Speeding is probably the most common type of offence in road traffic law, even with signposts everywhere for speed limits and speed camera areas people are still getting caught out driving too fast. The police also run their own speeding operations and campaigns to try and cut down speeding. Road traffic law has been created in order to ensure that speeding offences are processed through the current procedures and that those guilty of speeding are punished in accordance with the law.
Speeding will occur when someone is driving over the accepted legal speed limit on any kind of road.? Speed limits vary between roads and any change in speed limit on a road is required by law to have a sign indicating a change in the speed limit. Say for instance if someone is driving on a 60mph road and they drive through into an area where the speed limit is 30mph, there should be a sign clearly stating this change. There are various penalties for speeding offences and all will depend on the circumstances and the seriousness of the speeding offence. I will now go into more detail about these various outcomes of speeding offences.
Potential Penalties for Speeding
If you are caught committing a speeding offence you will be issued a Notice of Intended Punishment, otherwise known as a NIP. If you are caught speeding by a police officer you will either receive a verbal NIP or you will have 14 days to serve the NIP.? If you are captured speeding by a speed camera, then you will be issued a NIP through the post. Once receiving a NIP you will have a total of 28 days in which to reply, any failure to do so could result in gaining 6 points on your licence and a fine of up to ?1000. If you do reply to the NIP within the 28 days you will only get the usual punishment of 3 points on your licence and a ?60 fine.
There are different punishments for more serious offences which will be caused by the driver being over the speed limit by 20mph. This could result in prosecution and the driver needing to attend court. The driver will need to plead guilty or not guilty and proceed accordingly. A driver that is found guilty will be given 3-6 points on their licence and a fine of up to ?1000 ? ?2500 depending on the location of the speeding offence.
The most drastic punishment for a serious speeding offence is a disqualification from driving. This is usually occur when the driver is caught speeding 30mph or more over the speed limit. The length of the ban will all depend on the severity of the offence and can last somewhere between a week and 3 months.
Potential Defences
Even though speeding offences are generally very easy to prove and hard to defend against, there are certain circumstances where drivers that are found guilty of speeding can put forward a defence. Here are a few examples:
? If you did not receive you?re NIP within 14 days since the day of the offence, then you could have a valid defence.
? If you were speeding because you were being chased and had a fear for your safety you may have a potential defence.
? You or your passenger had a serious emergency and you needed to speed to resolve the issue quickly then you may potentially have a defence.
? If you think there has been a mistake in identifying your car. Such as the registration could have been incorrectly read, or that someone has duplicated your licence plates.
? If you can prove that you were not driving at the time of the incident and that you have thoroughly investigated all the possibilities but still have no idea who was driving at the time of the speeding offence, you could have a successful defence.
Any defence against a speeding offence are very hard to prove. If you intend to plead not guilty then you should attempt to defend yourself against the speeding claim by seeking the advice from an expert road traffic law solicitor. This is when your chances for success would improve dramatically.
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I am a legal writer who specialises in road traffic law, if you would like more information about speeding offences and would like to find a solicitor, I suggest you have a look at lawontheweb.co.uk.
Article from articlesbase.com
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Source: http://hardtofindcars.net/road-traffic-law-and-speeding/
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