Getting a speeding ticket is never fun. It’s even worse when you get a speeding ticket while your car is parked. For one UK motorist, that’s exactly what happened, not once, but twice. On two separate occasions, he has been sent a speeding ticket when he knew his car was stationary. Speed cameras are effective for capturing images of drivers, but recent identification mishaps prove that the technology isn’t infallible.

It seems Jeff Buck has to park his car on the street outside his home in Nottingham. With no driveway or garage available, parking it on the shoulder along Watnall Road is the best he can do.

The problem stems from the fact that somebody else happened to speed past the camera perched above his parked car. Police officers who processed the photos and issued the fines somehow missed the fact that his vehicle was stationary.

Police have now issued an apology to Buck after he successfully fought the tickets. It probably wasn’t too hard to prove that his parked car wasn’t the one triggering the speed cameras. We’re guessing police will now be looking a little more closely at the other vehicles in the pictures to see who actually broke the 30 mile per hour speed limit along that road.

Although relieved to have the fines dismissed, Buck is understandably still a bit perturbed:

“I assumed the first time it happened that the police would put something in place to prevent it from happening again. I’m concerned now that every time someone triggers the camera I’ll get these notices. I am amused by it, but also angry that I have to go to the trouble of contacting the police.”

A spokeswoman for the Nottinghamshire Police said that staff members would be getting a little extra training in verifying the speed camera images properly.

You’re returning from a perfect weekend getaway, and a trooper nabs you while you’re still out of state.

Do you admit guilt, drop the payment envelope in the mail, and have it be history…or do you throw it in the trash and hope it just goes away?

Neither, exactly. And just to clear up some misconceptions, this is definitely not a case of, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

If you understood the massive stakes involved, you’d do your research, maybe hire an attorney, and even if you have a clean record do your best to have the ticket reduced or, better yet, thrown out.

The days of speeding tickets simply going away, even if they’re out-of-state, are long gone. And it’s important you do something about it because a speeding ticket can come back to haunt you for years, in ways that you probably hadn’t thought possible.

Unseen affects, budget-hemorrhaging results

Most drivers know that having speeding tickets on their record will raise their auto insurance rates, but few are aware that, depending on where they live, it can affect them in a myriad of other ways, seemingly unrelated to driving. Like when you apply to get a new life insurance policy, to insure a boat, or even to apply for a business loan.

This could mean thousands of dollars. And that’s even before considering that an unsettled ticket could find its way to your credit score to wreak further havoc.

Technically, if you’re a repeat speeder, you’re risky business, and that risk might apply to other aspects of your life—or so say the actuaries, those who arrive at the methodology that takes all those seemingly insignificant factors in your profile, weighs them with factors like your driving record, and determines whether or not you’re high risk. Simply put, whether to charge you a few hundred dollars or a couple thousand on your next insurance premium is a matter of calculated risk.

The business of risk

If you’re one to argue that speeding doesn’t necessarily place you at a higher risk, you’re not going to find much sympathy from insurance companies. As they’re in the business of risk, they raise rates because with habitual speeding comes a much greater chance of injury, property damage, or death. Excessive speed is attributed in the worst, most costly accidents. In about one third of all fatal crashes, 26 percent of injury accidents, and 15 percent of property-damage-only accidents, speed is a factor. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), more than 1,000 Americans die every month due to speed-related crashes. Read the rest of this entry »

Speeding and parking tickets in the UK will soon rise by $24 as the government imposes a new tax to help address a growing budget shortfall.

British officials are making plans to impose a tax on speeding and parking citations this year in an effort to raise money to cover a growing budget deficit. (Robbing Peter to pay Paul?) Secretary of State for Justice Claire Ward announced the plan in a written answer to a question posed by Member of Parliament Greg Knight. The new revenue would be labeled as a “victims’ surcharge.”

“It is Government policy that, where possible, offenders should contribute to victims‘ services as part of their reparation. Provisions were therefore included in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 providing for a surcharge to be payable on criminal convictions, penalty notices for disorder and on fixed penalty notices for road traffic offenses where the offenses are persistent and serious,” Ward said. “We intend to add the surcharge to other disposals as soon as it becomes feasible to do so.”

The tax, which currently stands at US $24, would be imposed on all forms of speeding and parking tickets. Given that there were 1,462,235 speed camera citations issued in 2007, the plan would generate an extra US $35,020,571 from the increase in the cost of a ticket from US $96 to $120. Expanding the fee to cover parking tickets and other non-moving violations would more than double that figure.

The victims’ surcharge was first created in April 2007 as a means of forcing violent criminals to compensate their victims. The fee would now be imposed on motorists whose technical violations — overstaying at a parking meter, forgetting to wear a seatbelt or driving a few MPH over the limit — have no victims.

The UK move follows a global trend. Last week, Georgia became the latest US state to turn toward speeding ticket surcharges as a means of balancing the budget. Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Texas have similar programs

Ticket camera corporations like to put out press releases and pay for biased surveys that show that ticket cameras are well-liked by the general public. The reality is that this is far from the truth. This is borne out by the fact that no ticket camera program has ever survived a public vote.

Thankfully, speed cameras are fairly rare in the United States right now (and will hopefully continue to be) but in Europe — and particularly in the United Kingdom — they are being used extensively.

So, how has the public reacted in these countries? Take a look at this list below, which was compiled from the 2009 archives of TheNewspaper.com. Let’s just say they haven’t exactly received a warm welcome:

UK: Somerset Speed Camera Scorched (12/13/09)
Vigilantes destroy Somerset, UK speed camera with gasoline-soaked tire.

UK, The Netherlands: Speed Cameras Destroyed, Gift-Wrapped (12/6/09)
UK speed camera burns while Dutch cameras are gift wrapped on St. Nicholas Eve.

France, Germany, Italy: Speed Cameras Burned, Blinded, Bombed (11/29/09)
Three cameras in Germany, two in France and one in Italy were destroyed or damaged this week.

Dorset, UK Speed Camera Destroyed by Fire (11/15/09)
Vigilantes in Dorset, England take out a speed camera with a burning tire.

UK: Surrey Speed Camera Burned (10/25/09)
Vigilantes set fire to a speed camera in Surrey, England.

Speed Cameras Attacked in Finland, Poland and Wales (10/11/09)
Explosives destroy speed camera in Northern Finland, Welsh authorities report 102 camera attacks and Polish speed camera burned.

Read the rest of this entry »