why did you "literally fall out of the cab "? you must have looked like you were sh/ttin urself .seems you already knew you were in the wrong bigtime. otherwise you should have been calm ,the im squeaky clean look.
one good thing to come of it, you wont be doing it again and likely will be more alert sign wise
Tonyshortstraw:
Thank you all for your input. I will appeal but Im not holding my breath. The truth is I was thinking very deeply at that moment about something that was troubling me, and that’s why I missed the signs.Finally, come to think of it, I should have said my favourite 10 words to this cowboy vosa [zb]. “I will bring you a glass of water… when I visit you in Hell.”
If you’ve already been given a Fixed Penalty Notice, you have two options - accept the fixed penalty or go to court. If you reject the fixed penalty, that offer never returns - your guilt and any penalty is a matter for the court.
Your explanation is very human and something we all do sometimes, but it could be seen as an admission of driving without due care and attention. Arguing for leniency in relation to one offence by admitting another offence that usually attracts a higher penalty doesn’t seem very sensible.
I haven’t got any reference material in front of me to be certain about it, but I’m fairly certain the offence you are accused of is “strict liability” (it doesn’t matter why you did the act in question, just that you did it) and believe it attracts mandatory penalty points.
If my memory serves me correctly on those points, it only seems worth going to court if you believe you have a valid defence, which may well be technical in nature. At the moment I’m struggling to think of a defence that might apply, though it’s possible there is something wrong with the signs, the legal arrangements imposing the new mandatory limit or the Fixed Penalty Notice. You’ll probably have to engage a solicitor (at your expense unless you have done sort of legal representation arrangements, such as through a union) if you want to hunt for a defence. If you have a choice, I’d engage a solicitor specialising in road traffic law.
If you would have no alternative to pleading guilty in court, or you intend to plead not guilty but don’t rate your chances of being found not guilty, going to court rather than taking the fixed penalty seems pointless.
If the offence involves mandatory points and you are found guilty, the court has to give you the mandatory minimum points and might have the discretion to give you more points than are part of the fixed penalty currently on offer. The total financial outlay for the fine, victim surcharge and court costs after a guilty verdict is likely to be several times greater than the fixed penalty - and your loss of earnings whilst attending court is on top.
Annoying as it is, your best option might well be to accept the fixed penalty. However, nobody else can tell you what to do.
corij:
why did you "literally fall out of the cab "? you must have looked like you were sh/ttin urself
I hope you didn’t haemorrhage anything? That’s quite a way to fall… 
Tonyshortstraw:
Thank you all for your input. I will appeal but Im not holding my breath. The truth is I was thinking very deeply at that moment about something that was troubling me, and that’s why I missed the signs.
Tony, I feel sorry for you because everyone has missed things when driving along on autopilot, and in the vast majority of cases nothing comes of it. But FFS don’t use that excuse in any appeal you might be tempted to make.
If there is no sign HERE in this pic that warns drivers of a 15’9" height restriction
In my mind, the sign on the left could have a flashing sign warning of the 15’9" headroom - when appropriate…
Winseer:
If there is no sign HERE in this pic that warns drivers of a 15’9" height restriction0
- which sign was it that you did not see that they are attempting to bust you for “missing”?
In my mind, the sign on the left could have a flashing sign warning of the 15’9" headroom - when appropriate…
That street-level Google image may well be several years out of date.
Roymondo:
That street-level Google image may well be several years out of date.
As I said earlier in the thread, the Google Street View imagery dates back to the days of the toll booths, so is useless for checking the current restrictions and signs.
Sometimes having your day in court makes the cost of lost wages etc irrelevant, on the 2nd June I went to the local sheriff court to me over an allegation by dvla that one of my cars was parked on a public highway at my address without a valid certificate of insurance but there was and the car is actually 560 mile away and has been for the past 17 months on private land where the public have no legal right of access, when the three on the bench came back and said the words ‘The court finds you not guilty you may go’ I never cared less about the actual financial cost which worked out at over £1000. I was offered a £50 penalty reduced from £100 if I paid within a certain time of receiving the original letter, stuff that! it’s the principle of the matter, and the fact that no crime whatsoever had been committed.
I aren’t an expert in these parts, but even I know you can’t take a decker through the left hand bore.
You can’t join the right hand bore from that junction, so the only plain thing to do is go and spin it around. There are shed loads of signs, so the only thing you could have done responsibly was bail out voluntarily either go into the ADR bay thing, or abandon in on the hard shoulder.
Pray tell, what were you actually intending to do?
Chance the left hand bore?
Sent using smoke and mirrors.
And as an aside, I got stuck on Bob Dunn way a few weeks back, due to tunnel delays, engine went off and I ended up having my dinner and getting a full 45 in, during which time a couple of my mates rang me, and one thing we wanted to know was, “who the chuff is Bob Chuffing Dunn?”
Sent using smoke and mirrors.
He was MP for Dartford:
Bob Dunn, the former MP for Dartford who has died aged 56, was a radical Schools’ Minister under Margaret Thatcher and her Education Secretary Sir Keith Joseph.
A Thatcher loyalist of robust Right-wing views, Dunn was a Tory in the mould of his fellow Lancastrian Dr Rhodes Boyson, whose PPS he had been in the early 1980s and whom he succeeded as undersecretary for education in 1983. He shared Boyson’s talent for trenchant populism - he described New Age travellers as “no more than a bunch of unwashed, benefit-grabbing, socialist anarchists who deserve a good slap and a wash”.
My kind of guy 
Conor:
Been millions of miles since my last points and those were gained entirely voluntary as nobody else was in control of my car.
I put this into google translate and this came out…
Been millions of miles since I last was awarded penalty points. I them gained through my own Conor actions. And what do you know, despite being chuck Norris in a lorry, I’m human on a Monday and dropped a ball. I looked around on the Internet, realised I couldn’t say it was my next door neighbours’s Jack Russell terrier driving as he wears bifocals and I don’t, so I had to admit it was me. What a duff one in the conkers, I’ll dress it up somehow and recycle it for further use as a hero story…
James the cat:
Conor:
Been millions of miles since my last points and those were gained entirely voluntary as nobody else was in control of my car.
I got this from google i have done millions of miles but was watching you tube.Waiting for the phone to ring to i could go back out to be a night trunk hero.I then come on trucknet i say im the best driver ever and earn the best wage in the uk because im an agency night trunker.
speedyguy:
Win-Stone:
Highways Ageny scum-bags can do neither.
According to the legislation: “HA traffic officers do not have any powers of detention; to search, issue fixed penalties or report for summons for any motoring offence” so, if the VOSA person wasn’t in the HA car, then they couldn’t have seen the offence … in which case I would have them into court so fast it would make their little eyes water!Sorry can’t help the OP out.
Nice the HA now HE scum-bags as you call them are the ones that sort out your daily [zb] ups to try and keep you moving.
With an angry attitude like that maybe you need to reasses if your fit to hold a licence to drive a truck which can do serious damage?
Ahem…so… you sort out ‘our daily ■■■■ ups’, who sorts out your lots? Oh, hang on… 
Sounds like a crap situation where the officer could have used discretion and just given a verbal warning!
The problem is you’d have to prove the sign wasn’t there or obscure like has already been mentioned.
It’s clutching at straws but you could take it to court and ask them to prove it was there. I guess it should be documented somewhere with whoever put it up and who put it up and what time etc. If there’s no record of it being put there then that might be a small chance of getting off with it. But other than that you might just have to take the fine and points.
Holy thread resurrection Batman!
el_presidente:
Holy thread resurrection Batman!
I read the whole thread from scratch last night, and I didn’t even cotton on!
Although you were in the wrong at the end of the day I do think a good stern talking to would be the way do go with this one.
as I have allways thought to myself VOSA are rubbish nobodies,we take our lorries to a bus wash,the bus company share the site with VOSA,my first time there so I walked up to a guy in a Hi viz jacket and asked politely which wash I use as I had a D/D trailer,he arrogantly replied that the badge on his jacket shows he does not work for the bus company[small vosa badge] I didn’t argue as he would have used it as an excuse to check my vehicle over,these wxxxxxs have far too much power.
Colin_scottish:
James the cat:
Conor:
Been millions of miles since my last points and those were gained entirely voluntary as nobody else was in control of my car.I got this from google i have done millions of miles but was watching you tube.Waiting for the phone to ring to i could go back out to be a night trunk hero.I then come on trucknet i say im the best driver ever and earn the best wage in the uk because im an agency night trunker.
£10 yeah right lol nights
