Big refund for Brits: Busiest speed camera deemed unlawful
Photo: Nicholas Bowman
Most people have pretty weak arguments for speeding. Everything from having a broken speedometer, going with the flow of traffic, or desperately needing to find a bathroom are usually feeble excuses that generally don't hold up. Simon Grills's case is unique. Despite being caught by a speed camera and slapped with a £60 fine, his case was dropped because the speed limit sign, which changes the allowed speed from 70 mph to 50 mph, isn't lit at night and was extremely difficult to see. While one case wouldn't necessarily make the news, it's been found that Simon isn't alone. The lights for the sign have been broken since November of 2005, and approximately 214,000 motorists have received tickets for speeding with the sign unlit. Despite the promise that the lights will be fixed, speed cameras are still ticketing motorists at a rate of 500 per day. Grills' legal battle, for which he has spent over 300 hours, has opened up the possibility of other motorists to receive refunds.
Thanks for the tip, Fernando!
[Source: SundayMirror.co.uk]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tankd0g 9:36AM (4/09/2008)
Did they have that sign specially made??? Who sells non-LED number displays anymore?
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h8rain 9:41AM (4/09/2008)
I am generally not for people trying to find loopholes to get out of breaking the law, but I could see myself in that guy's position. However (not sure if this is the case in Britain), the signs are reflective, so your headlights should allow it to be seen.
Either way, they have been collecting fines for about 1.5 years, and they should have fixed the lights.
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Andrew 12:37PM (4/09/2008)
Just because its the law doesn't mean its right. Laws are man made and we get them wrong all the time.
Sometimes its perfectly safe to drive at a higher speed than posted - the fact that 500 motorist per day get a ticket for driving over the speed limit leads me to believe this is nothing more than a speed trap with an artificially low speed limit when compared to the flow of traffic.
LMBVette 10:17AM (4/09/2008)
From the article: "Speed cams raised a total of £104.4m in England and Wales last year. The Welsh are hardest hit. Fines average £5.82 per head of population."
Holy crap!!! That is A LOT of money made via fines. Why don't people over there fight this sort of thing? It's obvious that the intent of speed cameras is not to enforce the law but generate income. 104 million is a lot of revenue.
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John 3:31PM (4/09/2008)
Quote: "Why don't people over there fight this sort of thing?"
We are talking about the same people who got bent over and let the government take all their guns. Nothing but sheep over there.
Valentino Amoro 8:44PM (4/09/2008)
@John
Agreed. They dont say anything. Traffic cameras everwhere, face recognizing cameras all over city blocks in London, insane seurity checks at airports, anti-freedom of speech laws.
Sheep.
Calvin Azzola 10:19AM (4/09/2008)
The bulb was never fixed because they figured out how much they could rake in. Now they got caught. I hope they lose a ton of tax revenue for being so crooked.
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Yar 12:52PM (4/09/2008)
Never liked speed camera's, they take the human out of the loop. Might as well just hand camera control over to SkyNet.
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Noah 2:38PM (4/09/2008)
Non-reflective signs?
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k.w.a 7:39PM (4/09/2008)
this doesn't surprise me at all. you think the D.O.T didn't know that sign has been unlit for 3 years? Speed trap for sure. Same thing here in the U.S cities. I've seen everything from signs being left knocked down to signs behind trees, signs in sharp corners, etc etc.
..You would think it would be dangerous to not make signs visible, but apparently thats not what signs are for these days haha
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Corey W. 9:56AM (4/10/2008)
How much you wanna bet even after they fix the light, they will still have close to the same amount of violations. Sorry, but a visual problem with the sign is a common excuse that most of the time gets you off (in the U.S) The fact that this sign has been broken since 2005 and Mr. Simon is the FIRST to use as a defense, why was this case 300 hours, either you can see the sign or not....hummm....Something just doesn't seem right.
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