Hi all, before anyone says I know I shouldn’t have been speeding, but its easy to get a little carried away! Anyway I was stopped on a B road (in Scotland) in a 12ton truck by officers that had been following me (two cars behind). When stopped he said that when going down hill I was doing almost 60mph but he was going to deal with the matter with a fixed penalty notice & he’d do Me a favour by only putting 50mph on it. He never showed me a speed gun or any other evidence.
Does anyone know what the penalty would be if it had been 60mph rather than 50mph?
Also when he handed Me the notice he said that if I didn’t pay & it went to court he’d say that I was going 60mph rather than the 50mph he’s put on the notice. Is this possible?
Something else I’m questioning is this officer (PC on the fixed penalty) normally does the checks with the DVSA when here (I live in a small offshore island community) & when stopped he started doing checks on the truck I was driving like tapping the wheel nuts with a little hammer & laying under the truck & getting me to rock the steering back & forth. Can a normal PC do these checks or are they meant to be a traffic officer?
I hope you have the good sense not to try challenging this in court. It will be your word against his and his oppo so the court will automatically believe his. Regardless of whether the Police car was equipped with any recording device the offence will be presented as excess speed which will be blatantly obvious since you were nearly 20 mph over the limit. Some Police are trained to do more than just check for lights, tyres and dangerous condition, whether this officer was you don’t know, but one who habitually accompanies the DVSA at vehicle checks would find magistrates likely disinclined to ignore his evidence, if presented with a clearly dangerous defect rather than a boderline issue.
As for nearly 60 on a Scottish B road, unless this particular stretch is of exceptional width, straightness and visibility I thnk you can probably think yourself lucky that your admission on here to driving without due care and attention - " Got carried away"- isn’t an issue for any court to decide upon.
To quote an ex Police acquaintance of mine: " The vehicle has got a middle pedal *** use it!"
Only advice here is if you are stopped by a policeman in Scotland before getting out of the lorry set your phone to record and put it in your pocket, several areas of Scottish policing make the Met look like a bunch of saints.
If you were doing 50 he would probably have just let you carry on. If you’re going to speed then you need to ■■■■ it up when you get caught, pay the fine and move on you’ve won a watch.
At @ 10mph over the limit then you got the ticket - keeps things nice and simple. At 20mph over the limit then more likely to be summonsed to court with much higher penalty and, if they follow the English system, the fine is increased and becomes related to your income.
They did a ‘follow’ speed check, so its just a matter of looking at their speedo and thinking 'Strange thing going on here. Lorries are limited to 40mph here. We’re doing 60 and it the same speed as the lorry ahead… Mmmmmm… I reckon the lorry isn’t doing 40, must be doing 60 as well."
As others say, 60 in a 40 is not a minor bit of overrun or missed glance at the speedo, pay up and keep quiet and see what happens when the Co has to report it to the TC.
Just a couple of points. People need to be aware that Scotland still has the ‘old’ speed limits in force, i.e. 40 on a single, 50 on dual unless a lower limit is posted. A few of our guys have fallen foul of this.
As regards the ‘nut tapping’ etc, I think police officers need to be ‘Authorised vehicle examiners’ before they can legitimately try that on. If they do, say nothing at the side of the road as if they aren’t they will soon call for one and if you have a defect thats passed you by you will be properly stuffed. Should it go to court it’s one of the questions you can ask of them then. If they aren’t then their evidence isnt allowed. (I know this from personal experience in a magistrates court). But I should qualify this by saying I don’t know if the same applies in Scotchland!
Take it on the chin and be grateful he didn’t breath test you and give you a gloved internal examination. Plead not guilty and you will be bent over in front of the Procurator Fiscal [emoji13]
its a nothing offence .
pay the fine and then despite the boffin scaremongers just forget about it. its a minor offence.
if its a small island then do you know the plod anyway?
Company’s ghat font notify may well (will) be called to explain why.
It’s also how / why drivers can be called to explain to the TC things like using mobile phone… which can affect the vocational licence.
Going a bit OT, something else I thought I’d throw out is on the odd occasions that I get a tug from a couple of cops, usually one ‘deals with me’ in the back of their car while the other casually announces that he’s ‘just going to check out me vehicle’. I make sure I ask him if that means he’s going to search my cab. Because if he is I tell him to his face that I definitely do NOT give him permission to do so, but if he does I won’t obstruct him in any way, shape or form’. I’ve never, ever been searched after I say that.
I’ve absolutely nothing to hide, but these guys just view them as trucks. To me, 5 days a week it’s my home and I take a dim view of strangers pawing through my things on a fishing expedition. In the past I’ve had all my straps pulled out and dumped on the ground, bedding tossed into a pile and foodstuffs emptied out of my overheads and piled on my bunk, only to be told all ok, be on your way driver then they bugger off.
Personally I’d just accept it, pay up and move on. If you’re going to allow yourself to get “carried away” then you need to be prepared for being caught.
Company’s ghat font notify may well (will) be called to explain why.
It’s also how / why drivers can be called to explain to the TC things like using mobile phone… which can affect the vocational licence.
OK fair enough you are right. I did not read the op properly to be honest. I think I am right that this only applies to offences when driving a truck on an operators licence and the operator should receive that notification letter ?
So if when doing a routine drivers licence check you see that since your last check a driver has collected 3 points on his licence for speeding in his car then there is no requirement to inform the TC ?
He probably doesn’t want you to fight it in court because he knows he can’t actually prove it. But still probably best just accepting and walking away because if it’s just your word against his it will probably go in his favour, and even at 50 your still speeding.
Why would you pay the fine? I would take it to court a police officers word is not evidence is it? He was not directly behind you was he? So in other words what the officer is saying here, I think you where speeding, its simple produce your evidence, As far as you should be concerned you where doing 40 end off.
TheYoungTrucker:
Why would you pay the fine? I would take it to court a police officers word is not evidence is it? He was not directly behind you was he? So in other words what the officer is saying here, I think you where speeding, its simple produce your evidence, As far as you should be concerned you where doing 40 end off.
True. Innocent til proven guilty and at court the officer would already have shown himself to be dishonest and unreliable as he’s saying 60 in court, on the official document he’s written 50, and he was 2 cars back so he’s actually guessing your exact speed. On the other hand unless your going to lose your licence over it due to other points already there if the court did go in his favour you’d lose out more as you’d maybe hit with some legal and court costs rather than just taking it on the chin and pay it and be done with it.
In the opening post “officers” was mentioned, if there was more than one in the car I’d say you’ve got absolutely no chance in court so might as well take the fixed penalty.
