Not condoning speeding

[DonPeffers]

Just saw news Susie Wolff banned from driving for 6 months as caught doing 35 mph in 30 zone and under the totting up procedure had exceeded 12 points and thus received a ban.

I wonder how this is compatible with this story  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/driver-62-penalty-points-licence-exceed-limit-still-on-road-investigation-bbc-a7594891.html

 

[DamperMan]

Non of us ever speed .. but a lot of  speed limits are not representative to the location..    there's no consideration of weather or time of day. 

[jeff oakley]

Example being made. She has been banned before and as a high profile person this makes a lot of headlines. One of my drivers didn't realise how average cameras worked and got four tickets in one week on same stretch. She has just been banned for two weeks. 

[Thrustyjust]

Sadly, she didnt learn the previous times from speeding, regardless on who she is. Obviously she needs her eyes checked as she didnt see the camera on many occasions or the speed limit signs. 30 mph zones are usually built up areas with housing etc. Oxfordshire is 20 or 30 everywhere, so perhaps she needs to move somewhere else. 

[DonPeffers]

Best she doesn't move to Edinburgh then as 20 mph areas are being rolled out throughout the city and operate day and night much to the annoyance of late night taxi drivers and I bet their passengers too. Sometimes it feels you could get out and push your car faster.

I'm fully in favour of 20 mph zones near schools and always observe them but often see cars and vans that don't.

[TAFKARM]

To be fair, she was already on 9 points, so hardly a momentary lapse of judgment.

 

/Devils advocate

[DonPeffers]

18 hours ago, jeff oakley said:

Example being made. She has been banned before and as a high profile person this makes a lot of headlines. One of my drivers didn't realise how average cameras worked and got four tickets in one week on same stretch. She has just been banned for two weeks. 

AFAIAA this is the first driving ban applied to Susie Wolff. The driving offence was in June 2015 and the Court ban in Nov 2016 was suspended pending appeal. The appeal failed 17 Mar 2017 and then the 6 month driving ban was imposed.

The OP was to question how drivers with 50 or 62 points are considered safe enough to continue driving; also what company insures them and at what premium?

[Steve (sdh2903)]

Let's face it no matter what the circumstances 35 in a 30 shouldn't even invoke points let alone a totting up ban. Modern cars can stop in half the distance of the figures in the massively outdated highway code. 

Speed limits and their punishments need an overhaul in general. 20mph outside a school is perfectly sensible during daylight hours. 20mph throughout a whole city 24/7 is a joke.

To drive on today's "smart" motorways you need to spend more time looking at your speedo and the overhead gantries to see what the current speed limit is than actually looking at the road ahead. 

They should have given her a big fine as she can afford it and put the money into improving the roads or the NHS who actually need it.

[Thrustyjust]

Steve, Oxfordshire is really hot on speeding , moreso that anywhere else I know. They have miles of road in the middle of nowhere, all at 40 mph for no real reason other than that is what 'they' want you to drive at. My colleague got done for 56mph in road works set at 50 mph and got 6 points for 'endangering workers' also in Oxfordshire. He rides a drag bike at over 300 mph , so speed killed no workers or kittens . 

[Stuart]

In Warwickshire all the A roads are 50mph, but the B & C roads are 60mph.  Go figure.......

 

[Terry Everall]

The inconsistent speed limits are a bl**** nightmare and I am not sure what they contribute to safety. Most accidents are caused by a lack of attention etc

 

[jeff oakley]

Speed limits used to be set sensibly but there is a whole industry that has been created with the likes of Brake at the forefront.

British roads are the safest in the world and yet even after all the reductions have taken place the rate is probably as low as it will go as people sometimes screw up. Walking out in front of a car at any speed could kill, and if 20mph is safer than 30, why not make it 10mph?

Sheep like people have been blinded into accepting that reducing limits is the answer instead of raising standards of driving. Instead we dumb down with every new model. If you cannot park, hand in your licence. If you cannot stay in lane without a buzzer, hand in your licence etc.

Limits are now set by busy body councillors who react to lobbying as they are afraid to say no just in case some one dies. We all see roads where there was no history of accidents having limits reduced. Oxfordshire is possible the worst along with Staffordshire for idiotic limits.

Points and sentencing is a lottery. In the case of Wolfe, if they had let her off, the press would have made a meal of it with Brake being wheeled out to say how many children she might have killed (but didn't).

As for the 62 points and still driving. Without all the facts it is hard to know why. There must be circumstances that are special.

[DonPeffers]

From the Independent article-- "The Freedom of Information Requests, sent out by the BBC, found 203 people were still driving despite accumulating more than 18 points.

A driver with 62 penalty points on his licence is among thousands of repeat offending motorists still on the roads

.An investigation found 10,000 are still legally driving in Britain despite racking up more than 12 points, which is the threshold qualifying someone for a ban.

It is not known why the man in West Yorkshire, who boasts the highest tally, was allowed to continue driving".

Perhaps the public should be told exactly why a repeated excuse of 'exceptional hardship' allows habitual offenders to continue driving and the drivers identified.

IIRC celebrity Lawyer Nick Freeman (nickname Mr Loophole) has successfully avoided bans for David Beckham, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jeremy Clarkson.

I have asked myself who would be most likely to kill or seriously injure someone stepping into the road; a trained racing driver who's been driving since she was a child and is slightly above the speed limit or an ordinary Joe?

I take Jeff's point about charities likely to complain if celebrities can escape a ban.

[Lawrie]

Enjoy it whilst you can.  Its only a matter of time before they bring back the red flag.