Speeding charges thrown out because 30mph sign was unlit

Two motorists have had their speeding cases thrown out after a court was told that a 30mph sign on the road was not lit up. 
 
The light n Woodside Road (next to the University of Nottingham) was out on January 30 last year - and more than a year later, it is still not working properly is still without a lighting unit.

The problem was identified by specialist traffic lawyers when they noted a large number of cases coming from that stretch of road.

When two cases were taken to Court on Monday 27th March, the prosecution offered no evidence and the matters were dismissed. The motorists left court with no penalties.

The drivers thought they were in a 40mph limit in January last year. But their vehicles set off cameras because the road has a 30mph restriction.

Solicitor Lucy Whitaker of Pragma Law, who represented one of the drivers, said: "Both were travelling in the dark along Woodside Road from University Boulevard in the direction of Derby Road. University Boulevard is signed as a 40mph limit, and neither had seen the speed limit signs purporting to decrease the speed limit to 30mph as they entered Woodside Road. One of the two signs located on either side of the dual carriageway was unlit. That is in breach of the mandatory requirements. As a result our clients believed the speed limit continued to be 40mph, as it is along University Boulevard."

Her colleague Maria Moore, of Moore Motoring Law, added: "We were both delighted when the prosecution offered no evidence and the cases against each of our clients were dismissed.
"We wonder how many other motorists have been caught speeding in the dark, because of inadequate guidance of the speed limit."

Earlier in the day, two other drivers failed with claims that the road signs were inadequate during daytime when they were caught driving at over 30mph.

After seeing a video of a journey along the road during daylight, the judge said: "For the vigilant and observant driver, it provides adequate guidance. There is no room for confusion over the speed limit."

Source Nottingham Post

Police catch driver doing 108mph on the A38

Police caught a driver speeding at 108mph on the busy A38 (limit is 70mph) during a weekend road safety campaign.

Four other drivers were caught topping 100mph and a total of 109 people were caught breaking the law on Devon roads during the campaign they named Operation No Excuse.

The  'fatal five' driving misdemeanours that drivers were caught doing were as follows

• 25 for using a phone at the wheel
• 25 for not wearing a seatbelt
• 53 for speeding
• 4 for careless driving
• 2 arrests for drug driving.

additionally 23 were reported or cautioned for less serious offences including driving without insurance or a licence; not having a valid MOT; and running a red light.

 

One driver was stopped for careless driving in the city centre and given a Section 59 warning, meaning his vehicle will be seized if he commits another similar offence.

A taxi in a "dangerous condition" was removed from the road and had its licence suspended.

Driver caught doing 108mph on M20

The Kent police tweeted that a driver has been caught doing 108mph on the M20 between junction 8 for Leeds and junction 9 for Ashford at 9.55am. The speed limit on the stretch is 70mph.

Kent Police RPU tweeted a picture of the offence report

The driver received a Traffic Offence Report, and will be informed what action will be taken against them in due course.  It means they could be prosecuted, receive a fixed penalty or be required to attend an education course.

Here”s why motorists could be hit by £2,500 fines from next month

The maximum penalty for speeding is currently £1,000 but is set to rocket by a massive 150%.
From April 24 offenders can be charged up to 175% of their weekly income.

The change comes as the number of speeding offences has soared greatly by 44% in the last five years.

Harsher punishments have been put in place to ensure the fine matches “the seriousness of offending”.

The new system will see fines split into three categories.

Band A
Offences where motorists are clocked travelling up to 10mph over the stated speed limit. These people will be fined 25-75% of their earnings.

Band B
Drivers going 11mph to 21mph over the limit, will get a fine between 75 per cent and 125 per cent of weekly income

Band C
Those caught going 21mph and over. Maximum fine of up to 175% of your weekly wage


The Sentencing Council, which determines the punishments for UK lawbreakers, said fines are being increased to ensure that there is a “clear increase in penalty as the seriousness of offending increases”.

First time speeders can avoid the rising fines by taking a speed awareness course.

Call for drink-drive limit to be cut

councils and fire authorities have urged that the legal drink-drive limit should be lowered in England and Wales in order to cut alcohol-related accidents. A lower limit would also save £300 million a year by reducing the number of 999 responses and hospital admissions


The request is for the current limit of 80mg to be lowered to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
The Scottish Government reduced its legal limit for drivers to 50mg in December 2014 and Northern Ireland will also soon drop its limit to the same level, and even lower for professional and learner drivers.

The LGA said it was estimated that lowering the limit in England and Wales could save up to 170 lives in the first year, rising to more than 300 lives in the sixth year.

New provisional government figures show that reported "serious" drink-drive accidents between 2014 and 2015 in Great Britain had risen from 880 to 980, an increase of 11 per cent, while total reported drink-drive accidents had increased by 2 per cent from 5,620 to 5,740.

The same figures showed the number of people seriously injured in reported drink-drive accidents between 2014 and 2015 had risen from 1,070 to 1,170, an increase of 9 per cent, while the total number of drink-drive casualties had increased by 3 per cent from 8,210 to 8,480.

The organisations said England and Wales had one of the highest drink-drive limits in the world and the highest in Europe, with the exception of Malta, which has also announced plans to lower its limit to 50mg.

Simon Blackburn, chairman of the LGA's Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: "England and Wales will soon have the highest drink-drive limit in Europe, which is not sending the right message to motorists and safety campaigners.

"Latest figures show that alcohol has contributed to a rise in both the number of road accidents and those injured in the UK.

"The Government should be leading by example by toughening up drink-drive laws in line with other European countries which will make roads safer and save lives. In Scotland alone, adopting a lower alcohol limit has led to a significant fall in fatal road accidents.

"A lower alcohol limit would help to deter motorists from drinking at all before getting behind the wheel and encourage them to have 'none for the road'."

 Source http://www.independent.co.uk

New roadside test will identify tired drivers

The health services provider Austin Health and the Institute for Breathing and Sleep joined together to develop a roadside test that will identify tired drivers, and keep them off the road. 

The result of the collaboration was ‘smart glasses’  - they track eye movements and measure the length of blinks. The researchers hope the product will help police ‘dramatically reduce fatigue-related road death’.

As part of the project, researchers studied drowsiness in night-shift workers during driving tests and found a tenfold increase in ‘microsleeps' and double the number of lane crossings. They also found drivers struggled to keep their eyes open and had more trouble staying in the middle of a lane.

The researchers believe the technology could hold the key to changing driver behaviour toward getting behind-the-wheel while tired, in the same way the breathalyser changed attitudes towards drink-driving.

DtT figures show that during 2015, fatigue was recorded by police as a contributory factor in 4% of fatal accidents and 2% of serious injury accidents in the UK.

However, the UK’s Road Safety Observatory suggests that sleep-related collisions are under-reported and in fact are more likely to account for 16% to 20% of all collisions.

 

- See more at Source : http://www.roadsafetygb.org.uk

Four year MOT exemption for new cars proposed

The amount of time that new cars are allowed on Britain's roads before requiring an MOT could rise from three to four years, under government proposals. The change could be in effect from 2018 after a public consultation.
Northern Ireland and many European nations already have such an exemption. The Department for Transport said safer technology and improved manufacturing means new vehicles stay roadworthy for longer.

It cites figures showing the annual number of three and four-year-old cars involved in accidents where a vehicle defect was said to be a contributory factor has fallen from 155 in 2006 to 57 in 2015.

MOTs were first introduced in 1960 for vehicles more than 10 years old, with the exemption period dropping just 7 years later to three years.

Vehicles must currently undergo the test on the third anniversary of their registration and every 12 months once more than three-years-old. This requirement excludes cars and motorcycles made before 1960, goods vehicles powered by electricity and tractors.

A number of parts are checked during the MOT test to ensure vehicles meet legal standards, including lights, seatbelts, tyres and brakes, and emission levels are also examined.

More than 2.2 million cars each year require a first test, at a maximum cost of £54.85, with motorists facing a fine of up to £1,000 for driving a vehicle without a valid MOT.

Transport Minister Andrew Jones said: "We have some of the safest roads in the world and MOT tests play an important role in ensuring the standard of vehicles on our roads.

"New vehicles are much safer than they were 50 years ago and so it is only right we bring the MOT test up to date to help save motorists money where we can."
In November, a poll for the AA of more than 19,000 drivers suggested 44% were in favour of MOTs after four years, while 26% were opposed, and a third did not have a view either way.

Commenting on the proposals, AA president Edmund King said: "The benefits are that there will be cost and time savings for drivers, whilst the downside is that we are likely to see some more cars with faulty tyres and lights slipping through the net."

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