Nuxx:Bce3d385-9f62-4171-99dd-1f458eda7475@g19g2000vbi.googlegroups.com

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!postnews.google.com!g19g2000vbi.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: Nuxx Bar  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling,uk.transport Subject: Dreadful Treatment of Motorist Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 02:55:11 -0700 (PDT) Lines: 96 Organization: http://groups.google.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 86.163.208.50 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: posting.google.com 1241603711 12813 127.0.0.1 (6 May 2009 09:55:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 09:55:11 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: g19g2000vbi.googlegroups.com; posting-host=86.163.208.50; posting-account=7_6kYAkAAABD6HrjM0VxehwvZOKMxm4g User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042316 Firefox/3.0.10 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729),gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Bytes: 5298 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:699672

It's things like this which make me believe that:

- The authorities are viciously anti-motorist and totally unfair towards drivers, as is every aspect of their speed camera enforcement. Drivers accused of speeding are treated *ludicrously* heavy-handedly, time and time again.

- No-one can genuinely believe otherwise after reading stories like this.

- Therefore those who continue to wholeheartedly support the way that speed cameras are used in this country are very likely to be anti- motorist themselves. If not, they're either in denial about how anti- motorist camera enforcement is, or they're too stupid to realise it.

The whole thing is utterly appalling. When will this war on the motorist stop? When will drivers accused of trivial speeding "offences" get treated proportionately?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/tm_headline=3Ddriver-beats-speed-f= ine-by-proving-old-runabout-can-t-go-that-fast%26method=3Dfull%26objectid= =3D21052905%26siteid=3D115875-name_page.html

Driver beats speed fine by proving old runabout can't go that fast

Exclusive: By Richard Smith 19/01/2009

Motorist Dale Lyle was driven mad when he was told speed cameras caught him doing 98mph - and spent a year and =A31,200 proving his innocence.

Dale, 21, even bought back the Honda Civic after selling it on - then paid an independent driving expert to take it on a two-mile test circuit at top speed.

And today he is celebrating victory after proving his old banger could not go that fast. The results showed that even driven flat-out the 1.3 litre runabout Honda could only do 85.4mph in fourth gear and 81.3mph in fifth gear.

Finance worker Dale - who has a clean licence - said yesterday: "It's ridiculous the lengths I've had to go to prove I was innocent. The whole thing has been a shambles, a waste of money.

"I've never driven any car at 98mph. I'm pretty careful and like to keep costs low by conserving petrol. But I certainly wouldn't want to drive my Honda Civic at 98mph. It's such a small car I wouldn't feel safe - it's a glorified Japanese shopping trolley.

"I told the magistrates I didn't believe the car would even go that fast but it was quite a shocker when they said prove it."

Dale, from Staple Hill, Bristol, got a summons for speeding on a 70mph road near Plymouth on December 13, 2007.

A friend who was a passenger wrote a statement in support of Dale's claim. But by the time magistrates told Dale to "prove it" at a hearing last June he had sold the car. So he paid =A3600 to buy back the Honda - and another =A3600 to speed-test it at a circuit in Bedfordshire.

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Dale added: "The video evidence the Crown Prosecution Service sent me was just appalling. When the three-minute film starts the mobile speed camera is panning into the sky, then focuses on the middle lane but it doesn't take any readings. Then you see the operator point the camera at me as I pull out into the third lane, but cars on inside lanes obstruct the view.

"When the 98mph reading flashes up there is another car in the picture - I think the camera must have confused the distance with the other car.

"It makes you wonder how many people say 'fine, give me the points' when they're not guilty. I was warned I would face a maximum =A31,000 fine and a six-month ban.

It's all been very worrying and I'd have been banned when I was due to drive to Germany on a holiday."

Dale even rejected an offer from the CPS telling him they would accept he was doing 80mph - and was finally told the case had been dropped.

He now intends to ask magistrates to award him =A31,200 compensation to cover the costs of proving his innocence.

A CPS spokesman said: "We came to the conclusion that there was no longer sufficient evidence to provide a prospect of a conviction. Recompense is a matter between the defendant and the court."

98mph: Speed mobile camera supposedly clocked Dale driving at in his 1.3L Honda Civic

85.4mph: Maximum speed attained on test track by independent driving expert