A few years ago I was prosecuted for speeding on my bike when I was captured by a mobile speed camera shortly after I was almost hit by a lunatic driver.
Here is part of the letter I wrote to the court explaining the circumstances:
Whilst I am not trying to excuse my speeding, I would just like to explain how and why it occurred.
On Sunday 27th August 2006 I was travelling Northbound on the A380 on my way to the Motorcycle show at Westpoint. I was overtaking in the outside lane of the dual carriageway when a light blue convertible, with it’s roof down (Possibly a BMW or Mercedes), suddenly came past on my offside, missing me by barely a couple of inches. I was in total disbelief at what had just happened and I instinctively accelerated in order to catch up with this lunatic driver. I was unaware of how fast I was travelling, because I was busy trying to catch up with the driver who had just cut me up, and I did not take my eyes off the road ahead in order to look at the speedometer.
I eventually managed to catch up with the car because it suddenly slowed right up and pulled over into the left hand lane. I rode alongside the car and gave the driver a piece of my mind before continuing on my journey.
I cannot remember the registration number of the car, but I recall the digits on the rear number plate had been spaced incorrectly in order to be read as words.
Hopefully this car will also have been captured by your camera and my explanation can be verified by the officer/s monitoring the camera.
Fortunately for me, when my case went to court, the evidence from the speed camera had actually captured the car I had described, and this was even pointed out to the court by the prosecuting officer as he read my letter to them.
Here is one of the pictures from the speed camera which was presented as evidence against me:
I explained to the court that this was my first motoring offence and I had held a clean license for over 28 years. I was convicted for driving at 105mph
(169km/h) and fined £110.00 plus had to pay £35.00 costs
(approx $226.00) and also received 6 penalty points on my license.
But like Peter said, it could have been a lot worse. I don't even want to consider the outcome if me and my 19 year old son had been knocked off the bike at 70mph by this lunatic driver.
I know it was wrong to chase after him, but it was an automatic response to what I can only describe as a near death experience.
If you've never been in a situation like this before, you will not be able to understand quite how much it affects you!
But I shouldn't really complain, because neither my son or myself were physically harmed from this experience and we're still around today to recall the incident!
Alan
