Through being a numpty, I just got a NIP after triggering a speed camera in Cambridge on Sunday evening - doing 36mph in a 30. Leaving aside my annoyance at failing to stick to the speed limit or notice the camera/signs and my injured pride after managing to avoid any speeding infringements in the UK for 30 years, I was wondering if there is a policy on who gets to attend a speed awareness course and who gets to pay and take the points. The NIP just gave me a box to tick if I didn't want to do a course.

I think it's different depending on which county you are caught in?

I got one through a few months ago. I couldn't take the speed awareness course as I did one a year or so ago (I know, that's twice, naughty me! )

After I had admitted to it, it stated at the bottom on the letter the speed limits that you would be automatically offered a speed awareness course. Something like up to 37 in a 30, 48 in a 40, 59 in a 50 etc.

You've only got the NIP though, so I guess you just need to say if you were driving or not? The next notice will tell you what your punishment could be and the options available.

Also depends on your history, as I said, I couldn't do another course as I'd already done one in the last 3 years.

I had the option when sent an NIP last october. it states that even if you accept it, it doesn't automatically enrol you on to it. you have to wait and see. But I'm sure if you say yes, you will be offered a place. Did mine in January.

Thanks chaps. I hope I will get offered a course. I'm pretty cross with myself, as I am usually SO careful - especially for 30/40 limits.

Well at least you're convenient - the Cambridge awareness courses are next door to our office, in the same building!

Terrific, Neil, shall we meet up after the course, get langered at the pub and race up and down Milton Road?! Huzzah!

I wasn't aware the traffic on Milton Road *ever* moved fast enough to race... even the pedestrian traffic!

I got a NIP today, 86 on the DC. This is the first time I've been had and like you feel disappointed about my inability to stick to the limit and gutted that my crystal clear 14 year old licence is now marked.

So, I've been offered a Speed Awareness course. I'll be going along (slowly) on 11th April.

Incidentally, this is where I got flashed, about 200 yards from our new house and 50 from where I think my iPad threw a seven.

Now, I may be bitter and twisted, but, given the statistics, does anyone else think that although Casualty Officer PC Gedny is clearly right in his assertion that "These results show that there are still a number of drivers who think it is acceptable to speed on the county’s roads", it might also possibly indicate that drivers along that particular stretch need a slightly different set of warnings?
As I said above, I pride myself in keeping within speed limits in urban areas and yet I completely missed not only the warning signs, but the camera itself. That says to me that there are other factors distracting/misleading drivers from being alert to the limit.

Ah - I know that area, well, Jim (my business used to be on Jesus Lane next to Pizza Express (assuming PE is still there).

I agree with you entirely. What is it about that piece of road that means people get caught - after all, it's exactly the same drivers as other places. There's an old Total Quality saying: "Every system is perfectly designed to produce the results that it does". That piece of road, the signs and the layout, are perfectly designed to have more people speeding than anywhere else!

This suggests to me that the camera is there as a revenue generator, and has very little to do with safety. £168780 in 2011 on those figures.

That's 2 minor injuries a year 2009 to 2011.

Is your course here in the St John's centre, Jim?

If you don't know Cambridge, it's a wide, tree-lined road in the middle of two areas of parkland, with a bus lane on the northbound section, then a pelican crossing. It looks very much like a dual carriageway as you come off the roundabout but I can understand why it's 30, as there are potentially lots of people crossing between the parkland areas.

If the total number of speeding motorists in 2011 and 2010 was 4697 and we assume that all injuries were inflicted by these evil, reckless killers, then, even if all 6 injuries were caused in 2010 and 2011, that is only 0.12% of the offending drivers that caused a minor injury. But as the stats indicate, safety does not seem to be in peril compared with the number of motorists fined, possibly because the pedestrians cross on the crossing!
With better signing, I'm sure the same or better levels of safety could be secured, without having to fine motorists.

it is indeed, Neil! The perfect opportunity for a mini-meet! Though I shall be a little busy between 5 and 9!

Five in the afternoon? That's when I go home... perhaps a brief masonic handshake prior to your indoctrination education?

Well, I've been "advised" to turn up at 4.45, so I hope there will be time to say 'ello, 'ello, 'ello...

Yeah, there's a bit of hanging around and signing bits of paper beforehand.

when I went in January, the hall where we were all waiting had a very strange atomosphere. it was very quiet (as no one knew anyone else). and it felt like it was 30 naughty school kids waiting outside the headmasters office we all knew we had done something wrong

I was tempted to turn up slightly late, just so I could say I could say ' I got here as fast as I could'

My wife attended one just over 2 years ago and she found it very interesting and it affected how she drove (and still does). Poignantly, shortly afterwards, her mother was killed in a collision in the West Country. Although the coroner said speed was not a factor, it had a profound effect on both of us in relation to many aspects of life, but especially road safety. As I've said above, I have issues with how well the police are doing in this location at slowing motorists down (assuming that is the aim), but I'm quite prepared to go along and take what they have to say at face value. Interestingly, the liaison officer with Avon and Somerset police who took us to the mortuary to identify Caroline's Mum and to the scene of the collision (total respect for the guy - what a job), thought the courses were an utter waste of time...

I think they'd be more effective if used, and sponsored, by insurance companies for their repeat at-fault claimants. Of the one I did in Dorset, most of it was about anticipating changing situations, which I guess is heightened by speed but is rarely the whole story.