Speeders caught in Traffic Enforcement Swoop in and around Marlborough

Earlier today (29 August) quite a few drivers were clocked speeding in Marlborough (London Rd), Avebury and Lockeridge. All were going well over the limit, which was either 20 or 30mph, and will get penalties ranging from a speed awareness course to a court summons.

In London Rd, over a fairly short period thirty two drivers were ‘captured’ exceeding the limit by enough to incur penalty. In Avebury, on the A361 going through the stones a further twenty were captured and in Lockeridge, by the ‘Who’d A Thought It’, eleven were caught.

One driver will end up in court as a result whilst the rest will either attend the Speed Awareness Course or have to pay the £100 fine and deal with their insurance companies who will inevitably up their premiums as a result of the 3 points added to the licence. And if the insurance company isn’t informed, then potentially the insurance could be null and void.

Also the Police don’t just stop at points or some automatic penalty. They will then check the details of the vehicle (insurance, MOT, owner/keeper/driver existing licence points) and as it’s on camera, footage will be checked for seat belt and/or mobile phone usage and other infringements, and – if any question – who was driving, all of which could result in far greater penalty.

So is it worth speeding? A choice to be made by every driver, each and every time they get behind the wheel of a car. Will doing 30 in a twenty limit get you to the end of the journey any quicker? In Marlborough, probably not. There’s always the likelihood of meeting either a ‘Giga’, Thames Water or Gas inspired roadworks with traffic lights so the answer will be ‘no’, which will slow any journey down massively. But even when there aren’t any such roadworks, the answer is still probably ‘No’.

But the possibility of an accident, injury or some other damage to third party is always increased with speed, and that could end up being a far greater consequence than any appearance at a Speed Awareness Course or a fine and three points.

Driving fast isn’t always the domain of a ‘good driver’ as anyone who has done Advanced Driver training with either RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) or IAM Roadsmart (Institute of Advanced Motorists) will be well aware, and busting speed limits through towns and villages won’t make journeys any quicker. Costly? Possibly. Dangerous to others? Quite possibly. Watching a couple of silver cars exit the Lockeridge pub car park the other night, flooring the accelerators and fishtailing down the road, just missing a parked van isn’t fast (or good) driving, it could be costly in so many ways. But that’s always the choice of the driver.