I was stopped by the police for doing 100MPH on a motorway that was deserted. Was I driving dangerously?

Question

Suppose I had been doing the same on the German Autobahn - would I have been driving dangerously?

Please stick to answering the question. The question. Don't give me a lecture.

Oh dear you are a bunch of muppets.
I did ask you to restrict your comments to answering my two questions. But most of you have brought the law into the debate - totally irrelevant to the question as to whether it was safe or not.

The motorway was deserted apart from the police car, which I HAD seen, because I had overtaken it at 80MPH 2 miles earlier, and kept it in my rear view mirror for that time.

For those of you that don't know, a UK motorway is a fenced-off no-pedestrian area with three-lane dual carriageway.
The idea that something could just "appear" such as an animal is laughable. Equally on a well serviced car a tyre blowout is very rare, and even then would be unlikely to result in full loss of control.

Oh and this all happened 3 years ago. I've already lost the three points I had on my licence from it, and the £60 fine was fine.

Answer 1

How safe was the police car that caught up with you, it must have been going faster than you!

Assuming that you keep your car well maintained, your car and the police car that followed you, were probably as safe (or no more dangerous) as each other in respect to an unexpected event such as animals jumping out into the carriageway, and tyre blowouts.

Whilst the police may have their advanced training, I wonder how many are any more competent than the typical experienced motorist. I've seen enough of them change lane without indication, and astoundingly one police van pull off the hard shoulder of the M6 without indicating and causing vehicles behind to brake hard. I would suggest that the driver of the police vehicle in that case was less safe in his actions to himself and others than someone else driving at 100mph on a clear road.

However to answer your question, you were driving dangerously, but its all relative. The moment anyone moves a vehicle whether its 4mph or 100mph there are dangers involved. A car and the driver are both potentially killing machines no matter what speed is travelled, and all other things being equal the greater the speed the greater the dangers. But things weren't equal on the day you you were caught speeding, you were speeding on a clear road, and therefore safer than someone dashing to work. or rushing to get to the hairdressers on time, doing 33mph in a 30 zone, (...and we've all done it...) when realistically 25 or 20 or 15 mph may be more appropriate.

Danger is relative, if at 5am in the morning I choose to run along a pavement in town, that has been designed for walking, am I a risk to myself or others (when no one else is about) and should I fear for my shoe lace becoming undone, tripping and cracking my head on the kerb? But, the law allows me to do this, in the same way that the law allowed me as a cyclist (when I was younger with less sense) to cycle fast down steep hills overtaking cars on derestricted roads. When the law says that I can do something this doesn't make it safe, and conversely when the law says that I can't do something, that doesn't necessarily mean that I would be a danger if I did.

Answer 2

Yes, without a doubt you were driving dangerously.

Even if the roadway was deserted, it's a public roadway, not a raceway.

As far as your Autobahn supposition, suppose an eagle had an Ipod up its butt. Would there be music in the air? You can what-if all day, driving that much faster than the folks around you would expect you to drive, is asinine. On the Autoban, the road, mainly the number or lanes, and yes the laws, can accommodate those speeds. People are also expecting to witness those speeds and act accordingly. Nobody in the states is expecting to see anyone cruising along at 100+ mph.

Also, german roadways have a number of curves and turns per kilometer. Very few straight-aways. The US is straight-away heaven, which is actually a more dangerous driving condition because you aren't expecting curves and turns.

Why dangerous? Did you know that at 100 mph, you are 32Xs as likely to die in a collision than at 55mph? Did you know that if you had to make an emergency stop at that speed, assuming your brakes are in perfect condition, you'd need about 8 football fields to come to a complete stop? You'd hit whatever you were trying to avoid by the time your mind reacted. And yes, you'd probably be dead.

Suppose you did have to brake because you are going 100+ and the people in front of you are going 65 and have all lanes covered, you're going to hit them without a doubt. Or die trying to avoid them. That's dangerous. You could hit roadkill in the road or a burst tire. You're dead! Brains splattered on every square inch or the car's interior dead! No doubt. If the car's collision doesn't kill you, the air bag collision might, and if that doesn't, the internal organ damage would eventually kill you. Keep in mind at that speed, you are going from 100+ to 0 in mere microseconds if you hit something. Almost the equivalent of taking a bullet. Your body isn't made to do that.

But maybe your definition of dangerous doesn't fit everyone else's.

Personally, I hope the judge takes your license, car, and gives you jail time. Putting respect for the law aside, only a fool would pass a cop while speeding. You my friend, are the ideal example of a fool!

Answer 3

However to answer your question, you were driving dangerously, but its all relative. The moment anyone moves a vehicle whether its 4mph or 100mph there are dangers involved. A car and the driver are both potentially killing machines no matter what speed is travelled, and all other things being equal the greater the speed the greater the dangers. But things weren't equal on the day you you were caught speeding, you were speeding on a clear road, and therefore safer than someone dashing to work. or rushing to get to the hairdressers on time, doing 33mph in a 30 zone, (...and we've all done it...) when realistically 25 or 20 or 15 mph may be more appropriate.

Danger is relative, if at 5am in the morning I choose to run along a pavement in town, that has been designed for walking, am I a risk to myself or others (when no

Answer 4

The law in the UK is different from that in Germany and the old proverb "When in Rome do as the Romans do" applies.

Legally, if you were caught doing 100mph on a UK motorway, it would difficult for you to frame a defence in a court against a charge of dangerous driving. You would need to show in court that your actions had no potential danger for it to succeed - that would be difficult. The use (or not) of the motorway at the time is irrelevant, it is your action that is under scrutiny.

The Police tend to charge those caught doing excessive speeds with "dangerous driving" rather than "exceeding the speed limit" because the former carries a higher penalty.


Morally, your actions were, at best irresponsible and at worse, highly dangerous.

The above is probably not what you want to read, but I have no sympathy with you.

Answer 5

How many of these people who answered have broken the speed limit I wonder,no matter what the limit was or what country they are in.
A 100mph is not as dangerous on a motor way/dual carriageway due to the nature of the road,you don't get sharp bends/corners etc,on a B road now that's a different thing,crests,sharp bends,junctions,roundabouts etc are some of the things that should make you think twice about doing that sort of speed.
When I do a bit more than the limit on a motorway I'm more aware of whats coming than when I'm stuck behind some plonker doing 40/50mph,now that's dangerous !!

Answer 6

YOU posed the question and then get defensive when people respond.

Get over yourself.

The fact that you hold yourself above the law, and then boast about it in a public forum, fairly invites the comments like the ones you read.

The fact is, that police officers are charged with the responsibility to protect YOU, and not just every other driver on the road. If your road (clearly NOT the autobahn) was not designed for speeds of 100 mph, then you WERE driving dangerously. To dismiss the risks because the chance of something going wrong is rare, is to deny the facts. In spite of all the dangerous drivers and situations on the road, collisions are still rather rare. High speeds, low speeds, it is still a rare event that things go horribly wrong.

The difference is that things CAN go wrong much more quickly at high speeds. And, higher speeds means that the end result of a problem is more likely to be a MORE serious injury or a fatality.

Add to that, the cost of scraping YOU off of the road surface, and the rest of the clean up costs are borne by the rest of us, in the form of increased taxes and insurance premiums. Consider this: I have had ONE traffic citation in 35 years of driving. (and that was almost 20 years ago) Yet, I STILL have to pay insurance premiums. Not because I am a bad driver. But because many other people are.

Answer 7

Whether you were or weren't driving dangerously is beside the point. Being clocked at 100mph is pretty much an instant driving ban whatever the road conditions might be.

Only the mega-rich like David Beckham can afford to hire expensive lawyers to try and prove cases like this in court. Most of the rest of us have to take our medicine. I've had 100mph out of a Reliant Robin down the motorway before now and been pillion on a motorbike at 140mph. The only difference is, I wasn't caught! If I was caught, I wouldn't go bleating about it. I knew perfectly well what I was doing was against the law. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime!

What's really interesting is the amount of lecturing in these answers. Are half of these people even experienced drivers or old enough to drive? Nearly everybody has exceeded the speed limit at one point or another by a small margin. Very few people keep religiously to the 30mph limits in built up areas unless they know speed cameras are present, and as anyone who drives regularly on the motorway will tell you, the inside lane regularly travels at 70mph, let alone the middle and outside lines who overtake them at much faster speeds. Most people on UK motorways treat 70mph as the minimum speed, not the maximum. How many drivers can truthfully say that they have NEVER exceeded the speed limit? Not many, I'll bet.

Answer 8

We can't say if you were driving dangerously or not because we didn't see you doing it and we don't know the weather or other conditions.

You are wrong to say that the motorway was deserted, obviously you didn't see the police car. It is also possible that you did not notice any other vehicle that may have been there.

As for driving on an autobahn, you should be aware that most of them now have speed limits - especially in the north. The German traffic police will book you just as quickly as ours will.

Answer 9

In comparison to the law, then you shouldnt have been going that fast, but if they were really no other cars (either side) and driving conditions were optimum, then I dont see how it was dangerous.
However, accidents do happen, and if something unexpected happened, like a random animal on the road that you tried to avoid, you could have put yourself in serious danger. If you are willing to do this, then thats your decision, but as soon as other people could be put at risk, then I would consider your driving dangerous.
I have also been told that there have been several very nasty accidents on the parts of the german autobahn with no speed limit, so perhaps even then, the argument is exactly the same.

Answer 10

So you insult people who give you answers you don't like? Why bother asking the question then? I am sure you could find people in the pub to answer the question your way.

Anyway, as to your question about the Autobahn, if you researched the roadway you would know it is contructed to much higher minimum standards, and receives more maintenance checks in a week than all the motorways do in 6 months. Besides, parts of the Autobahn have speed limits, and the penalties for exceeding those limits are very high, and yes, you would have gotten your ticket there. You are looking for justification for breaking the law, there is none.