Woops..speeding/racing

[n3vrmind]

Id goto court, explain that although you had misjudged your speed you do accept that you were speeding and accept the consequences for such however you contend that you were not racing but simply trying to gain the attention of the other motorist and got briefly carried away, also then beg, plead and grovel

As for the insurance, if your mother had insured the car and yourself so that you had two policies covering the same vehicle that would be fraud (since you could claim on one without affecting NCD on the other, get a double payout, etc etc) however since you only have one policy its not fraud, that policy however is no use whatsoever. The only way it would be valid is if your mother was to sign the car over to you on the V5 and even then your on dodgy ground but they might not check the date the ownership was passed to you. You are not permitted to insure a car that is not your property (this is why other vehicle cover when your over 25 will only be third party and not cover the car you are driving)

 

[focusna02]

Still not heard from court..been driving around everynight and haven't been spoken too.
Being a good boy
Will keep you all updated.

 

[snowdog]

Street racing, for doing 82 in a 60 ? That is ridiculous imo. A complete joke if they consider that ''racing''.

 

[BigBruiserAl]

What kind of car can you do 82mph on a b road and not notice then? even my R33 Syline give me slap at that speed to pay attention. In the great words of axel foily "Can you smell it"

 

[Dup]

A friend of mine was banned for street racing becasue he and another car were speeding on a dual carraigeway. The other car passed him (they were already doing 80-90) and went faster.

My friend didn't know the other car/driver at all and wasn't even interested in racing it, but what he didn't know was they passed an unmakred Mk5 Fiesta driven by a police officer. Now this car is not even equipped with any kind of lights or sirens, it's just a general use car but the officer radiod a taffic car and it pulled over my friend down the road.

My friend was banned for racing and dangerous driving solely based on the fact that the following Fiesta had to reach a speed of 125mph to catch up and that was the speed they claimed he was doing. There was no evidence and no attempt to catch the other vehicle (Astra van I think), they just wanted to stop the shiny Merc with the young driver. To top it off it was plastered all over the local news and nearly all the information given out by the police was pretty much BS.

I would fully expect to expect the worse and be prepared legally for it. It took well over a year to get to court and then took a good deal of time to come to some kind of conclusion. A big waste of time and money for a "my word against his" case, but it does happen I'm afraid.

If you're speeding and you're fully aware of it you take it on the chin, but to be falsely accused of racing is much much worse when considering insurance and work related driving in the future and there's no way to prove otherwise, its a your word against mine case.

What kind of car can you do 82mph on a b road and not notice then? even my R33 Syline give me slap at that speed to pay attention. In the great words of axel foily "Can you smell it"

Our 9-5 does this quite easily being soft sprung quietish car. The roads where he is are usually quite smooth and well kept too, as opposed to the craply maintained roads I have to endure

 

[kaiowas]

The increasing mis-use of the "racing on the public highway" charge is quite concerning. Actual racing on the highway is incredibly reckless and dangerous and the punishment attached the the offence correctly reflects this however it's becoming more and more common for people to be charged with this for simply following another car at speed, with the courts tendency to accept the judgement of a police officer as fact then increasing numbers of drivers are getting completely shafted for pretty minor offences.

 

[markweatherill]

You can say a charge of road racing would need a witness who can state he saw some jockeying for position, multiple overtakes, weaving and blocking etc. Some evidence of actual 'racing'.
On the other hand, simply maintaining an illegal speed with another driver could - just about - be construed as 'racing' in some scenarios. Imagine a group of Fast Drivers out for a Hoon. Just by keeping up with each other they could be argued to be 'racing'.

Is there a definition for 'racing' as it's used in this context?

 

[Housey]

 

[NickXX]

The police will try and pin all sorts of offences to being street racing. It is a very serious offence.

'Motor racing on the public highway' is a Major motoring offence and carries similar penalties to Dangerous Driving. I.e. Mandatory minimum 1 year ban, Class D fine (up to £2,500) and don't expect to insure anything nice after you stop using the bus.

I would do all that you can to go for a not-guilty plea. Get in touch with a solicitor.

 

[NickXX]

The increasing mis-use of the "racing on the public highway" charge is quite concerning. Actual racing on the highway is incredibly reckless and dangerous and the punishment attached the the offence correctly reflects this however it's becoming more and more common for people to be charged with this for simply following another car at speed, with the courts tendency to accept the judgement of a police officer as fact then increasing numbers of drivers are getting completely shafted for pretty minor offences.

It is very concerning, and yes, drivers can get shafted under this law for minor offences. In my experience police offices are very quick to jump to conclusions which the CPS then latch onto. Maybe they do this because it is very expensive and that they just assume that motorists will just roll over and accept it.

The CPS are then too lazy/snowed under to do any proper research and cases can get dragged through court only for common sense to prevail when the Magistrates actually give the accused a fair say on the matter...