Free Legal information and Legal advice
Failing to Stop or Give Particulars after an accident
The driver of a motor vehicle involved in a road accident in which personal injury or damage was caused to another person or another vehicle, or an animal not in the vehicle, or property on or near the road, is required to stop or on being required by a person to give his name and address and the name and address of the owner and the identity mark of the vehicle, to do so.
Maximum Penalty
6 months imprisonment and/or fine not exceeding Level 5
Endorsement with 5-10 penalty points
Discretionary disqualification
The requirement to stop and give particulars only arises if someone (other than you) or something (not in the other vehicle) is injured in the accident, or if you cause any damage to another vehicle or to anything else on or by the roadside such as a lamp post, fence or wall.
The severity of the offence increase with the severity of the accident and if there is both a failure to stop and a failure to afterwards report the accident. It will be most serious if the Court believes that the failure to stop was because the motorist was trying to avoid a breath test
A defence is where it is possible to satisfy the Court that the motorist was unaware that an accident had occurred.
Exceeding the speed limit
It is an offence to drive on a road exceeding the prescribed speed limit
Maximum penalty
Fine not exceeding Level 3
Endorsement with 3-6 penalty points
Discretionary disqualification
Where the speed is more than 30mph over the limit a motorist may well be disqualified depending on road traffic conditions, weather etc.
Often a fixed penalty option will be offered. If there is no defence this is best taken as the licence will be endorsed with the minimum number of penalty points and the fine (currently £60) is likely to be less than that imposed by the court. There will also be no court fees.
Possible defences are that you were not speeding, that it was not you driving, or that you were driving an exempted vehicle in an emergency.
The prosecution will often provide evidence by producing photographs from speed cameras. There is no requirement that such photos are supported by other evidence.
If no such photographic evidence is available then the evidence to convict must come from at least two different sources. One of these may be mechanical such as the police car's speedometer, radar gun, or VASCAR. Where a radar device is used the police merely need to provide a record produced by the prescribed device and a certificate as to the circumstances in which the record was produced, signed by a constable or other authorised person.
Speeding on a Motorway is a separate offence
Maximum Penalty
Fine not exceeding Level 4
Endorsement with 3-6 penalty points
Discretionary disqualification
Driving in excess of 100 mph will often lead to disqualification as well as a fine.
Totting up
Under the totting up provisions, a driver can be disqualified for a minimum period of 6 months where he or she accumulates 12 penalty points within a three year period. The relevant date is the date of the offences and not the date of the hearings. The disqualification will wipe the slate clean as of the date the driver gets his license back.
The Court has discretion as to whether to impose a disqualification, and may not do so when a ban would cause exceptional hardship. The loss of a job, or hardship to other family members may be taken as exceptional hardship.
