“Failing to drive in the direction shown by the arrow on a blue sign” In “St Martins Lane”
Here’s the pic.
I remember the night well, as I spent ages riding round in the pissing rain trying to work out how to get into Broadwick street… which ain’t easy if you’re not familiar with the 1 way system.
So I’m gutted that I got ‘caught’ apparantly doing just that… except I can’t work out from this **** photo what I’ve done…
Trouble is if I contest it I lose the £60 14 day fee, and get charged the full £120 don’t I ?
I mean I assume they’ll take a few days to get back to me (the offence happened on the 8th, and I’ve only just today received the pcn)
What should I do ? contest it ? anyone work out whats going on ? know the area ?
Thanks for the help. Sorry my first post outside of introducing myself is a plea for help,
ps if anyone can tell me how to post a photo up that would be appreciated. can’t find instructions anywhere on the site… is there a maximum size or something ? sorted ignore this
you dont lose the £60 option if you contest, send the complaint in, if they widthdraw the ticket all good, if not they will send you a letter saying you have to pay the fine and you have __ amount of days from recieving the new letter to pay at £60 otherwise it goes up to £120
I fear it’s fairly simple… you should have turned left on to William IV street… the blue sign is an ‘order’ it’s not optional. I’m guessing that you may be turned right towards Charing Cross Rd… in an attempt to return to Soho.
You see people ignoring these signs all the time when they’re at the base of a traffic light, the JCT of Edgware Rd/Euston Rd (North Bound) is a favorite.
mm yeah you could be right. I know the signs, i’ve been driving twenty years, but surely the camera hasn’t actually caught me in the act ? I mean I don’t remember willfully disregarding a 1 way sign, and considering the number of times i ‘did the circuit’ (about four times) before working out how to get into Broadwick street (you have to access via the last right turn on shaftsebury avenue before leicester square I eventually worked out) I am surprised at myself for doing that…
My point really is : surely the photo is inconclusive ?
Yep I noticed that… One would assume that they have a continuous clip and have just picked the key frame that had a clearest shot of your number plate.
You could always challenge it and ask to see the clip/actual image of the contravention, give it a go. Looks like you were caught by a camera car, Camden have a Smart car that goes around screwing people over…
That is in spitting distance from where I work and a Smart Car with a CCTV pole sits “illegally” on the double yellow lines to film this little junction. I often see them sitting there with their nice cups of Pret coffee and sandwiches getting fat on profit and doing little else. They should be fined for being on yellow lines… I’d contest it and ask for the photo’s of the actual crime committed, as the one shown is totally inconclusive, if anything if proves you are obeying the law.
That photo is before the illegal part of the turn from what I can see.
When I got done elsewhere in London, they had a photo of me before the turn showing my plate, then a second actually doing the illegal right turn. Banged to rights for me, but this photo is showing you before turning right. You might of gone left. Could be worth a challenge.
Got a feeling they’re just trying to show the bike plate to prove who it is (number plate view). The pic says recording, so if they jump a couple of frames there’ll be a snapshot of the wrong turn… sorry
If this is at the bottom of St Martins lane, then chances are you’ve been caught out by the tossers that sit in the smart car here regularly. I take great pleasure in turning left, doing a u-turn around the corner then waving to them as i go back past to charing cross road.
Problem is, the smart cars use cctv, so this is probably only one frame of a sequence and more than likely they’ll have ample evidence of the illegal right turn, so seems they got you bang to rights.
They caused chaos here recently by closing the road opposite Leicester sq for gasworks, then all the traffic coming into Covent Garden could get in but couldn’t get out because of this no right turn.
I had a similar thing a few years ago in my car. It was a yellow box junction offense. The picture didn’t show me in the yellow box and I tried to argue I was never stationary in the box. They responded by sending more pictures that proved I was stationary with just the rear wheels in the box for exactly 7 seconds. Not much you can to if you dealing with people who aren’t expected to think for themselves.
Anyway, rant over. Yes, contact them to say you don’t remember taking a wrong turn and that the picture doesn’t proove that. They will still offer you the £60 fine after they have provided more evidence, so it’s worth trying, nothing you can loose and you never know that they don’t have a good picture.
yeah thanks. Now i fully understand. feel like doing an eddie murphy and sticking a banana in the exhaust or something.
Have contested as a couple of you suggested. At worst they send me some more pics and I have to pay £60, but has bought me a few days till payday at least.
i’ll post it all over the forum if they don’t have the pics… and scamper off and pay the fine without any further comment if they produce other stills from their video…
Thanks for the feedback though. Good to have somewhere to vent frutstration if nothing else.
I work just around the corner in William IV St.My argument here is that if you turned left as per the arrow and then turned immediately right around the island then you have complied with the sign,it does’nt say how far left you have to go,just turn left.As long as you did’nt block the road and cause an obstruction,different offence though.If however you turned right across the “Fire path” then you’re buggered.They will have an exemption from themselves to sit on the double yellows as they do for hours on end.
The police are allowed to break the law within reason if it’s as part of their duty. At least that’s the excuse I was told by a copper when I challenged him for cycling on the pavement.
