Free Traffic Legal Advice

Any advice or experiences please as I'm sh*tting myself!

I have done two speed awareness courses in the past. On one of them I was discussing the speeds needed to trigger speed awareness & prosecution with the instructor. He advised me that speed limit + 10% + 2mp over the limit would trigger a fpn and that provided you were between this and speed limit + 10% + 9mph you were eligible for speed awareness.

So I rarely speed at all these days, the exception being on the motorway, where I would ensure my speed did not exceed 75mph.

I have done several motorway journeys recently without any issues at all.

Saturday night driving South on the M1 from Nottingham I was sitting with the cruise control on 75 mph, it's smart motorway with the HADECS cameras at the side of the gantries. Initially, no problems, passed cameras without issue as usual. Somewhere around the Northamptonshire border, I saw a flash as I passed one it didn't really register at the time as I was doing 75 and didn't think I could possibly have triggered it and put it down to cars behind me. I've then gone past another camera and thought again there was a flash but didn't seem very bright and there were other cars around. By now I'm getting wary and on approaching the next camera, I've taken the cruise control off and slowed to 72 maybe 73mph, no other cars around, almighty flash as I pass the camera.

Has anyone had any experience of getting caught and issued tickets at these speeds on the motorway? Have camera tolerances been lowered? I've driven these roads before many times without issue. Is there any other explanation? I am concerned I may have tripped multiple cameras in a row and will receive multiple fixed penalty notices even though it was the same stretch of road I assume they will just treat them as separate offences?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks

Oh man! How I laughed when I read this. Not in a nasty way you understand.  It just makes me wonder if there really is a parallel universe...

What was the outcome in the end please?

Almost identical.

My partner's car was travelling south on the M1 in light rain in the early hours somewhere south of Hotel Chocolat Factory Shop (which I believe is Northamptonshire).  I say light rain but there were signs warning about surface water (which just made me think the civil engineers got the design wrong).  Lo and behold there were rivulets of water tracking down the left hand side of the middle lane in places that were further south of where the vehicle was flashed.

There were signs of an obstruction in the road (which never materialised) and at some point a reduction down to 50mph where, what I now know to be HADECS on gantries.

Cruise control was set at either 73 or 75.  The vehicle had overtaken a low loader with a car on the back shortly before.  Light levels were poor.

As soon as the driver noticed the 50 mph limit (which was quite late as visibility was not brilliant, they deactivated the cruise but didn't brake because of perceived proximity of car transporter and weather conditions.

They were flashed.  Car transporter was also flashed.  It was at this point that the driver noted that the transporter wasn't particularly close at this point.

Are these cameras simply revenue generation cameras?

I think I am familiar with the 14 day NIP requirements.  Does that mean that if a letter is received and it is dated within 12 days of the date of alleged offence that it is deemed served on the 14th day even if it arrives on the 15th or 16th day?

It's pointless trying to guess the actual speed but it may likely be greater than 65mph at the time of the flash as the vehicle didn#t have sufficient time to reduce the speed down.

Allegedly, there were no other signs prior to the gantry that flashed advising of the new speed limit. Does that help in any way as I am sure they do not expect drivers to just stamp on the brakes to reduce the speed from 70-50 in a matter of say 50-100 metres?  That would be dangerous in such conditions.