Speed Awareness Course

Can I just add that the costs vary according to venue. I had 3 roughly equidistant venues when I booked mine and the cost was £15 more in the most expensive than it was in the cheapest. I had assumed they were all the same price but clearly not.

True Iam64

All done and dusted! As you've all said, it was interesting and informative. The two guys taking it were very friendly and entertaining. One of them started out as a Butlins Redcoat!!

Thanks, everyone.

Hope your course day is ok Merlot. Ive just read your comments about the context of your speeding. In the good old days, you'd have been stopped by a police officer, told him where you were going and he'd have either sent you on your way with best wishes, or better yet, put his blue light on and said follow me x

It's great for a bit of people watching .

Sorry you have to go though Merlot, very mean.

That’s really harsh to refuse your appeal Merlot.

DH went on one a couple of years ago and said how useful the information was.

I’m the world’s stupidest! I got caught again coming back from one. ?

You'll learn a lot, but take something to sustain you. Guarantee there will be at least one aggrieved person there who sets your teeth on edge, but most are friendly, and the staff taking it won't be apportioning blame. If you want to look good, swot up on your highway code stopping distances before you go (you'll get a copy to take home anyway)

Anyway, I'd better get off to bed.

I've got to be up at ridiculous o'clock in the morning.

Yes. It's a nice little earner when you think how many people get caught doing just a few miles over the limit.

I wrote a letter explaining that I'd been called to the hospice because my DD's condition was worsening. I wasn't driving like a bat out of hell but was obviously anxious so distracted. They wrote back saying it was not considered a medical emergency.

Whatever!

The irony was when we got there the flat we were waiting for had become available so I moved in there and then. If it had been available the day before I wouldn't have been caught speeding.

That's the way the cookie crumbles.

Well Merlot my DH and my DS both did one this year ( along with thousands of others) when They were caught on a road where the limit had been changed literally overnight !

They both said they thoroughly enjoyed it . . Although I suppose it depends on who’s running the “course” . Nice money spinner too isn’t it?

Kitty Lester, 3 in 10 years is BAD ?

I think a course of this kind should be part of the driving test. I found it very informative and helpful.

I am not dissing the course. I just think it is aimed at the wrong target. Accidents may well come down faster if the primary aim of the course, was to get people to look more carefully. Ideally, there would be a course for every accident cause, but if there is only one, surely it should be concentrated on the one likely to have the biggest effect on accident statistics.

DH had to do one and came home saying he had learned a lot and also passed info on.

MOnica, why not have both? I know I reoffended but, I did learn on the speed awareness course. Most people agree it helpful
In fact, the course covers your points about looking properly

I saw my landlady killed in a road accident, my sister died in a road accident and my daughter has been left with a disability as a result of a road accident. None of them were in anyway responsible for what happened to them.

In each case the driver was well within the speed limit, not driving drunk, or drugged or erratically, but in each case in a very complicated traffic/road situation, the driver failed to take on board one key factor. Twice because they couldn't see it and the third case because of poor situation and maintenance of street lighting.

The last accident I was in, my car was hit at little more than walking speed by a driver who had had me clearly in his vision for 100 yards at least, but he was an older driver whose reactions were shot, and he would have run over and killed that notional 5 year old because he would have hit them, long before he hit the brake.

I find this obsession with speed, by that I mean the minor accidental speed excesses, not the major flagrant breaking of the law by really excessive speed odd.

The main cause of accidents, by a long way, twice as many as the next cause, is Drivers failing to look properly, followed by Failure to accurately judge another persons path or speed. Speeding isn't even in the top 5 causes. Why not have courses for those who actually cause accidents because they did not look properly or misjudged other people's speed or path. These would probably reduce acidents far more than speeding courses.

Thanks kitty, I don't feel embarrassed now to admit to two courses. the first was in the Thames Valley where they are ultra vigilant - most of my family who live in the area have done at least one - except my senior DGD who is an excellent driver.
The next one was in Manchester though the offence was in Macclesfield. The traffic round Manchester was so horrendous that I was late.
I try to put into practice what we learnt, and hope it saves me from getting booked again.

I did a speed awareness course after having been caught doing 38 through a village. In mitigation, I was late for work and the road was very quiet.
I found the course very informative, and it surprised me how ignorant of the law some people are. There was a real cross section of society there. I enjoyed the day but don't want to repeat it.

I did one a couple of years ago. It was great, I learned some stuff about how to guess, ie know, the speed limit even if you couldn't see a sign. Sadly, I was camered six months later, on a dual carriageway in an area I was new to. Id thought the limit would be 40 and was doing 38. The limit was 30 on a short stretch of road.

I did one last year, got caught doing 34 in a 30 zone. It was very informative and the leaders were excellent. There was plenty of craic as well as learning. No one was tapped in the knuckles.

Dh did one earlier this year. Don’t worry Merlot, it wasn’t bad and he learned a bit and passed it on to me.
Just don’t let them know your gn name!

I did one a couple of years ago. We had one very nice leader who knew a lot and was really interesting and one who although experienced was unable to answer the “off-beat” questions and rather put us down instead of admitting to not knowing the answers. This person also made rather sexist and ageist assumptions which was particularly irritating.
I felt particularly aggrieved on behalf of a young woman who had only been driving a short time and who was assumed to be thinking about shopping instead of the road ahead!

I had to go on one for going through red light whilst taking friends to hospital ( deserted streets 2 am)

The people doing it tried their hardest to make it tolerable.