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It would seem that magistrates have gone soft, as a result of the recession, if you have accidentally reached the automatic driving ban of 12 points on your licence. Some say this is wrong and that the ban should be automatically imposed, especially in extreme cases like the driver who was allowed to keep his licence even after he amassed 54 Read more »

If you have a few quid in the bank and like to break speed limits you would be well advised to avoid Switzerland where a motorist, driving a Mercedes SLS- AMG has been landed with an eye watering fine of £538,000. Yep it’s true, he was finally clocked doing 186 mph on the A12. I say finally as most speed traps that he passed have a limit of 125 miles per hour. The 37 year old was doing more than twice the legal limit. Read more »

After reporting that many councils were planning to shut down their speed cameras, after the government announced its £38 million cut in road safety grants across the country, Mick Giannasi, head of road policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers, threw a spanner in the works by claiming that speed cameras were a big reason why deaths and serious injuries had been halved from 8 years ago. He went on to say Read more »

After reporting that many councils were planning to shut down their speed cameras, after the government announced its £38 million cut in road safety grants across the country, Mick Giannasi, head of road policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers, threw a spanner in the works by claiming that speed cameras were a big reason Read more »

In October last year the old dopey Government introduced a law that was aimed at reducing the legal aid bill by saying that if you challenged a motoring charge, such as speeding, and you won your case, you could only claim costs based on the legal aid rate. So if you had paid for a solicitor to prepare the case and represent you, and you won your case, you could only recover through the court the legal aid rate which Read more »

Are we slowing down on our roads? The number of drivers being issued with speeding tickets generated by speed cameras suggests that we are. In 2008 the number of tickets dropped to 1.2 million compared to 1.9 million in 2004 and it is being predicted that the 2009 figures will be down to below the 2001 figure of 1.1 million. There are a number of reasons being suggested for this sharp fall. First of all the way the Read more »

One in a hundred company vehicle drivers is within a point of a ban according to recent research. One in five company car drivers is one offence away from a ban with 20% having between 3 and 11 points on their licence, hence the need for regular licence checks to be carried out on drivers’ licences. The research, carried out by CFC Solutions, shows that a driver who is one offence away from a ban is a significant Read more »

In an interesting speeding case a van driver has had his case thrown out after being charged for driving at 61mph in a 50mph restricted area. Gareth Powell was clocked on the A4174 near Bristol in November last year when working as an employee of MD Building Services. However, his van was fitted with Navman  wireless tracking and when Navman Wireless checked the records they found that Mr Powell was only Read more »

In a bizarre new legal ruling if you go to court and defend yourself against a speeding offence, and get acquitted you will still have costs to pay under new Government rules. The new Ministry of Justice scheme will result in a defendant acquitted in the courts to only be reimbursed at current legal aid rates, regardless of their actual level of costs. In many instances this could lead to innocent people paying Read more »

I read some daft things when researching the content of this weekly newsletter, the latest is the talking Mini that is to be launched by BMW. To celebrate its 50^th birthday BMW is using Smart technology to allow a special version of the Mini to say ‘Hello’, ‘Goodbye’ and ‘See you soon’ as well as offer a range of tips to make your driving safer and more economical. I understand that the car, which will be called the Camden, will suggest to the driver when it detects high speed ‘Take it easy and we’ll save fuel at the same time.’ Have you ever heard Read more »