Speeding fines

underpants

does anyone know what the leeway is for speeding?

On the way back up to Dublin yesterday there was a cop on the side of the motorway with a handheld speed gun.
I was doing 126km. Not much over so hoping it's not a fine.

I've got 2 points from a few years back and they were due to go off my license in about 3 months so really was looking forward to having no points!

kdouglas

Not sure if there is an official "leeway" but I've often heard 10% thrown about as a rule of thumb, I wouldn't bank on it.

If it was a garda at the side of the road with a handheld radar gun then afaik he has to pull you in.

L1011

There is no official leeway, its down to the Guard in question. 126 is too low over to bother with - plus if you were seeing that on an 'analogue' (needle) speedo there is a good chance its closer to 120 than 126.

And as above, a handheld speed gun means they need to pull you there and then. It doesn't record.

azwethinkweiz

Yeah I've been wondering about the leeway myself? Surely it wouldn't matter if you're only a couple of km/h over the speed would it?

underpants

It's a digital speedo so I guess that rules out the inaccuracies of an analog dial but the handheld camera information is promising.

The guard was by himself and had a bike so I guess he'd have to chase up anyone he thought was worth it.

so maybe I will be back to having no points again! 3 years is a long long time to shake off a speeding offence.

I'm sure there's no official leeway cause it was just cause too much hassle if it ever got out. but there must be an unofficial limit where it's just not worth charging people for whatever reason.

CiniO

underpants wrote: »

It's a digital speedo so I guess that rules out the inaccuracies of an analog dial

Speedos are inaccurate not because analog dial is inaccurate.

They show bigger speed then real intentionally.


Check with any SatNav unit, or just with that speedo displays on the side of the road that you can see in some places.

Viper_JB

CiniO wrote: »

Speedos are inaccurate not because analog dial is inaccurate.

They show bigger speed then real intentionally.


Check with any SatNav unit, or just with that speedo displays on the side of the road that you can see in some places.

Tried this in a few cars, from my experience at 120ish kmph most cars will actually read 128 on average, so to op you'll be fine, high chance that you were under the speed limit, and if you were over it was by 1-2 km's.

VinnyTGM

Speedos show a higher speed than what your actually doing, you will be fine op.

L1011

CiniO wrote: »

Speedos are inaccurate not because analog dial is inaccurate.

They show bigger speed then real intentionally.

The over-stating isn't down to the dial being inaccurate; thats correct. Its just not done on digital speedos for some reason. The ones you can activate on some Ford cars are accurate to within 1km/h; the Citroen ones are accurate to within 1km/h, etc.

I've no idea why, though.