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Well, last night i was on my way to the cinema's with afew mates and was feeling in a bit of a silly mood. On the dual carriage way towards the cinema i decided to put pedal to the metal.

In the outside lane i flew past a Mondeo, MG ZR and a Red 206 then i pulled back in the the left lane and slowed to halt so i could turn left to the cinema. The 206 then pulls up next to me, and my mates start cheering and been rowdy. When i look to my right to see why the 206 driver has pulled up next to me, my heart falls through my arse. OH NO! theres a police badge been held out of the window by the passenger.

At this point all i can think about is losing my licence just 2 weeks before i'd been passed 2 years.

Anyway, i pull into a layby and the 206 pulls up along side. I put down my window and the cop gives me a severe warning. "i'm fully aware of what speeds a car like this can do, but at the speed you were travelling at you could have killed yourself and your mates."

He then asked me if i'd got any points on my licence, which i replied no. He then said that its lucky he wasn't a traffic cop, or he would have done me for 6 points, a large fine and been in court on summons.

After 1 more telling off he lets me go on my way.

Looks like all my luck for the year has been used up in just one night.

P.S. I'm not normally an irratic driver, i was just in a right strange mood last night. A lesson has been well and truely learnt.

Eesh.. close shave How fast were you travelling? Glad he let you off with a warning.. just take the next two weeks easy, you don't want to lose your license and have to start the whole two year probation over again

man that was a close shave...thats why i always drive at the speed limit..i already got 3 points so another 3 and its bye bye licence ;-(

flippen 'eck, bet u feel a bit lucky after that! I passed my 2 year probation period thing not long ago, quite a relief, i'm glad you don't have to go through it all again !

Yeah, I'd hate to have to start mine from scratch.. just over a year into it now - I've built up a phobia of speed cameras, which is handy from the point of view of protecting it, but not great for tension levels on long drives, so worred I'll drift over the limit and get flashed.. Can't wait to be off it though, I always feel so nervous that I'm going to screw up and have to start again...

GC i feel the same when i'm driving places i don't know...i'm looking at my speed every few seconds terrified..and they say speed camera's are a safety device...

I'm really bad for looking at me speedo, especially with my leadfoot while I'm still getting used to it. I'm that focused on my speedo sometimes, I have drifted a bit... Not good. But I value my licence.

I nearly got screwed by a under cover 206 police car. was pissin me off doin 65 in the outside lane of the motorway, when both other lanes where free, so i move rite over too the slow lane and when past. He gave me a quick flash of his hidden strobs hidden in the grill as a warning.

i have 3 points and got them 6 months into getting my licence ....i then was constanly looking at my speedo then after my 2 years of having my lisence i always speed...never at the limit normally...i know its bad but 30 just seems so slow now. Its like i have to speed to be happy... the only time i stick to limits is when there is a reduced speed limit on the motorway or around schools and stuff.



Ross

I'm hoping you haven't use up all our luck with that as well!

On the one hand i'm glad that the regular police are willing to engage in actions like that, on the other hand.... a red 206? WTF... Gestapo tactics ahoy

GC that's totally where I come from with cameras... out on thursday night, just having a cruise to alleviate some boredom --- keeping within all limits apart from an occasional blast up to 70-ish on a wide, straight bit of A-road... drifting down a quite steep hill through a complicated bit of road, lights, many side roads, a garage, some cars wanting to turn right across me.. in a 40 limit.. Already trying to scrub some speed as it was building up, foot on brake gently but not stabbing it. Looking at some other hazard that had caught my eye, then there's a white line across the road --- what? Eyes go up to another unusual shape in the peripheral vision, its a Truvelo MoFo... eyes go down... 48mph.... crap! Push the brake a bit harder but there's not really any time as i'm already crossing the line.
Consolation i can take is that from what i think i worked out today, i was only doing about 44-45mph, so it depends how "evil" derbyshire p.f. are with setting their camera trigger speeds.

But a regular traffic policeman would have seen me coming down the hill at a fairly constant pace in a low gear, me going past with brake lights on, and thought nothing of letting me go, especially if he was hidden where I wouldn't have spotted him and resumed cruising at 39-41 afterwards. Instead there's a possibility of 3 points and a fine because i dared to pay more attention to what was going on with the road than keeping an absolute lid on my speed to within an arbitrarily set limit.

M@Turner wrote: theres a police badge been held out of the window by the passenger.

im sure theres naff all he can do?

I seem to remember that police cars have to have uniformed officers to pull you up?

but on getting away with it

metz wrote:GC i feel the same when i'm driving places i don't know...i'm looking at my speed every few seconds terrified..and they say speed camera's are a safety device...

Agree totally but I have seen things done a better way. Can't remember where I was, an a road out in the sticks probably and what they did there was have a countdown to a new speed limit with the limit very clearly posted, like the markings for motorway offslips. Made that journey a lot smoother and less worrying

Funny thing, that drive in derbyshire was rife with 40 and 50 limits on what would seem to be perfectly good A-roads at first sight, but after a couple miles driving you got to see that they were actually quite sensible ideas, as it kept you at a good even pace for what could be quite tricky roads in many places, and you really shouldnt be going any much faster. That they had to put a camera in such a feckin' stupid place after i'd been so far through it all was a right annoyance. There had been a couple before, but signposted (this one wasnt!) and easy to see, in obviously difficult (but not "confusing") places.
(another is-it-stupid is-it-genius move was the lines for a Gatso painted where there wasn't one - right on the very boundary of a 40 going into a 30... smart way to make you drop to the new limit without penalising those who are a little slow on the uptake, but also a dumb way of making someone brick themselves and stand on the anchors instead of working off that 10mph gently and safely by easing off the throttle)

Never thought i'd find myself saying that you see.. a sensible 40 or 50 limit on a rural/semirural A road? Surely not...

By contrast there were a lot of more minor roads where there's the usual blanket 60mph limit even though you could safely reach 40 nevermind 60 once in a blue moon... giving eejits free license to try to hit that magic speed (or 50, 70 in some folks minds - whatever, still farrrrrr too quick) and tailgate anyone going slower even if said person is already going just that little bit quicker than they can see to stop.
Bafflingly there were points where it flicked between 60, 30, 60, 40, 60, etc on these roads even though you couldnt travel any slower or quicker between them and a blanket 30 (say... 35? to be bold?) would be far better.

Kind of mixed priorities there!

The whole camera issue makes me glad to live in the west mids where the whole attitude is quite relaxed and cool and they seem to be well-located / signed / out in the open and a last line of enforcement rather than first line of revenue.. all except for the b*st*rd M42 south of J8, of course, which might currently be the country's biggest unadmitted traffic experiment - how effecitvely can we tyranise ordinary people into doing 50 on a 70-80 road by using massive and overbearing numbers of cameras and fear of them? (before the "real" one with the variable speed limit / use-hard-shoulder / etc signs go live)

VS north wales or bloody staffordshire which look to be hellholes for this nonsense.

I've been busy working the last few days so only just got chance to reply to you guys.

I think i was doing about 85-90mph . I don't normally speed to that extent but as i say, i was in a silly mood. Been driving at the speed limit on the roads now, motorway is a different matter though. I believe 70mph is too slow for a motorway.

I felt like the luckiest man on earth that night. i must admit though, that i had a huge grin on my mouth seen as the cop only gave me a warning. To be honest, i think he might have been off duty, but due to me being such an idiot he thought he'd teach me a lesson. Glad he did though. It has calmed me down loads.

85-90?

i spent the majority of my time on the motorway at 85 mph