The other week I passed a speed camera van on the way to Peebles. Yesterday I got a letter through the door teliing me I’d been doing 61mph and was getting 3 points etc. Maybe its an urban myth but I thought there was a bit of leeway to allow for speedometers that aren’t exact. Anybody else been done for going one mile an hour over the limit? Is there any point in contesting it? Whats the process if you do.

U sure it was 61 in a 60 limit? Perhaps it was a 50 limit or something?

Can’t believe you’d be done going 1mph over the limit.

what is the offence code?

At the moment I just have the notice of intended prosecution. I can’t find an offence code. It was on the A703 Leadburn Straight, don’t think its less than 60mph.

I’ve never heard of or seen a 60 mph limit, it must have been a 50mph.

I kind of get the feeling that the road was likely to be a 40 or 50 Limit, as in normal circumstances the Speed Safety Process Units normally allow for the error you find in the run of the mill speedometers. Normally 10% + 2mph, i.e 30 Limit = 35mph 40 Limit = 46mph etc. Though technically you could be done for speeding after being only 1mph over the limit in force. As a Traffic Officer would normally say “A ticks a tick Sir” but that would be rather pedantic and open to challenge at any subsequent Process Stage.

There will be a Tel No. on the NIP give them a call they’re only human and will probably clear up any confusion.

that van is there all the time. i passed it on my way to glentress today! (just got back from a great days riding!) is it possible the 61mph they are charging you with already takes into account some leeway? say they clocked you at 66mph and allow 5mph for inaccurate speedos?

I’ve never heard of or seen a 60 mph limit, it must have been a 50mph.

National speed limit for single carriage road is 60 mph, the white circle with black line signifies this

Thats what I thought. As I said its an A road and I’m pretty sure its a 60mph limit. Certainly not the kind of road where 61mph is dangerous.

There are countless 60 limits, I pass one such sign every day.

They will not book you for 1mph over and the notification relates to your actaul speed, not counting any innaccracies. You were either mistaken regarding the limit at that point or they sent it by mistake.

I saw the van in plenty of time and thought I was going slow enough. Surely if they have clocked you doing 61mph the leeway comes in after this. If they had clocked me at 66mph I’d have thought they’d just charge me at that.

Surely if they have clocked you doing 61mph the leeway comes in after this. If they had clocked me at 66mph I’d have thought they’d just charge me at that.

Correct.

That bit of road is a 60 limit. You were probably doing 70mph or so when you they caught you. 10%ish for speedo error and a little bit more for driver error.

The other week I passed a speed camera van on the way to Peebles. Yesterday I got a letter through the door

How long ago was it?
If you don’t receive the nto within 14 days of the alleged offence,its null & void.

As I said I saw the van in plenty time so wasn’t doing seventy, didn’t slow down to 50 either but I’d say I was doing 60 give or take a couple of miles.

It was only a week ago

You werent driveing a non car derived van where you, eg a transit.Different speed limits for vans.

Citreon dispatch, so not a big van.

Project thats just what i was gonna say , i got done for 58mph on a national limit single road did not know it was 50 for a van

stevenmenmuir…thats why mate ya van..mines a SWBase Vivaro really p****d me off as i saw the gatso and made sure i was under 60mph

So somebody in a Chelsea Tractor which is bigger and heavier than my van can do 60 and I can’t.

Thats right its crap….its all to do with pay load and windows apparently i have been through all that and it stands

I’ve never heard of or seen a 60 mph limit, it must have been a 50mph.

National speed limit for single carriage road is 60 mph, the white circle with black line signifies this

Well there you go and I’ve been driving for 20 years, anyhows you were speeding you got caught, MTFU and and pay the fine.

pretty sure its a 60mph limit. Certainly not the kind of road where 61mph is dangerous.
maybe not dangerous, but over the legal limit. Pay up and quit whining.

Ask them for proof that they correctly calibrated their equipment that day (A legal requirement in order for them to be able to prosecute you anyway), and say that you are concerned that being caught doing 61mph is a open to speedo error, and as far as you were concerned you were sticking rigidly to 60mph on your speedo.

If you were doing 80 it would not be worth contesting it, but at 61mph I’d do anything/everything possible to contest it as it’s so easy to creep 1 or 2mph over a limit without realising at all, so in my opinion it’s pretty unjust to collar you for 61!

Regarding Smee’s post, that’s totally incorrect. They would not clock you at say 66mph, then allow 10% for error and quote 61mph… If they clock you at 66, they’ll tell you 66. It’s just usually you wouldn’t get done for doing say 65mph in a 60 even, as they allow for a margin of error, but as soon as that margin is exceeded, that’s when they’ll use their discretion (or not) and nab you!

Oops, didnt realise you were in a van! Yup, you’re restricted to 50 in 60s and, IIRC, 60 on dual cabbageways, but 70 on motorways.

Reason being you can carry (that class of vehicle) up to 7.5 tonnes (even though the van may not be capable). A laden chelsea tractor will weigh less than your van fully loaded.

If ya van can be 2 tonne loaded its the reduced limit im afraid.. even if you had nothing in it and it is lighter than a 4b4 or an mpv with 5 fat people in it you are 50mph on single lane and 60 on dual carrige way only on a motor way can yo do 70mph…..

Any road works going on?

You need to check the speed limit of that area pronto and fight it out.

usually you can getaway with it being %10 e.g. 66 in a 60 area.

My GF went to caught because she said that her car was serviced and the mechanics didn’t reset her clock properly so she went through a 20mph school zone at 30.

They let her off in court. She’s scary when angry…I couldn’t believe it-they would have added more points to me and given me a fine…

So go to caught and fight it out and hope the judge is a lady that fancies you.

do some people have an auto-responder set for speeding threads? seems that way….

Not whining AndyP just finding out where I stand. If I’m in the wrong I’ll pay the fine. If I’d wanted a whinge I’d have started a thread about the Police chasing people for going a little bit over the limit rather than doing something more useful.

mboy – what do people have on a car to let them know what speed they are doing? Yes its a speedometer. Say the speedo was reading 70 they actual speed would be closer to 60.

So where is the totally incorrect bit now?

If the wheels and/or tyres have been changed that may make a difference to the speedometer read out. By law, with standards wheels and tyres fitted, the speedometer must read at least 10% over the actual speed. The speed camera will use actual speed. I think the vehicle class is the most likely explanantion as it is likely for 61mph real speed, your in van speedometer reading would have been at least 66mph. I have checked mine with a gps and it does read 10% over.

i thought it was 10 % eitherway u were allowed. one way to get off is to see wether the police calibraed their radar before the incident

Smee – Member

mboy – what do people have on a car to let them know what speed they are doing? Yes its a speedometer. Say the speedo was reading 70 they actual speed would be closer to 60.

So where is the totally incorrect bit now?

I am going to dignify this response by outlining that this is going to be the LAST TIME EVER that I am going to respond to anything you say Smee, as despite the fact you are just a man on a computer hundreds of miles away from me with an ill informed opinion of his own on every topic, that you always confuse with fact, you really wind me up so I’m going to have to ignore you from now on as it’s not healthy being wound up by someone you don’t even know!

Anyway… If your speedo in the car says 70mph, you’re more likely doing 66-67mph in my experience of car speedos (compared to an accurate GPS speedo at least), though some will be dead accurate, and some over-read by as much as 10%.

The point being, the copper that catches you has a radar gun that is supposed to be dead accurate. HE DOES NOT have a camera pointing at the speedo in your car. He’s taking a reading of your actual speed, so you may be showing 65mph say on the speedo before you even exceed 60mph. There will then usually be an inbuilt 10% tolerance, or up to 10%, on top of this. So you could be showing over 70mph on the speedo in a 60 before you’d get nicked even. Though you’d be more likely doing 66-67mph actually.

The Police can only prosecute you based upon FACT. Their equipment, properly calibrated, gives them a FACT. The speed you were doing at a point in time. They cannot manipulate this, “correct for speedo error”, or do anything else at all to the data they get from their gun. Other than quote it at you when asking for your money and putting points on your license.

I only wish you were a troll, but having read several posts to the contrary on this forum in the past, I know this not to be true. To go through life always being right, when everyone else disagrees with you on everything, must be so rewarding for you… They do say that ignorance is bliss though! And you wonder why people (not me) give you such unadulterated abuse on this forum!!!

stonemonkey – Member

i thought it was 10 % eitherway u were allowed. one way to get off is to see wether the police calibraed their radar before the incident

That’s the way I understand it. And yes, the police need to provide evidence that the equipment was properly calibrated that day before use, otherwise it’s an instant case dismissal!

There is also the old “sorry, it’s a company vehicle, it could have been any one of 5 drivers driving that day, so without a photo of the driver I couldn’t tell you who it was” excuse… Seen that one work for a lot of people!

I got flashed by a temporary camera in some M6 roadworks, was doing about 62 in a 50 limit in my van.

Was about 8pm Thurs 12 Mar – No Notice of Intended Prosecution has turned up yet.

Have I got away with it? (i.e.explain the 14 day rule to me pls)

Correct me if i’m wrong….
BUT…Under construction and use regs, speedos are not allowed to under-read, they do have inaccuracies as any device will have tolerances but they can not under read, hence why they over read, when your speedo says you are doing 70 you are prob doing 66-67mph but it will never be the case that your speedo would say you are doing 70 and you are actually doing over 70, the 10% is the accuracy the speedo has to produce but it will only ever be over reading, so maybe at worst you are doing 64 and the speedo says 70, never the other way round and given the modern car is more advanced with fancy onboard electronics you will find the accurary is much better than the old fashioned mechanical drives. Obviously, if you change the profiling of the rubber or size of your wheels the speedo will be out but on standard setup there would be no chance of under rreading, i know maybe 4 or 5 people who have been done for 41 in a 40.

Yellow Belly – Member

I got flashed by a temporary camera in some M6 roadworks, was doing about 62 in a 50 limit in my van.

Was about 8pm Thurs 12 Mar – No Notice of Intended Prosecution has turned up yet.

Have I got away with it? (i.e.explain the 14 day rule to me pls)

The 14 day rule, as I understand it, is quite simple. If you hear from them within 14 days wanting some money from you, and offering you some points for your license, you gotta fess up/contest it. If they don’t contact you (via letter) within 14 days, that’s it, automatically the case is now defunct/dismissed, and they can’t do anything to get you now!

@Yellow Belly
The ruling is that the police have to send the NIP (notice of intended prosecution) witthin 14 days, if they don’t then they can’t enforce it, if they send it they then can take their sweet ass time and i think they have some crazy long time of 6 months or maybe 2 years to take it further, HOWEVER…. the 14 day rule only applys if they don’t try and send it, I have heard of cases where if the reg’d keeper isn’t upto date or if there is hassle due to a company car and the like then the 14 days can be over-ruled and the case still taken on.

Regarding getting off on the police calibration thing… be careful how and where you try it, if its a stationary camera then maybe worth a punt but if its in car then not a chance, as will be vascar or maybe off the police cars own speedometer which are classed as calibrated and thus fine. You will just “annoy” them.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!