Speeding - it’s all in the mind
The US web site METRICation US has an amusing story about a speeding Irish driver whose fine was reduced when he convinced the Judge that his speed in km/h sounded higher than it was.
The full story is to be found at: http://www.metrication.us/content/crazy-judge
February 16th, 2008 at 17:55
I read this item some time ago in the Irish Times. However, just I saw a programme on Dutch TV about road offenders. A British motorist was speeding towards Antwerp on a Dutch motorway in order to catch a ship at Calais. His speed was far too high. He was pulled over by the police, and it appeared that he was ‘confused’, as the British DoT claims will happen when speeds go metric in the UK. He thought in miles; a speed limit sign of ‘90′ on a Duch sign meant 90 mph to him. This ‘confusion’ cost him 270 euros. If he had exceeded the speed limit with more than 50 km/h it would have cost him is licence for some time, or alternatively a 500+ euro fine.
October 20th, 2008 at 20:14
This is an interesting question. I personally doubt that if tested in the European courts (the ECHR or the ECJ) a driver (lawfully resident outside the UK) of a foreign-registered vehicle, charged purely with exceeding the posted speed limit in the UK (as opposed to a charge of, say, dangerous driving caused by excess speed) would end up being found culpable. The fact that the UK posts speed limits in imperial when vehicles from all other European countries do not require speedometers to be dual marked would, in my opinion, render any conviction unsafe.
This of course would not, and cannot, apply to drivers of UK-registered vehicles elsewhere in Europe as such vehicles are required to have dual marked speedometers.