Aliens made me speed

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Satch

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'Aliens made me speed'
2 December 2004

Aliens, a vibrating surfboard and a desperate need for the toilet were all excuses offered by speeding motorists desperate to avoid three points on their licence, a speed camera organisation said today.

Staff at the Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership, responsible for many fixed speed cameras in the North East, often receive letters from drivers hoping to avoid the penalties.

Manager Ray King said: "Some drivers seem to think that if they tell a good enough story, then they will get off, which unfortunately rarely works.

But if there are genuine mitigating reasons, there is always the option of putting their case to a magistrate.

"It is quite amazing the lengths some drivers will go to to avoid £60 and three points, when really the alternative is extremely simple - keeping within the speed limit."

Everything from the wind behind the car to jets overhead and dying hamsters have been blamed by motorists, Mr King said.

"This is a light-hearted look at excuses for speeding, but it is a serious issue - we'd rather not be getting any letters at all because no one is breaking the speed limit and no one is receiving a ticket," he said.

The 10 most elaborate excuses given by drivers caught by speed cameras were:


I had passed out after seeing flashing lights in the distance, which I
believed to be UFOs. The flash of the camera brought me round from my trance.

I was in the airport's flight path, and I believe the camera was triggered by a jet overhead, not my car.

I had a severe bout of diarrhoea and had to speed to a public toilet.

There was a strong wind behind my car which pushed me over the limit.

My friend had just chopped his own fingers off, and I was rushing the digits to hospital.

The vibrations from the surfboard I had on the roof rack set off the camera.

I had to rush my dying hamster to the vets.

A violent sneeze caused a chain reaction where my foot pushed down harder on the accelerator.

There was a suspected case of foot and mouth and I had to rush to see the cow concerned.

The only way I could demonstrate that my clutch was faulty was to accelerate madly
 
Satch said:
"This is a light-hearted look at excuses for speeding, but it is a serious issue - we'd rather not be getting any letters at all because no one is breaking the speed limit and no one is receiving a ticket," he said.

Does he really want this, or even believe that this is possible? If it were to happen, he'd be out of a job. But that wouldn't happen, because the scameraships would just bring in lower, more ridiculous, speed limits.

We had a 20mph speed limit over the Runcorn-Widnes bridge this year; four lanes of traffic all doing exactly 20mph due to the placement of speed cameras at either end. I had a bit of a kip going over one time as it was so mind-numbingly boring. The council admitted it was the wrong policy shortly after and bagged the camers - "Camera not in use". Why would they do that if it wasn't a stupid ill-thought-out policy?

Funny, well thought-out excuses for speeding though ;)
 
Flyer said:
We had a 20mph speed limit over the Runcorn-Widnes bridge this year...
Ahh fond memories... I really miss my twice-daily trip over the bridge. Actually come to the think of it I don't. The bridge SUCKS! :p

Remember how lots of people got involved with the petrol crisis thing a few years ago? How about everyone makes a serious effort to NOT speed for a week. It's not difficult really is it? If no-one was camera'd or stopped by the police in a week it would cost them a FORTUNE in lost fines. If no-one was caught for a month it would be seriously bad for them, a whole year would be disasterous.
 
Shude said:
Remember how lots of people got involved with the petrol crisis thing a few years ago? How about everyone makes a serious effort to NOT speed for a week. It's not difficult really is it? If no-one was camera'd or stopped by the police in a week it would cost them a FORTUNE in lost fines. If no-one was caught for a month it would be seriously bad for them, a whole year would be disasterous.

And then they'd get re-allocated to ANPR or other duties to catch criminals.

I like your plan. :cool:
 
I have never met a single person that supports speed cameras outside of residential areas... surely as a supposed democracy we the public should get what we want? Also mostly everyone wants a faster speed limit on the motorways… how about no speed limit after 12:00am… now that would cut down journey times and increase awareness…;)
 
This made the Talksport news this morning, perhaps they read this site??
 
RichieRuss2000 said:
I have never met a single person that supports speed cameras outside of residential areas... surely as a supposed democracy we the public should get what we want?

Current Government really has created the "Intruder State" with all manner of disturbing things being smugly justified as being a public safety issue or by grabbing on to anything which means they can claim the moral high ground.

Then blithely "consult", ignore all protestations from informed sources and rely on public inertia to carry on with the predetermined agenda no matter what.

And then we are told how lucky we are to live in a democracy. The more money and power the state has the more harm it can do because it enables politicians to persue their dreams unfettered by reality.
 
Shude said:
The bridge SUCKS! :p
What is it our colonial cousins say? "Word" ;)

Shude said:
How about everyone makes a serious effort to NOT speed for a week. It's not difficult really is it?
Hmm, sorry can't do that. I "speed" *every* time I drive my car (my one and only speeding ticket is from 1990 for 52 in a 40 ... over the Bridge :D ). But it is speed appropriate for the road and conditions.

There's a section of what used to be dual-carriageway, with a central reservation, near me. So, 70mph limit. I used to do 80ish, no drama, no problems. The council in their wisdom have reduced one side to single lane, and reduced the speed limit to 40. The other side is still dual, but the limit has to be the same, so limited to 40mph when you could once, legally, do 70mph. Surprisingly, they haven't put a speed camera up, but have one of those signs that flash, telling you to slow down ... which is set to trigger at less than 40 :rolleyes:

Respect for speed limits? Not when they're abitrarily reduced like that. Driving through congested streets and housing estates when people (not just children!) are about? Absolutely.

BTW SEM, this is everywhere; it's on the Register today as well.
 

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