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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not want to go on a speed awareness course?

87 replies

suecy · 13/07/2010 16:05

OK I know I'm going to get flamed but never mind.

Recently got notice of speeding - doing 57 in a 50. I know speeding is wrong, but let's face it, we've all done it and it was a wide open road with nothing going on.

Have today had the chance to go on this course which costs the ssame as the fine but will allow me to avoid the 3 points (1st I've ever had in 25 years of driving).

I don't want to go! Common sense says I should but I just think it'll be loads of presching and telling us off and frankly I left school a quarter of a century ago.

AIBU to live with the points instead?

OP posts:
mayorquimby · 13/07/2010 16:31

Just out of interest IFancyKevinEleven how come the young male is branded as a tossy boy racer but because the rest of the selfish fuckers who speed as well as yourself are older the course is somehow less inhabited by tossers or somehow more worthwhile?

HerBeatitude · 13/07/2010 16:31

Oops sorry cross posted

YWBU. YANBUA.

(You were being unreasonable. You are not being unreasonable anymore.)

YANTVOSR.

(You are now the voioce of sweet reason.)

HerBeatitude · 13/07/2010 16:32

oh older drivers are awful.

They've all been driving for years so they know everything adn don't need any young whippersnapper to tell them anything.

SpiderObsession · 13/07/2010 16:44

Your choice whether to go on the course or take the points.

I took the course. I arrived thinking I would get "told off" with a load of boy racers. Turns out all the others people had the same assumption. We were all wrong, not a teenager in sight and had a good laugh. There's a serious message true but the trainers were not at all judgemental or critical. And I got nce tea and biccies too.

IFancyKevinELevin · 13/07/2010 16:45

MayorQuimby

He was a tossy boy racer (not first insight - he was in the same Regiment as my husband, from his uniform and looked fairly normal) because:

He said the money from fines would be better spent putting up fences to stop stupid pedestrians and children from wondering into the road in urban areas, rather than making him miss valuable time for just doing 5 miles over the speed limit and sitting these wanky courses.

At the end of the course he hadn't changed his mind.

The rest of the "crew" were fairly mixed. One lady in her fifties who was speeding to her mum's deathbed.

Two old boys who resembled Rowley Birkin QC from the fast show, and were caught by a "blasted sneaky camera" but at least admitted they were wrong.

SpiderObsession · 13/07/2010 16:48

One lady on my course quipped that she could "put her lippy on" on the minute she saved speeding to work. We all roared with laughter. It was said tongue in cheek.

I have to say IFancykevin, I had to work hard to stop myself snivelling at one point.

mayorquimby · 13/07/2010 16:54

None of you were there as reward for your mature and safe approach to road safety. The fact that the older men were unthreatening and had a quaint and ammusing manner about them doesn't make them any less toss-worthy. In fact they are just as bad, defining them as "blasted sneaky cameras" implies the opposite of admitting they are wrong but merely that they got caught and that their getting caught was somehow unfair or cheating as the cameras were "sneaky".
You yourself admit that you didn't even want to go so it does not sound as though you were full of remorse yourself about your speeding.

Why not just describe all the people who were there for speeding as tossers.

BuzzingNoise · 13/07/2010 16:56

I'd take the points.

Thomcat · 13/07/2010 16:58

It wasn't a day I want to repeat but I met a really funny bloke, had a giggle and came away thinking about speeding a bit more.

IFancyKevinELevin · 13/07/2010 17:28

Did I say I found the older folks affectionately amusing?

Can't see it anywhere I've written.

The younger guy had an attitude to the course was that was tossy. He stated all the way through that he was only there to save on the points and that was that.

I didn't want to go on the course because I had severe depression, at the time I didn't want to go anywhere and went through weeks of not washing and not dressing. I didn't want to see anyone in the outside world. I was doing 33 mph in a 30 zone so yes I was a speeding tosser, I haven't denied this ever and certainly didn't on the course.

I was 33 mph at the time in tears after dropping my husband off at his base where he would be going to Kabul and leaving me with my 4 yo son who I felt I was incapable of caring for. I was bawling my eyes out, unhinged on anti depressants and passed the speed camera without noticing it.

What it highlighted to me, was not just the speeding itself but the state I was in to drive. Now, if I'm tired or not feeling myself, or under the weather I won't drive, and won't feel pressurized to drive as it's not worth the risk.

I can't actually say I had the mental clarity at the time of the incident, but with CBT and this course I do now.

2old4thislark · 13/07/2010 17:28

I did one and it did change my attitude a bit reqarding speeding. It was quite informative. Think it is def worth avoiding the points.

It was also near Ikea so it wasn't a wasted trip

Blondeshavemorefun · 13/07/2010 17:29

you were lucky to have been given the choice

i think speeding in towns/local roads is worse than motorways

i got done for doing 81 on m25 (should have been 70) and i got £60fine and 3 points

the points made my insurance rocket and apparently you dont get offered a course if speeding on a motorway as less dangerous then towns (guess they mean killing children/adults just walking on roads etc)

i think either all should be given a choice of course or none

NeedCoffee · 13/07/2010 17:35

yabu

NeedCoffee · 13/07/2010 17:38

oops didn't read whole thread. Yabn

pranma · 13/07/2010 17:40

I did a course about 18mnths ago-it was great and not at all preachy.Much better than a fine/points and I found it very useful indeed.

mayorquimby · 13/07/2010 17:46

you said there was one tosser on the course and that was it. You then described two people who sound like absolute tossers also in their attitude to speeding, if it was not their amusing resemblance to a character from the fast show that made them into non-tossers then what was it?

Roobie · 13/07/2010 17:50

YANBU - surely people only go on these courses if they are already on 9 points? I've just turned one down and taken my first ever 3 points - what with working etc there is no way I can fit in the requisite 5 hours timewise.

scurryfunge · 13/07/2010 17:59

If it takes you to disqualification then you don't get the option.

IFancyKevinELevin · 13/07/2010 18:00

MayorQuimby I didn't say I felt anything amusing about their resemblance to a Fast Show character, that's who they reminded me of. I used to see the same types many years ago steaming drunk falling out of Lords' Cricket Ground and straight into their jags every Friday as I drove home through London.

I don't find Rowley Birkin types particularly amusing at all. That's why I mentioned one of the guy's responses as a blasted speed camera that "caught him out". He seemed to find the whole thing very amusing and the pair of them seemed to think they were above the law because of age and wealth.

Just like the lady whose mother was dying. She seemed to think, at the beginning that the instructor would say, ah well poor dear, in that case have a cup of tea and go home. She seemed astounded that she had to stay. The lady in charge of the course merely said "do you think you should have been driving in a state of distress?" "No" "Well then, why were you?" No one was allowed to make any excuses. Clarity was given to folks who, sometimes let life get in the way of safety and common sense.

And on that suject, you are only allowed on the SAW course if you are exceeding by a certain number of MPH, I think 5 or so? So Blondeshavemorefun at 10 mph you would not have been considered.

mummytime · 13/07/2010 18:01

I went on mine and it would have been my only 3 points. I learnt a lot. Our course was all shame faced lot really. (I did it on a road in a strange town which I should have known from 3 years ago, suddenly goes down to 40 mph from 50, for no obvious reason.) I was late and had kids in the back killing each other, but no excuse.
I do now know about the stretch of road in my home town which looks like it should be 40 but is actually 30. (It was widened and has no pedestrian routes next to it, the pavement is on the seperate roads which run parallel.)

We also talked about hideous accidents, and why some road signs are mad (like national speed limits at the wrong point on a road).

At least its kept our insurance down, and I learnt a lot. I do think everyone should have to do one every ten years, like someone earlier said.

IFancyKevinELevin · 13/07/2010 18:02

If you have points you won't be able to go on a SAW. They are only offered to first time offenders who exceed the speed limit by 5 miles per hour or so.

So with 9 points on a licence, if you are caught again, it's a ban. If you are caught again after a SAW you don't get another chance, you get points.

The message being, you may have slipped up once, learn from it, don't do it again.

NoseyNooNoo · 13/07/2010 18:12

My husband already had 3 points but was offered the course for his second offence. He thought it was really good - and he was the youngest one there at 40yrs old.

I suspect the age thing is because the boy racers are doing more than 5mph over the speed limit.

mayorquimby · 13/07/2010 18:19

Well then my response is as above, how come the young male driver is the only one who is described as a tosser and how come the course became more valid/worthwhile in your eyes (as you said you didn't want to go when you thought it would only be these type of people) once you found out it was full of a range of tossers of all ages and sexes?

LittleMissHissyFit · 13/07/2010 18:22

Glad you decided to go, I kind of felt the same, just didn't want the points, and an increase in my insurance premiums etc.

It was the best thing I have ever done. I think it ought to be compulsory tbh....

I had to fight back the tears during the course, and it changed my thinking entirely.

You really are very lucky being offered the course, there are very few of them, but I am sure it will make you rethink the way you drive!

IFancyKevinELevin · 13/07/2010 18:25

I think the rules I was given might apply to Hampshire/Wiltshire constabulary? Definitely not for 10mph plus though.

"Boy racers" the SAW man informed me were stopped by the police more often than not. He admitted this was through prejudice.

Speed cameras have been the great leveller, they capture all speeders, not just a type. This is why the oldies seemed very put out. Speeding fines in the 60+ group have increased by 200% approx in Wilts due to cameras. Speeding fines for "boy racers" have remained level.

From my teenage years in a crap town in Wales I admit to spending far too much time in the cars of tossy boy racers, sadly being a tossy boy racers girlfriend.