Barry Rowland, chief executive of Newcastle City Council, was flashed by a speed camera speeding in 2008 and got a speeding fine as a result.
The conviction has only recently come to light as the council decides to switch on seven dormant cameras in the city. Northumbria Police have operated speed camera trials in different locations and the Newcastle Councillor was caught in one of these trials.
Ipswich Town footballer Paul Chopra, famed for going down easily in the box, faces his own kind of penalty next month. Chopra who lives in Newcastle was caught speeding on the A12 near Colchester in September this year. He was clocked at a massive 106mph in a 70mph zone and is expected to get a driving ban.
Chopra is believed to have admitted the offence and, as he already has 6 points on his licence, he will expect to be banned from driving under the totting up procedure – further details of speeding fines and penalties.
The Government have announced plans to investigate the possibility of raising the speed limit on motorways to 80mph.
The trade off is that some of the more congested sections of motorway will have a 50mph limit and that the number of 20mph zones in towns would be significantly extended. It is felt that the current 70mph limit is oput of touch with the reality of modern motoring, particularly when mile per mile motorways are the safest roads to drive on. The RAC backs the proposals.
Jim Davidson, former host of TV’s Big Break has tried to use the “I don’t know who was driving” loophole without success. The comic has been given a six month driving ban anyway. He claimed that he did not know whther it was he or his bodyguard who was driving at the time and was “afraid to give the wrong information”. Davidson’s Aston Martin was clocked going 39mph in a 30mph zone.
This is one case where a big name celebrity has not got away with it.
Police using mobile speed cameras in North Yorkshire have caught on average more than 60 speeding motorists per day in and around the Tadcaster area during the past month. The cameras have been used on rural roads with a history of serious and fatal accidents including the A64 and the B1222.
Of the 1805 people caught speeding, the majority have been offered speeding awareness courses. However 37 of the worst offenders have =been summonsed to appear in court including some who were travelling at speeds in excess of 100mph.
Although 12 points on your licence will normally result in a ban – it isn’t necessarily so. It is reported in ADI News that a man in Blackburn has 30 points but has escaped a ban by convincing magistrates that it would result in “exceptional hardship”.
Over 165 motorists in East Lancashire alone have more than 12 points on their licence without being banned.
In North Yorkshire more than 400 speeding violations were recorded in one week, following the introduction of a mobile speed camera in the first week of July.
A total of 418 violations were recorded between 1st and 7th July 2011.
One vehicle was recorded at 112 mph on the A64 near York whilst another driver was recorded as driving at 62mph in a 30mph zone, in the city.
The mobile camera is being used at locations in the county with a long history of serious road accidents.
Latest figures reveal that between 2005 and 2009, nearly 9 million fixed penalty notices were issued to motorists in England and Wales for speeding. That equates to one speeding ticket for every three motorists.
At £60 per offence, that is almost £500,00,000 in speeding fines – a massive source of income for the Government. No wonder many people feel that speed cameras are primarily a revenue raising device.
The RAC report that 74% of motorists that speed cameras are more about money than safety. What do you think?
A volunteer group in Wiltshire has caught almost 5,000 drivers in the county breaking the speed limit over the last 12 months.
The Community Speed Watch (CSW) group uses speed guns then writes to drivers whom it records exceeding the limit.
The scheme was launched after the county council removed speed cameras last year and uses radar guns to record speeding motorists’ speeds and then writes to the alleged offenders. Not all these people were prosecuted by the police but 9 repeat offenders were monitored by the police and subsequently were prosecuted.
Following the succesful defence of a speeding prosecution in North Wales, it is thought that hundreds of motorists may be able to appeal succesfully against their speeding convictions. The motorist concerned was prosecuted for driving at 68mph in a 50mph limit. The unusual situation was that the speed limit on either side of the road was different. 70mph travelling one way and 50mph travelling the other.
Although the road concerned was a dual cariageway, the defence solicitor succesfully argued that his client had made a legal U-turn in a gap in the central reservation from the 70mph carriageway to the 50mph carriageway, but that there were no signs to notify him of the limit after he had turned.
Speed limit signs have to be correctly positioned at the ends of the speed limit zone to be enforcable
