Author Topic: The Day Of Reckoning  (Read 10789 times)

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Offline TomL

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The Day Of Reckoning
« on: February 24, 2015, 10:17:48 pm »
Some useful tips. Let's hope that you don't need them.

http://www.influx.co.uk/features/the-day-of-reckoning/
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Offline Phmode

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2015, 11:47:27 pm »
Hmm! I have 'some' experience in this matter, although thankfully none of it is recent.

I was doing 69.9 as I transitioned from an empty, unrestricted dual-carriageway into the run-in to the A34/M3 interchange, with my eyes glued on my rear views where an officer of Her Majesty's constabulary was making his point.

His point was that my Honda was doing well over 130 when he saw me and I saw him parked up off the road. By the time he was with me I was, obviously, doing the statuary 69.9 and my eyes were boring holes in my mirrors. After turning onto the M3 the bumptious pig felt my collar with the question all drivers fear; 'Do you know what the speed limit is on the Krugbeurberu Link?' Having established that this was the last bit of the dual-carriageway and not the Katmandu ring-road, I assured him that I did. When he questioned me further, I revealed that it was, in fact an un-restricted dual-carriageway with the national speed limit of 70 of Her Maj's miles per hour.

His little piggy face looked like he had just won the lottery (which hadn't begun back then) as he gleefully went on to point out that the last one mile stretch had a 60 mph limit. 'Since when?' 'Since midnight last night!' he nastily retorted as though it had been like that since the Romans left.

As one of those drivers who actually stick to most 'posted' speed limits and ALL new ones I was happy to take my rap over the knuckles but no, Occifer Porcine not only wanted to stick the knife in, he wanted to jump up and down on it too. 'I'll see you in court' were his departing words.

I didn't prepare in any way for the following court appearance which was my first as a criminal but I was happy that the bench would see the genuine mistake I made in nervously watching the Police bike in my mirrors and missing the big, bright and very shiny new 60 signs. How was I to know that the copper's mother, father, sister and wife were all on the bench, at least that is what it seemed like to me.

Throwing a hissy fit at the pre-determined verdict and telling the beaks just what sort of toss-pots I thought they were before storming out in a huff was perhaps not my finest moment, but every time I remember the looks on their arrogant, self-satisfied faces, it brings a really warm glow to my innards.

Brian (Who does realise that he was really nicked for the unproveable 130 in a 70 rather than the 70 in a 60!)

PS Whilst I cannot recommend any of the above, my next appearance was a totally different experience  ::)

Offline Timbox

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2015, 02:46:31 am »
Ive just been done for 36 in a 30, in the car, a bit odd as Im normally really careful about 30's, but I think I can remember the day and I put me foot down as the lights changed rather than brake, didnt realise the camera wasnt just a red light camera, BUGGER.
 Theyve offered me the Naughty Boys/Girls Speed Training Course thingy which Ive decided to take, oh and if you get one of these things shop around. My local Speed awareness Course for Gwent was £90 but just over the Border in Coleford Gloucester its £72 which is nice as I can go up there on the bike and take the piss on the way home through the Forest and get nicked again, hopefully not ;D
Isnt it Ironic, no its a BMW what dya expect.

Offline raesewell

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2015, 07:22:29 am »
Take your medicine Tom, I've done 3 speed awareness courses, so they obviously work.

Offline Timbox

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2015, 07:47:09 am »
Take your medicine Tom, I've done 3 speed awareness courses, so they obviously work.

Im Tim, hes Tom ;), but yes, I shall doff me hat and say "Yes sir no sir", speed cameras are obviously a major contribution to job creation, sorry, I mean Road Safety
« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 07:52:31 am by Timbox »
Isnt it Ironic, no its a BMW what dya expect.

Offline chriscanning

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2015, 08:42:19 am »
I'd be typing for an hour to list all my driving convictions and even in 74 had a solicitors bill for £650 and learned then that this country is just like any other banana republic you can buy as much justice as you can afford resulting in how I ride a bike now Monday/Friday rarely a weekend and most mileage I do in the UK is to catch the ferry Cross Gates café excepted.

But believe me there's far more pain than speeding!!! my last conviction? sat in 3 lanes of solid traffic on the M6 and was witnessed to of handled a plastic bag  :o :o :o and I got 60 quid and an MS60 and that gave more hassle than all the rest over the previous 40 years because when you tell the insurance they don't like it.

If anyone wants to start a speeding in Europe oh Lordy Lordy  ;) the European law really do have some party tricks up their sleeves now days. ::)

Offline bobtail

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2015, 09:12:22 am »
If anyone wants to start a speeding in Europe oh Lordy Lordy  ;) the European law really do have some party tricks up their sleeves now days. ::)

....oh that's very true and they chase you all the way back to blighty as well to get their pound of euros from you. And don't get us started on the arcane laws that the French politicians have started to bandy about, ggrrrrrrrr.

Bob
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Offline chriscanning

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2015, 09:38:40 am »
Well my experience is only the Swiss do that but I'd be interested to hear of other experiences.

Offline TomL

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2015, 10:01:45 am »
The Australians try to chase up fines and issued all sorts of threats about removing our property. I wonder if it will get flagged up at passport control if I ever try to enter Oz?
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Offline Phmode

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2015, 10:16:26 am »
Tim, you are a very naughty boy and deserve the gallows.

Chris. I did say this was only one of my misdemeanors and from way back. The second time I ended up in court was much more civilised.

Brian (who doesn't think he could keep a straight face or a quiet tongue in a speed awareness course and anyway, he has a fully functioning speed awareness ometer in all his vehicles so would be forced to take the points)

Offline raesewell

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2015, 10:33:04 am »
Take your medicine Tom, I've done 3 speed awareness courses, so they obviously work.

Im Tim, hes Tom ;), but yes, I shall doff me hat and say "Yes sir no sir", speed cameras are obviously a major contribution to job creation, sorry, I mean Road Safety
I  must have been having a senior moment

Offline bobtail

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2015, 10:48:24 am »
Tim, you are a very naughty boy and deserve the gallows.

Chris. I did say this was only one of my misdemeanors and from way back. The second time I ended up in court was much more civilised.

Brian (who doesn't think he could keep a straight face or a quiet tongue in a speed awareness course and anyway, he has a fully functioning speed awareness ometer in all his vehicles so would be forced to take the points)

Now come on Brian you are teasing us, divulge please.
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Offline chriscanning

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2015, 12:48:06 pm »
The Australians will chase you of sorts you do get the bill if you don't pay straight away it goes up but the only chance they have of making you pay is when you go back I have a very good friend who goes to all the GP's and he got a bill in the post at the end of 2013 fot £1750 and he paid it because of having to go back.

What you have to vey carefull of is the relatively new tactic that the French have confiscating you driving license which means you can't ride the bike,but they will bring a lorry in a 1000 euro to take you back to port of your ticket plus a 500euro fine for good luck!!!

There's a lot more I could go into but it's not for the net it makes this world a very small place.

Offline Phmode

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2015, 02:02:34 pm »
Oh, go on then Bob!

Same killer Honda on the way back south from a flying visit oop north to take dear mater out for Mother's Day. The M6 had been a car park all the way from J21 (this was 1987 remember) and although I could filter easily it was hard work. Past B'ham and heading for the M5 the traffic eased slightly and then, just before the junction with the M42, the traffic magically cleared out of lane 3.

Opening the taps, I gave a nonchalant shrug over my left shoulder to check for fast-joining traffic and there, parked up on the hard shoulder of the M42 was a dark-coloured estate. I rolled off the throttle and came down from ooops'ish mph to a more reasonable 90 and then, as I watched a dark-coloured estate join rapidly, I came down to 80 and eased into the thin traffic in lane 2. By this time he was out in lane 3 going like a bat out of hell when he suddenly realised where I was hiding.

He sat out in lane 3 for about a mile before pulling alongside and inviting me to pull over.

When I joined them in the back of the car, the driver asked if I knew why they stopped me. 'Routine document check?' 'Not having the courage of your convictions!'

When I intimated that I didn't understand, the observer observed that they saw me flash past the junction and they also saw me spot them lurking on the hard shoulder.

They congratulated me on my observational skills but said that I should have shown more restraint and slowed to 70 after I saw them.  'If I had slowed to 70, I would have been run over by the rest of the traffic that was all doing 80!' 'But we wouldn't have pulled you'. So, dead but not pulled? It sounded like the old witch-finder ducking-stool theory; if you die you must be innocent but if you live you are guilty!

Anyway, up before the beak in Warwickshire a few weeks later and this time I had done my homework. Annual mileage, servicing records, record of having attended a Met Police fore-runner of Bike Safe, trainer with a local bike school, relatively clean licence, best bib and tucker and a very contrite approach rehearsed over many hours.

A long line of speeding miscreants traipsed in before me, all looking like the arch criminals they truly were. They all came out looking hammered and even those with a clean licence were shocked at the hand-downs. Gulp!

The chair of the bench began by asking what sort of a car a Honda CBR1000 F-H was. I explained that it was, in fact, a motorcycle. His eyes lit up and he said, unbelievably, 'Ah, so you are a motorcyclist? And you were only doing 80mph?' I nodded stupidly and apologised quickly. 'So, how fast would your motorcycle go?' I reeled off the theoretical top speed of 180mph but added that it would only really do 160, 'on the autobahns in Germany!' I added meekly. 'So, you could still have been in first gear at 80 then?' This had to be a trap, but I couldn't see how. 'Well, second gear, sir!'

'So, in terms of the performance available to you, you weren't really speeding at all?'

I shrugged and was still trying to work out where this was going as the bench conferred and I didn't really hear him tell me what my punishment was to be and it wasn't till I was outside the courtroom that the clerk told me I would get my licence back from DVLA (or whatever they were called back then) and asked how I would like to pay the fine. I pulled my cheque book out of my pocket and when I asked how much it was he looked at me sort of funny and said £100. I stared at him and asked, 'Really!' 'Yes' he retorted with a wry smile, 'you got off very lightly, the chair used to ride an old motorcycle to court until recently and obviously took a shine to you young man!'

Brian (who was floating on air all the way back home but has never passed a motorway or dual-carriageway junction at high speed to this day without a 'life-saver')

Offline bobtail

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Re: The Day Of Reckoning
« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2015, 02:58:21 pm »
excellent parable there Brian.

A happy ending(relatively speaking) :D

Bet there aren't may motorcycling magistrates around these days so I'm going to keep my nose clean.

Bob
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