Free Traffic Legal Advice

Background:
I was driving home from work at night on an unlit rural road I was not familiar with. The road bent sharply to the right. I did not take evasive action and hit the wall that abutted the road. Later I was told that this is a frequent occurrence there (although its no excuse) I honestly have little recollection of what happened, but the collision was sufficient to deploy the airbags and the car was written off.
The police came and seized my dashcam sd card.
I have now received an SJPN notice.
I already have 9 points on my licence for speeding offences.
Effectively I know I am looking at losing my licence.

Any thoughts on the following:
I have been charged with two items:
1. Due care and attention
2. Crossing double white lines.

On the double white lines one, from the dashcam footage it looks marginal as to whether I crossed the lines. Also, in the details it says it was while overtaking. This is clearly incorrect, there was no overtaking involved.

I know that I'm going to lose my licence and as a result will lose my job. (My workplace is in a rural area 30 miles from where I live, I work shifts with irregular hours with special needs children, and there's no public transport)

Is it worth challenging the double white lines one?
If I plead not guilty to that, what is the likely timescale for it to come to court?

Any thoughts on range of penalty points I'm likely to get?

Thank you.
In reference to your question - it's all the same incident.

Based on your knowledge and experience - what do you think the likelihood is that, me losing my job due to genuinely no alternative transport options, would be considered exceptional hardship?

Here's the guidance the Magistrates will have in mind when considering your "Exceptional Hardship" argument:

When considering whether there are grounds to reduce or avoid a totting up disqualification the court should have regard to the following:

It is for the offender to prove to the civil standard of proof that such grounds exist. Other than very exceptionally, this will require evidence from the offender, and where such evidence is given, it must be sworn.

Where it is asserted that hardship would be caused, the court must be satisfied that it is not merely inconvenience, or hardship, but exceptional hardship for which the court must have evidence.

Almost every disqualification entails hardship for the person disqualified and their immediate family. This is part of the deterrent objective of the provisions combined with the preventative effect of the order not to drive.

If a motorist continues to offend after becoming aware of the risk to their licence of further penalty points, the court can take this circumstance into account.

Courts should be cautious before accepting assertions of exceptional hardship without evidence that alternatives (including alternative means of transport) for avoiding exceptional hardship are not viable.

Loss of employment will be an inevitable consequence of a driving ban for many people. Evidence that loss of employment would follow from disqualification is not in itself sufficient to demonstrate exceptional hardship; whether or not it does will depend on the circumstances of the offender and the consequences of that loss of employment on the offender and/or others.

As you can see, loss of employment alone is not normally deemed sufficient to avoid disqualification.

Quote from: edrob on Today at 12:19:11 pm

On the double white lines one, from the dashcam footage it looks marginal as to whether I crossed the lines.

Whether it was "marginal" is irrelevant. You don't need to cross the line to commit the offence: your vehicle has to to be "driven as to keep the first-mentioned continuous line on the right hand or off side of the vehicle". So the whole of your car must be to the left of the line at all times.

When I said marginal, I meant marginal as to whether I did or not. You cant see where the wheels are in relation to the line from the dashcam

"The police came and seized my dashcam sd card"

So did you just hand it over, belly up, or did you so under threat of PACE?