Would You Take Driving Points For Someone Else?

[Professor Yaffle]

Hmm, I seem to recall something else about her but I don't recall it now and the internet is proving resistant to enquiry.

She was also in the papers when she was dumped for a younger model by her 76 year old partner.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/se...Briscoe-urged-QC-partner-to-divorce-wife.html

 

[anglolawyer]

She was also in the papers when she was dumped for a younger model by her 76 year old partner.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/se...Briscoe-urged-QC-partner-to-divorce-wife.html

Geez! The tangled love lives of dysfunctional barristers are sometimes a wonder to behold. I know someone who was having an affair with a barrister and when she broke it off he offered to pay her to keep it going . When she demurred he asked her to find a replacement . True!

I thought she (Constance) had form with the Bar Standards Board but maybe I have it wrong. I am probably liable to her for a million quid in damages for libel now.

 

[Rolfe]

It depends on which police authority you come under. Not all have the same policy re: drivers' awareness and I think some don't do it at all. But that had nothing to do with the court. It's a discretion the police have to offer the course as an alternative to prosecution which is never compulsory for any offence. If he has already done a course within three years he is not eligible for another one. I know this because I had done a course three years and two months before I was offered the second one, a fact I am ashamed to admit.

Ah, I see. Well, we'll see how this one plays out in due course.

Your story is even worse than mine about having carried 11 points for 2 years 9 months.

Rolfe.

 

[anglolawyer]

Ah, I see. Well, we'll see how this one plays out in due course.

Your story is even worse than mine about having carried 11 points for 2 years 9 months.

Rolfe.

It still feels like a miracle, that I kept my licence, 6 months later. I have about 15 months before my tally drops to 3 and then I can breath freely again. I shall be a reformed character. Ask any criminal lawyer and they will tell you their clients fear disqualification more than just about anything else. Now I know why. I bet you were traumatised by teetering on the brink for so long. LOL

 

[nathan]

good grief. It seems more tangled than I understand Jersey shore is.

 

[The Don]

It still feels like a miracle, that I kept my licence, 6 months later. I have about 15 months before my tally drops to 3 and then I can breath freely again. I shall be a reformed character. Ask any criminal lawyer and they will tell you their clients fear disqualification more than just about anything else. Now I know why. I bet you were traumatised by teetering on the brink for so long. LOL

Where there's pain there's a claim

Maybe you could sue for emotional pain and distress

 

[Rolfe]

I bet you were traumatised by teetering on the brink for so long. LOL

I spent another two years with 9 points some time later. But I knew I'd already done it once. I just developed eyes in the back of my head, and attention that should have been on road conditions and other motorists was concentrated on looking out for speed cameras and police patrol cars.

Oh yes and I bought a Road Angel.

Haven't got any points now, haven't had any for quite a few years.

Rolfe.

 

[Andy_Ross]

'Special Reasons' is different to ''Extreme Hardship'
If you can convince the court that you were acting as an Ambulance rushing someone to hospital then that would be a 'special reason' not to award the points.
If you are convicted and get the points you can argue 'Extreme Hardship'. If you can get a letter frrom your boss saying that your losing your license on a 12 point 'totter' would lose people their jobs or that your old mum relies on you to get to dialasis or somesuch then they can allow you to keep driving even though you are on 12.

 

[anglolawyer]

I spent another two years with 9 points some time later. But I knew I'd already done it once. I just developed eyes in the back of my head, and attention that should have been on road conditions and other motorists was concentrated on looking out for speed cameras and police patrol cars.

Oh yes and I bought a Road Angel.

Haven't got any points now, haven't had any for quite a few years.

Rolfe.

I have my sat nav on all the time, set to warn me if I go over the limit.

 

[geni]

It's ages since I looked at the law but I think the defence has to show 'special reasons' not to disqualify and these are pretty restricted (rushing the heavily pregnant wife to hospital is an example). 'I am a fat slob former chairman of the CPA' is definitely not one of them. And I think there is, in practise, a 10% margin of error on the speed, so if you're doing 33 in a 30 zone you're OK. 36 is too much. Both of mine were 30 something in a 30 zone.

Usualy 10% +2 mph however if its say near a school it tends to be zero.

 

[Andy_Ross]

It is never zero, thre is always an allowance of a couple of MPH.

I was at school with Mcluckie. This doesn't surprise me. Him being the Chairman in the first place was the surprise.

 

[Rat]

I spent another two years with 9 points some time later. But I knew I'd already done it once. I just developed eyes in the back of my head, and attention that should have been on road conditions and other motorists was concentrated on looking out for speed cameras and police patrol cars.

I'm mystified as to why your attention was on looking out for cameras and police, rather than either glancing down at the speedometer every now and then, or learning to judge speed reasonably accurately. It seems slightly weird to implicitly blame others for having to enforce your driving within the speed limit, and I'm not sure what special powers I have that enable me to drive within the speed limit while also keeping my attention on road conditions and other motorists.

 

[geni]

I'm mystified as to why your attention was on looking out for cameras and police, rather than either glancing down at the speedometer every now and then, or learning to judge speed reasonably accurately. It seems slightly weird to implicitly blame others for having to enforce your driving within the speed limit, and I'm not sure what special powers I have that enable me to drive within the speed limit while also keeping my attention on road conditions and other motorists.

You live in a pretty urban area don't you? Tends to be a greater relationship between road design and speed limit. You don't hit the issues that one of my local roads has (feels like national is, actualy a 40, mostly driven along at 50 and safe speed is probably closer to 30).

 

[The Don]

I'm mystified as to why your attention was on looking out for cameras and police, rather than either glancing down at the speedometer every now and then, or learning to judge speed reasonably accurately. It seems slightly weird to implicitly blame others for having to enforce your driving within the speed limit, and I'm not sure what special powers I have that enable me to drive within the speed limit while also keeping my attention on road conditions and other motorists.

You live in a pretty urban area don't you? Tends to be a greater relationship between road design and speed limit. You don't hit the issues that one of my local roads has (feels like national is, actualy a 40, mostly driven along at 50 and safe speed is probably closer to 30).

I agree with both of you (even though your views are somewhat conflicting).

There are a number of elements that have an impact on how easy it is to adhere to the speed limit. As geni mentions, road design is a major factor. It's easy to adhere to a 30mph limit on a flat, narrow road with no rad markings which is littered with various so-called traffic calming measures. Keeping to the same limit on an urban dual carriageway or on a nice wide road with little traffic down quite a steep hill (Falcondale Road in Bristol springs to mind) is much more difficult.

Car design also comes into it. Mrs. Don's little Skoda quite happily pootles along at 30mph in 4th, my SAAB is much happier in 2nd or third at that speed and the Jaguar is so highly geared that it'll do 35-40 at idle unless you apply the brakes (it's an auto). When Mrs. Don took her driver re-education course (34mph in a 30 zone on an urban dual-carriageway caught by an unmarked camera van) they were taught to use a lower gear so as to more effectively manage their speed. While this is worse for fuel economy (poor, poor polar bears), it is much easier to manage your speed if you're in the right gear.

Making it easy to keep to the speed limit and being able to do so is probably a combination of road design, car design and driving technique.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm mystified as to why your attention was on looking out for cameras and police, rather than either glancing down at the speedometer every now and then, or learning to judge speed reasonably accurately. It seems slightly weird to implicitly blame others for having to enforce your driving within the speed limit, and I'm not sure what special powers I have that enable me to drive within the speed limit while also keeping my attention on road conditions and other motorists.

Not regularly driving the entire length of the M6/M74 late in the evening when it's quite quiet and everyone else is doing 85-90?

Rolfe.

 

[anglolawyer]

I must say since I started driving strictly within the speed limit - no 10% + 2 margin for me - I have found it very relaxing. Having told myself the speed limit is the decisive factor in how fast I go anywhere I have stopped worrying about how long it takes to get there. I recommend it.

 

[Andy_Ross]

I am a field engineer for a dental electronics firm.
I spend hours and hours driving all over the North of England and Scotland. I sometimes do a thousand miles a week.
I have never had a speeding ticket.
I use common sense. I don't go over 79 on a motorway, even if there aren't any vans or cameras you can't tell where an unmarked car will be or where the marked Traffic Plod might be waving the laser frrom a bridge or slip road. I stick to 30 around town.
A Roads are the place you will usualy get nammed, they have lots of places for a traffic Car to sit with a laser out of the window and the camera vans usualy hunt on them as well.
If I am going to an area I am not familiar with I have a look on the local police website to find their mobile enforcement sites, most of them tell you where the vans are enforcing on a given day. I know where the fixed cameras are.
It's not difficult.

 

[anglolawyer]

I am a field engineer for a dental electronics firm.
I spend hours and hours driving all over the North of England and Scotland. I sometimes do a thousand miles a week.
I have never had a speeding ticket.
I use common sense. I don't go over 79 on a motorway, even if there aren't any vans or cameras you can't tell where an unmarked car will be or where the marked Traffic Plod might be waving the laser frrom a bridge or slip road. I stick to 30 around town.
A Roads are the place you will usualy get nammed, they have lots of places for a traffic Car to sit with a laser out of the window and the camera vans usualy hunt on them as well.
If I am going to an area I am not familiar with I have a look on the local police website to find their mobile enforcement sites, most of them tell you where the vans are enforcing on a given day. I know where the fixed cameras are.
It's not difficult.

Not if you're obsessed. Why not just stick to the limit? It's splatted all over the place. You can't miss it.

 

[nathan]

I'm mystified as to why your attention was on looking out for cameras and police, rather than either glancing down at the speedometer every now and then, or learning to judge speed reasonably accurately. It seems slightly weird to implicitly blame others for having to enforce your driving within the speed limit, and I'm not sure what special powers I have that enable me to drive within the speed limit while also keeping my attention on road conditions and other motorists.

Rolfe is naturally trying to get to some veterinary emergency and has foremost in her mind the suffering of the helpless animals.

 

[Rat]

Not regularly driving the entire length of the M6/M74 late in the evening when it's quite quiet and everyone else is doing 85-90?

Rolfe.

Fair enough, I suppose. I do a lot of travel on A roads around the country, but I tend to avoid motorways a lot of the time. The only regular exceptions are the M42, where there are cameras every few hundred metres so you really can't speed, and the M69, where I do indeed sometimes somewhat exceed 70 because everyone does and I'm usually only on it at night. Indeed if I stick to 70 on the M69, my ETA on my satnav actually goes back, meaning the satnav is expecting me to speed.