Caught Speeding Whilst Being Tailgaited

[samlouis83]

Hi there,

I'm looking for some advice. I was driving along a road this afternoon which is a 30 mph speed limit but many drivers speed up as very shortly it changes to a 40 mph zone.

Whilst driving along I was aggressively tailgated by a white Range Rover which was very intimidating and I had no where to pull over which resulted in my increasing my speed in the 30 zone to 40. I kept trying to break but the bloke driving just got closer to my bumper. As I (or we!) came down the road there was a police speed van in front which I'm pretty certain would have caught me speeding as a result.

Do I have any grounds to despite it and if so how would I prove it? Es I was in the wrong to speed to but I don't know what alternative I had as I had no way to shake him off. I have a clean driving licence and as I'm undergoing cancer treatment at the moment the fine is something I could do without.

Many thanks for all advice.

[vulcan42]

Rightly or wrongly, when I'm tailgated these days the rear fog light goes on and stays on.

[sunny-dave]

I know someone who has a set of blue christmas fairy lights on the parcel shelf ... and a switch near to hand ...

[ it's almost certainly illegal ... but quite effective ]

[bhg481]

We always find a good, long blast on the windscreen washers (may need to be repeated) works. It doesn't work if you have a roofbox on but otherwise tailgaters get fed up of having their windscreen sprayed.

[waterboatman]

If someone tailgates me I slow down even more.

[Cloverjo]

My driving instructor told me to put my brake on briefly to warn tailgaters off. I don't think you can prove someone made you speed.
I can't bear those people. Annoys me so much.

[fiction-factory]

Some good advice here.
I think the defence would fail. I can see how it is difficult to slow down once someone is so close to you but that doesn't explain how you got to be doing 40 in the first place. If you had not exceeded 30 the lorry would have just had to tailgate you at 30.

[DTCwordfan]

they get the spray from me.... that's what was recommended in my defensive driving course (from ex coppers).

[New Judge]

I've been doing a bit of reading on enforcement below the ACPO guidelines. David and ummm, when you (or your F-I-L) was done, were they stopped at the time or were they detected by automatic device (i.e. a camera)?

[sunny-dave]

NJ - round here (Northants) the fixed cameras and routine mobile van sites (pseudo police vehicles placed solely to raise revenue) do adhere to the ACPO guidelines.

The ones to be very, very careful with are the occasional hit-squads in vans responding to ''community concerns" - they seem to bust people at anything more than 1mph over the posted limit. Still using cameras - not 'stop at scene'.

The ACPO guidelines are just that - guidelines.

[New Judge]

Yes they certainly are, dave, and all the police and other advisory sites that I have looked at emphasise that. You can be done for 1mph over the limit and that is why, whenever I give advice on questions like this I always make it clear that the "allowance" does not create a new limit as some people seem to believe.

The reason I asked about the method of detection was that some forces clearly state within their policy documents that although the guidelines will normally be used, where there are aggravating features (such as in a busy High Street or near a school) a zero tolerance approach will follow. Of course cameras cannot use intelligence to determine whether a High Street is busy or whether it's school chucking out time and I believe the zero tolerance is more used when police are present at the time of the offence. Thanks for letting me know.

[ummmm]

NJ - it was years ago but I believe it was a speed camera. They've been turned off now. I don't if that's the same as all of Northants but in Northampton at least.

[TWR]

If someone was pushing me, push they will, I will not be intimidated by no-one" Unless the police with the blue light flashing, as said, I would never tap the brake lights, this can have the opposite affect when the idiot does pass you & should never be advised to do.