Couple fighting speed camera fine face £15k bill

Darren · Last edited by Darren on Tue May 05, 2009 9:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

Story courtsey of The Huddersfield Dail Examiner.

A couple fighting a £60 speeding fine face a £15,000 award for costs having failed in their appeal.

Physicist Iain Fielden and his wife Vikki were ordered to pay costs by the Bradford Crown Court judge making this the costliest speed camera case ever brought in the UK.

The original offence took place in 2006 when Mrs Fielden was photographed by a speed camera driving at 36mph in a 30mph limit. A fixed penalty of £60 with the mandatory 3 penalty points was issued.

Dr Fielden, an expert in the study of light claims the reading was erroneous because the camera was located on a bend in the road and claimed that as a result of the way light travels the camera could not have recorded an accurate speed measurement.

The first appeal was rejected and the £60 fine increased to £100 plus costs and this subsequent appeal at Crown Court having also failed has increased the costs to £15,000.

Dr Fielden now intends to take his appeal to the High Court claiming he has new evidence. Although appealing to the High Court places all costs on hold it means that Dr Fielden faces an even larger bill should the appeal be lost.
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Darren Griffin

gem · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 8:54 pm Post subject:

A bit of a plonker. Dr Arrogant more like, but I can understand the anger. A 20 mph limit....with a camera to enforce - what a joke. More proof of revenue collection purpose.

Maybe the police could photograph the cars on (say) zig zag lines at this 20mph spot.

It would be good to do a Freedom of Information request and get an idea of how much time/cost has gone into this revenue collection activity. Idea

Darren · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 9:20 pm Post subject:

That's a typo and my error, it should have read 30mph and I'll go back and correct that now Embarassed

However there are 20mph cameras, London has a set of SPECS on Tower Bridge in a 20 zone Rolling Eyes

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Darren Griffin

bcr5784 · Lifetime Member Joined: Nov 23, 2007 Posts: 6

Not sure if he's arrogant or not. There clearly are some erroneous prosecutions and if I knew enough about the physics and had the finances, I might be tempted to contest them.

Take the guy who was recently jailed for doing 122mph on his bike in the wet. Now I am quite prepared to believe he was going well over the 50 limit, but having seen the video several times, I find it inconceivable that he was doing 122. He simply would not have got round the following bend at the angle of lean he had at even half that speed. It takes a long time to slow at that speed ... I suspect that the laser measured the speed of his back wheel - the top of which is doing 122mph when the bike is doing 61. Of course he may well have been doing over 61 if the camera was just a few inches lower.

Likewise claims that of bikes doing 200+mph on a single carriageway are simply laughable.

boltysan · Lifetime Member Joined: Jan 27, 2007 Posts: 8

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 8:13 am Post subject:

I think you are right. I can't see how the top of the tyre can be doing 122 mph as it would mean the bottom of the tyre would be doing 122 mph too. If the bottom of the tyre is doing 122 mph then the bike is doing 122 mph and.........

Speed guns don't measure how fast an object is rotating but how fast an object is moving towards / away from the speed gun operator. Even if the top of the wheel is moving at 122 mph relative to the swing arm when riding at 61 mph, the wheel is still moving away from the speed gun operator at 61 mph so the rotational speed of the wheel means nothing.

It a bit like saying if you walk down the aisle of a plane doing 700 mph at 4 mph you are walking at 704 mph. It doesn't work like that....

Also didn't the rider admit he was doing that speed? From BBC News Website...

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 8:19 am Post subject:

SpikeUK · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 29, 2005 Posts: 140

If the bike was doing 61mph, then the top of the tyre was travelling forward at 122 mph while the bottom of the tyre was stationary. Only the centre of the hub of the wheel was doing 61mph, the same speed as the rest of the bike.

AlexLS · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 05, 2006 Posts: 1

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 9:39 am Post subject:

AYorkshireman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 30, 2006 Posts: 4

Anyone who knows this stretch of road would hardly say that the camera is on a bend. There is a very slight kink in the road at that point and that is all. If the speed had been say 31mph perhaps there would be cause to challenge but 36mph....... Anyway within the last week the council have redone the markings and instead of them following the line of the road they are now at a slight angle to take into account the fact that a vehicle at that point would not be driving in a straightline but rather towards the right to allow for the kink in the road. No doubt this will stop any other claims if there is anyone else silly enough to think they can get away with it this way.

Darren · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 5:11 pm Post subject:

Whilst the defence may not succeed, Dr Fielden is far better qualified than anyone here in the calculation of any errors.

We can all speculate but no-one here knows what the exact nature of the defence is based upon.
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Darren Griffin

UKHABU · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 5:15 pm Post subject:

If you do not believe that a modern motorbike COULDN'T do 200+mph
then I'm afraid you know nothing re. modern bikes and bikers!

A standard bike straight out of the shop will easily do 180mph

A few tune-ups, race-can and race-parts will soon see a bike at 200+ mph.

I saw a recent dyno test of a very minor adjusted road bike give 196 brake horse power at the rear wheel - thats on a BIKE - look at your car brake horse power and then consider it's weight and the fact that 99% of cars can reach 100 mph easily.

Whilst it is daft to be doing 200+mph on a single carriage way - the acceleration times of bikes are such that you could EASILY clock 200+ and then slow down again on a good straight stretch before killing yourself.
Just look at the length of a bike racing circuit straight - bikes are doing 200+ mph on quite a few stretches of the track - road bikes can approach the performance of track bikes fairly easily.

Claims of 200+ mph by reliable sources on dual carriageways are not exactly un-common - I don't - I can't afford the dry-cleaning of the brown stuff afterwards!!!
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chas820 · Lifetime Member Joined: Jul 31, 2007 Posts: 9

There is a very long thread on www.pepipoo.com where Dr Fielden with the help of members tried to defend this charge.It`s fair to say that the CPS used every trick in the book to make sure he didn`t win.Now they have repainted the lines it would seem he might have been right.

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