootohere]

Michaelski,

Looking forward to someone coming forward that was notified of having been caught breaching the law and having been caught on camera or radar gun doing 31 in a 30 mph limit and given the opportunity to do a Speed Awareness Coarse.

Was it you that was doing it?

Edited 3 February, 2016 by GoneOffskiroottoot

[RainbowFire]

Anybody not wearing a seat belt, ........

 

Darwin should take care of that

[@Lee]

Correction - apologies, just checked my files, it was 48. But IMHO I was doing 44,

Interlude

 

 

My (Speed) Camera Never Lies

 

[Michaelski]

Nope, I can’t hold my hand up to that one, GoneOffskiroottoot – I was zapped at a claimed 35 in a 30, I possibly (just “possibly”) was doing 35: I was already braking on entering a (very rural) 30 area, from a long, straight 60 stretch. I did indeed see the camera van (tucked away amongst other cars in a congested layby) & I did immediately brake (I couldn’t stand the car on its’ nose, as I was the lead car in a number of cars, & one of these was tail-gating me) so I could have been doing 35 – equally, I could have been doing 32,33 or even 31. I only know that I was doing around 28 when I approached the van, but if I indeed was doing 35, then I’d obviously been zapped when I entered the “kill zone” – presumably immediately where the 30 sign was?

But one of the other “foul criminals” claimed that they were there for having been snapped at 32 in a 30, but the tutor told us all, that even 32 was breaking the law, and if we “were caught breaking the law, then we would be punished”.

The Acpo may recommend no action being taken against someone who only exceeds the limit by 10% + 2mph, but that’s ALL it is – a recommendation. A traffic cop in a jam sandwich may (possibly “may”) be influenced by this recommendation, but it’s totally ignored by speed partnerships: as one may imagine, instead of raking in some £1600 for that afternoon from criminals, they’d have been copping for zippo, as every single person attending, freely admitted being in excess of the limit, albeit wholly within the Acpo guidelines – but for speed partnerships, their business is simply to rake in money.

And the bottom line, is 30 is 30 – not 35, or even 32.

[FlyingGecko]

I'm not complaining about being snapped. I was over the limit. As I said, I've got away with far worse.

 

As an aside (cough) it's amazing the amount of concentration needed when travelling at 135.

[Michaelski]

To Flying Gecko.

Yeah, I've also done 135 (& quite considerably more) when driving through Germany, and due to the amount of concentration required, it is much more relaxing to drop down to the mid-125's (certainly quietened SWMBO down several decibels as well) so life was easier in all ways.

But Germany is Germany, & they're a different breed of fish. Having been "flashed" to move out of the way when driving at 115 (by a big new Ford Transit of all things), it does tend to put everything into a different perspective. I was also once doing a safe(ish) 145 (in the fast lane) thinking that I was fine & dandy, but even then, there was a big Merc trying to get me to shift out of their way, so that they could toddle along at 150+.

SO different from UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RainbowFire]

SO different from UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, they have roads, we just have tarmac joining the pot-holes up.