Speeding

Posted on August 12th, 2008 by ray.
Categories: General Blog.

Every time I raise this subject, people often assume I’m trying to justify speeding.

To set the record straight, I’m not. If you want to ride at silly speeds then go to a track day and enjoy tear-arsing around without the risks of hitting a raised manhole cover or having a Volvo pull out on you.

You’ll find quite a few motorcyclists feel the same way, but naturally people only notice the knobheads and tar everyone with the same brush - and it’s the knobheads that make the headlines. My bike is twenty years old and can break the national speed limit by over 100mph, so you can imagine what newer bikes can do. There’s a lot of responsibility when riding a bike as you do have that power and speed, unlike the four-wheeled counterparts where it’s often to do with the performance of the vehicle stopping the driver speeding (i.e. even if you wanted to go from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, you’re not going to do that in your typical Mondeo).

Anyway, this is regarding the latest story of a motorcyclist getting the strong arm of the law:

A 44 year old has been sent to prison for 15 months for being caught riding at over 100mph (he was disqualified as well which no doubt had an impact on the sentence). Previous cases in the last few years have seen other speeders getting jail sentences as well.

The DI giving a press statement pretty much summed it up with: “Excess speed is one of the main causes of collisions”. And that’s what it comes down to - whether or not you were in control, if you actually caused a collision or any other factor is irrelevant. If you speed, then you’re classed as dangerous and you will get the book thrown at you.

Now believe it or not, I’m not opposed to this. I am fine with this system providing we have one little addition - consistency. If you are getting jailed for potentially having a collision that could result in a fatality, then I’d like to think that if you do cause a fatality from dangerous actions then you’ll get a more sever sentence.

No chance..

Excess speed means that your braking distances are increased, you have less time for reactions and the force of impact will be greater. It does not automatically cause collisions as the learned DI states, as a collision is a logical and predictable set of events, however there is less chance of being able to avoid that sequence of events that lead to a collision if travelling at high speed and the consequences may well be greater.

Speeding carries the charge of dangerous driving though with a maximum of ten years in prison, yet other actions that often have far greater consequences are only classed as driving with undue care, which at the maximum sentence comes with a fine and driving ban.

In the grand scheme of things, going at 130mph on a motorway with full concentration of the roads is a hell of a lot safter than going at 40mph and paying no attention at all to the road as you’re talking to the kids in the back, messing with the CD player or in a recent case that resulted in another road user being killed - looking for a tissue due to hay fever and drifting into the oncoming traffic!

Speeding is a factor that should be taken into account along with other factors such as location, visibility, concentration etc. It should not be an automatic admission of guilt for whatever the other charge is, in the same way it should not be an automatic release with no charge for mowing down and killing people though acts of gross stupidity as long as it is within the speed limit.

The law needs consistency and a very big overhaul. If we are keeping the penalty for speeding as severe as it is, then we need to bring other offences up a lot higher (some more so than speeding).

Going at 60mph in a built-up

Will it happen?

Will it fuck..

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