Jess Hardiman
A former police officer has explained whether or not you can get caught speeding more than once on the same road.
It’s always gutting to clock a speed camera or van at a time when you’re not entirely confident you’re within the legal limit – especially as you know you’ll only have yourself to blame if the letter lands on your doorstep.
Out of desperation, many of us might turn to urban myths as reassurance, even though some are truer than others.
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One former police officer, Gareth Thomas, is now working to spread helpful information about road safety, having recently dispelled – or clarified – a number of rumours.
Thomas, a Go Safe Casualty Reduction Officer, told North Wales Live a few months back: "I decided after retiring that I wanted to make the roads as safe as they can be in this area.
"The aim of cameras is to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads.
"Go Safe prefers to educate drivers rather than punish them with fines and penalty points."
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One of the topics discussed was whether or not someone can get caught speeding more than once on the same day by the same camera.
Essentially, the answer is yes – and no.
“The current position with Go Safe is that if you are caught twice in 20 minutes, it will be treated as one offence,” he said.
“In theory, a driver with a previously clean licence could be caught several times on the same day - and as a result be at risk of disqualification under the totting-up system.
“If you are caught speeding several times on the same journey and accept a fixed penalty for each, you could be at risk of a penalty points disqualification (totting-up).”
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Thomas said it can happen more easily than you might think – such as where several speed cameras are placed along the same road or motorway.
But where offences are seen to have been committed ‘on the same occasion’, it’s actually the court that has the discretion to impose one set of points or two for more offences.
For offences to be treated as being committed on the same occasion by the court, they need not to have been committed at the same time, but must be linked somehow.
If, for example, a number of offences were committed within a few minutes of each other, the court may be persuaded to impose just one set of points.
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However, this depends entirely on the circumstances.
As for whether or not that magical ‘10 percent rule’ exists, Thomas continued: “Yes. You will not get a ticket provided your speed does not exceed the limit by more than 10 per cent, plus 1mph on North Wales roads.
“So for example, travelling at 35mph or above in a 30mph zone will be recorded as a speeding offence.
“However, Go Safe say thresholds vary and can change without notice. Officially, any speeding offence occurs at 1mph above the limit, but most forces will allow a variance.”
In short, it’s always better to be more safe than sorry.