Speeding punishment - is a driving ban fair?

Question

I read recently that, in some states on the US, if you reach your maximum points limit on your licence then you are banned from driving – as in the UK.

HOWEVER, they have applied some common sense. You are allowed a curfew or window where you can drive to work and back only. This means that you do not loose your job, your house and possibly not be ruined for life simply because some jobs-worth copper has hidden in a lay-by attempting to catch you speeding.

Now why can’t we do something sensible like this?

The implication of loosing your drivers licence in the UK can be devastating. I understand that it is the law not to speed – but it is also illegal to burgle someone else’s property. The severity of punishment for burglary (a far more premeditated and deliberate act of criminality) does not compare with a mere indiscretion of being caught driving too fast.

And lets face it – the police find it far easier to catch you speeding than committing real crimes - but a ban?

Answer 1

you go to prison for burglary

you use public transportation if your license is revoked

kind of comparing apples & oranges, there

Answer 2

The average sentence for burglary is approximately 4 years in prison. The average punishment for speeding is 3 pts and a £50 fine.
The law does not therefore equate the two.
You can only be banned immediately outright for speeding if you are 30mph over the limit. Then it will average about 2 weeks.
Otherwise you are a 'totter' and have thereby repeatedly been caught speeding. So it hasn't just crept up on you.
If you have 9pts and carry on speeding regardless, who's to blame for losing your licence? The 'jobs-worth' copper?

Long distance lorry drivers, delivery drivers and cabbies (to take three examples) are the least likely to lose their licences due to speeding despite the fact they are on the road most often.

It;'s a bit like complaining that you have a theft conviction because you inadvertently shop-lifted a few times.
No-one is forcing that right foot down other than you.

Answer 3

A motor vehicle is a potentially lethal weapon. Anyone who cannot get the message to obey carefully worked out speed restrictions after about four times of being cautioned does not deserve ANY privilege to use the roads. Maybe you should visit a mortuary and see some of the results that speeding can cause and then visit the bereaved families of the victims. If it were power of the law in my hands you would be jailed for 6 months after the fourth offence and made to totally re train and sit a driving test again for a probationary licence. Any offences in say the two year probationary period, I would re sentence you to 12 months jail and so on till you got it into your dumb brain how dangerous you are. Do not take lightly speeding in a motor vehicle and respect human life and safety, or keep off the road !!!!
30mph = 44 feet per second and twice that speed on impact head on. And where are you rushing to ? The next set of traffic lights.
THINK !! FOOL !

Answer 4

The speed limits are set and clearly marked in order for you to understand and adhere. Now I can understand someone complaining about being caught a few miles an hour over the limit. In this case you wouldn't get banned unless from the totting up of points. Now unless your really stupid, when you have points on your licence you take this as a warning and drive more carefully. When you have 9 points you drive even more carefully.

If you are driving well in excess of the limit.... say 80mph in a 30mph limit, then this is a clear and blatant disregard of the that limit. Speed limits are not designed purely to piss people off, they are designed for a purpose, mainly safety. If you choose to blatantly ignore the limit, as in the example above, then you must accept the cosequences when you are caught. Likewise if you're stupid enough to tot up 12 points.

Yes the implications of losing your driving licence in the UK can be devastating. However even more devastating is losing a loved one through someone driving dangerously, or without due car and attention, over the prescribed limit, on drugs, .... I could go on. I take it from your comments that you have not lost a loved one.

There are already too many idiots on the roads. Allowing people to continue to drive would be a big mistake.

As to comparing this to the punishments for crime....... well we could look at hundreds of different offences and sentences that do not befit the crime committed.

Answer 5

"not be ruined for life simply because some jobs-worth copper has hidden in a lay-by attempting to catch you speeding."

So it's MY fault that you speed enough to lose all of your points? Actually I was just told the other day by someone I was "ruining" their life because I charged them for going 115km/hr in a posted 60km/hr zone at the time where crossing guards were helping kids cross the street. He was going almost twice the posted speed limit and I was ruining his life? If he loses his job, house etc. then so be it. We all make choices in life and he chose to drive like an idiot.
DRIVING IS A PRIVILEGE not a right, find out what the bus schedule is in your area, many, many people manage to keep jobs without owning a car.

Answer 6

You have to accumulate 12 points before you get a ban unless you've done something really outrageous (100mph in a 30 limit for example) So you'd have to be caught speeding four times (three points per offence). Of course this doesn't take into account the times you didn't get caught, so if you've managed to aquire 12 points it would indicate that you speed as a matter of course and are unlikely to moderate your bahaviour voluntarily.

Contrary to popular belief, police do not issue speeding ticket as a revenue exercise. I conduct regular speed checks at numerous locations. These locations are selected because of a number of factors, the main one being at the request of members of the public who write to the police, their MPs or Parish councils demanding that action be taken to curb speeding motorists at specific locations.

Whenever I conduct these checks I am approached by pedestrians, local residents and even motorists who ask me to conduct more speed checks. So I'm happy to continue with this activity despite the obvious displeasure of those who get caught.

I don't think a ban is unfair, after all you are responsible for your own actions. You may be able to avoid a ban by electing to go to court and plead special circumstances and describe the hardship a ban would cause.

Yes it is easier to catch speeding motorists than real criminals because real criminals deliberately try to avoid the police, wheras speeding motorists drive around seemingly oblivious to their surroundings.

I have motorists who happily drive by my speed check at 29mph with a smug grin on their face and then rev their engine and accelerate away at 50mph. Their grin fades very quickly when they see my blues in their mirror.

Answer 7

Well lets face it, if you get caught speeding so many times,

That you lose your drivers license.

You do not belong on the road driving.

And maybe they should have thought about their job, their house and their life.

Before they got caught speeding at least 4 times in a year.

And that's the point, it isn't a one time deal, where you weren't paying attention.

You repeatably violated the law.

And why would anyone who was within one speeding ticket of losing their drivers license, speed at all ?

Heck, i would be driving 5 mph under the speed limit untill enough time passed to take one of the tickets off my record.

Answer 8

maximum unfair. He might desire to have been given a a lot longer sentence. He did no longer kill all of us this time yet who comprehend what could take place yet yet again? He replaced into being idiotic and a authentic danger on the line, to no longer point out theft.there's a place and time for each little thing and if he needed tochronic a vehicle at such speed then he might desire to have went to a race song!!! I particular Stirling Moss, Graham Hill does no longer have agreed he might desire to be so stupid on a public street.

Answer 9

licenses are a privelage granted by the duly appointed authority.
If a person choses to keep breaching the laws appointed by the same authority why should they be allowed to keep driving.

yes i know how easy it is to drive to fast, but to continually get caught until you rack up 12 points.

i honestly think a ban is completely justified.
If you cant keep to the laws of the land go to another country where they dont enforce the traffic laws at all, but i think youll find that they dont enforce most laws and you have to suffer all that too.

dont blame the police they join to stop rapists amd help people, but they cant those which laws to enforce, that leads to corruption.

*****And street cops arent the ones finding rapists you twit , thats why we have investigation teams, like Local crime units, Murder Investigation Teams, Case InvestigationTeam, and CID etc.****
Just be glad they are out there at all and your not getting robbed and raped.

IF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN A GREAT BRITISH LANDS AND ENJY THE FREEDOMS THERIN , THEN OBAY THE DAMN LAWS TOO.

YOU ALWAYS HAVE THE CHOICE TO PUSH OFF.

Answer 10

You don't lose your license for the first several speeding tickets.

It's only those who've accumulated many that lose their license for it - unless of course there is a reckless driving, dwi, or another 'big' offense on your record as well.

Too many people die of speed. There is really never a good reason to speed - better to be late to work than to die in an accident - possibly injuring others.

Answer 11

If you've got to the point where you acquire a driving ban for speeding, does that tell you something about your driving ability? A burglar is unlikely to kill you, but a speeding car with a useless driver most certainly can!