Speeding whilst overtaking on a single carriageway

ultralaser

ultralaser

ultralaser

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So today I was on way back from the supermarket on a local A road, I'm doing about 63ish but slowing as the car in front of me is doing about 44ish, the oncoming traffic is about a mile away so I overtake (might have got upto about 75, but straight back down once pulling back in to <65). Lucky me there's a mobile police van at about a mile and half in front (with good visibility of where I did the overtake) wondering if I'll get a ticket?

Although it is illegal to go over 60 on an SC, it's also safer to overtake quickly (and even the highway code teaches you that).... so a little perplexed as to what the police would do in that situation.
 
Whilst the highway code says performing an overtake quickly is safer, it doesn't imply you should speed to do so.

If the police pinged you at 75 on a single carriageway, a ticket is on its way.
 
I was overtaking someone at 120mph the other day when I got caught and pulled over. I told the policeman it was safest to get past quickly and he said "Oh right, I was about to send you to court to get a lengthy driving ban, but now you've explained that, I won't because you obviously the quicker you drive, the safer it is when you overtake". I said "Exactly, my only regret is that I didn't overtake at 150mph to be extra safe" and he said "Yeh I was just thinking that, and I may give you a ticket for not safely overtaking". I apologised and promised him next time I overtook someone, I'd do it at 170mph just to be super safe. He said as long as I do that, he would let me off with a ticket.

Then I woke up.
 
Btw, where do you live where there are these mile and a half long arrow straight roads?! Camera vans can't get you from a mile and a half away. Generally they'll get you from a few hundred metres away.
 
So whilst I see your point Gaygle do think there is the element of common sense to apply, the road is North Yorkshire, basically a long straight slightly uphill stretch, so if you're at the top looking down you do have a view of 1-1.5 miles (especially with good visibility, image a straight valley), but if they can't tag you from a mile away, then yeah I'm probably okay then.
 
Getting a reading on something a mile away is pretty unlikely. Plus any photo they take isn't going to be clear enough to read the plates at that range. When you see the photos people have been sent it's never more than 50-100m.
 
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Try driving in Warrington.

A road can be 40, then go down to 30, then back to 40, then down to 20.

They put cameras everywhere that the speed limit transitions like that. If you don't know the roads well you will get a ticket.
 
ultralaser said:
Although it is illegal to go over 60 on an SC, it's also safer to overtake quickly (and even the highway code teaches you that).... so a little perplexed as to what the police would do in that situation.
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Book you. Overtaking is not a defence: the court view is that if the only way to safely overtake is to exceed the speed limit then you should not be overtaking.
 
If speed limits were unenforceable if you use the wrong carriageway it would be ace as I could do 200mph when the road was clear and pass EVERYTHING. I like this new law, I commend it do the house!
 
I'm not trying to argue they would be wrong to give me a ticket and as "Regt53" says I will 'suck it up', I guess just more interested in the reality of what a police officer would think. Googling around I've seen mention of a few cases where it actually went to court and the magistrate reduced the fine...... and more generally is it the right use of the law. In a similar way, I was watching on of those terrible police interceptor programs a while back and the copper is following a silver S3, if a police car isn't fitted with a laser system they can use their own speedo to see if they are breaking the law but must follow them for a certain amount of time, interesting the copper in that case, was waiting to see if the speeding was *persistent* and I think he even used the phase "I'll see if he slows down".... with overtaking the speed increase is very temporary, and not a persistent thing, and with the overall goal of the RTA it's about increasing safety (not slowing motorists down). I guess my thinking (and I'm wondering if a coppers would be too) that going over the speed limit (lets say below 20% over) to pass a slow moving car (whilst illegal) is probably safer than trying to pass a car going 50 and say 52 mph (which is legal if it is even possible to assume that is safe at any time on UK roads). Just interested...
 
TallPaul1878 said:
Try driving in Warrington.

A road can be 40, then go down to 30, then back to 40, then down to 20.

They put cameras everywhere that the speed limit transitions like that. If you don't know the roads well you will get a ticket.
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Yea it's almost like they do it to purposely catch people out and generate extra cash...
 
They love putting camera vans in these spots - particularly popular are the few 2 lane stretches on the a5 in Wales. My dad got caught at 72 in a 60 last year, overtaking a long line of caravans / trucks.

We all know it's a load of ****, but at the end of the day you've exceeded the posted limit so you have no defence whatsoever.
 
Gaygle said:
Btw, where do you live where there are these mile and a half long arrow straight roads?! Camera vans can't get you from a mile and a half away. Generally they'll get you from a few hundred metres away.
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This one is common for camera vans near me, 1 mile dead straight extra wide NSL road, van parks at the roundabout at the end. As it starts with a gentle sweeping right hander (before the 1 mile straight) you can't see down the side to see if something is that far ahead. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.0...4!1sTSkzjKqshwTx1tJ09QCrvQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Only reason they have cameras on that stretch is because the junction before the straight is an accident blackspot, but instead of watching the junction, it's safer to catch people speeding down the straight instead.
 
Apparently in Spain you are allowed upto 20 km/h over the posted limit for an overtake maneuver. a lot of sense in this. We have some stupid rules here on speed limits.
 
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