KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
In this month’s edition we feature more road traffic issues relevant to the trade supplied by Patterson Law. These questions are based on real enquiries that we have received from professional drivers.
If you need advice on motoring matters please email
e.patterson@
pattersonlaw.co.uk or call us on 01626 359800 for free legal advice.
Q A
I received two speeding tickets only 14 minutes apart, both at 35 in a 30. I did a speed awareness course last month for a separate
offence so the punishment for these will be a £100 fine and 3 points each. I don’t know what my best course of action is as they are the same date and should be classed as the same journey, but I don’t know if it means I will get 3 points or 6. Any advice on what I should do will be greatly appreciated.
Firstly, you must nominate yourself as the driver on each occasion. Failure to do so will see you prosecuted for failing to
give
information. However, nominating yourself as the driver is not accepting guilt. You can nominate yourself as the driver yet still defend the substantive allegations against you.
Once you have nominated yourself as the driver, you will be offered a fixed penalty of 3 points for each. At this point, I would accept the fixed penalty on the first one. But what to do with the second is a little more complicated. It depends if these two tickets were one speeding offence recorded twice, or if it was two separate offences. What I mean is - if you go into a supermarket and steal a loaf of bread and a pint of milk, it doesn’t matter if it was seen by two different CCTV cameras, it’s still just one offence and you’d only be charged with one count of theft. The same applies here – if this was just one speeding offence, it doesn’t matter that it was seen by two cameras, it should be treated as just one offence.
But, if you went into a shop and stole a loaf of bread and then 14 minutes later went into another shop and stole a pint of milk, it doesn’t matter that the two offences are only 14 minutes apart, they are two separate offences and will be charged as two offences. So here it depends whether you were continuously travelling at 35 between the two cameras, or whether you slowed down in between,
64
came to a stop, then sped back up and exceeded the limit a second time. We need to examine how far apart they were, if you passed any junctions or roundabouts, if the traffic was heavy, etc.
If we are to challenge it, the correct procedure is to accept the fixed penalty on the first, reject the fixed penalty on the second and take the second to court. There we would plead not guilty and have a trial on the basis that this was one offence and you have already been punished – you received 3 points with the fixed penalty. You can’t be punished twice for one offence. However, the risk is that if we take it all the way to trial and we lose, the fines/costs at court would increase from £100 up to about £1,000.
Q A
I knocked someone off their motorbike and they suffered a bruised arm and several broken ribs. It was my fault, I turned right
across oncoming traffic and I didn’t see him. I went to an interview last week and gave my side of the story. The police told me he had made a full recovery. After the interview they said I would be getting a Postal Requisition for ‘causing serious Injury by careless driving’. Will I be banned?
The first thing to do is to get a lawyer involved. Causing serious injury by careless driving is a relatively new offence but is very serious.
Initially you’ll be sent a court date which you must attend - if you don’t, the court will issue a warrant for your arrest, and you’ll be held in custody until the next court session.
Before the hearing, we’ll need to consider your plea. On the face of it, I would suggest pleading guilty. It sounds like (a) there was serious injury (any broken bone will class as ‘serious’) and (b) you were driving carelessly as you turned right across his path.
Obviously, we will double check the evidence before we enter a plea and have a look at things such as the road layout and what speed the bike was travelling at, but if you accept both serious injury and careless driving, you may be best off pleading guilty and mitigating to keep the sentence to a minimum.
Even though it was an accident, and he made a full recovery, causing serious injury by careless driving carries a minimum 12-month disqualification, fines/costs, and a community order. It’s serious.
AUGUST 2024 PHTM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
