Pottering About at High Speed

Saw this story today and thought to myself, "What an excellent opportunity to put a picture of Emma Watson on my Blog."

Basically, she's "Done a Wilman"

She's got a 6 month driving ban by speeding while having 9 Points on her licence.

I don't understand how you can get caught speeding FOUR TIMES.

Surely after the first couple of offences you'd be on your best behaviour.

And yet she wasn't the only Harry Potter star who was banned in the same Court on the same day for the same thing - Zoe Wanamaker was done too.

The BBC used the story to talk about the forthcoming HBO TV version of Harry Potter.  Despite it having John Lithgow and Nick Frost in it, I won't be watching.

It doesn't state what vehicle Wanamaker was driving but Watson was in a blue Audi.

No mention of a blue Anglia.

Suspended Sentence

 Andy Wilman is going to be slightly inconvenienced for six months.

Some Car+Driver readers think it's the beginning of the end of the world.

They've been commenting on this story about him having his licence suspended for driving at 24 in a 20 zone.

Except that is not why he was banned for driving for six months.

He was banned because he accrued 12 penalty points on his licence.  It's true that the last 3 points were down do him driving at 24 in a 20 zone - but if he didn't already have 9 points, he'd have got away with a speed awareness course.

It is clearly stated in the article what has happened here.

Although it does go on to say, "Speeding fines in the U.K. are calculated based on income" - this includes a link to this UK Government site which clearly states the exact opposite.

Anyway, there is much shit lost by the American commenters about all aspects of this including the existence of speed cameras.

And one adds, "And if Wilman posts a mean tweet about the fiasco he'll likely get six months in jail."

No he won't pal, this isn't America.

Not Fine

Back in May, I posted about the story of a Tesla Driver's close call with death when a load of concrete slabs fell off an HGV and crushed his car.

The case came to Court today.  The BBC reported it thusly.

Lorry driver David Terry pleaded guilty to "using a motor vehicle where the weight, position or distribution of its load involved a danger of injury to any person"

I'd have thought "endangering life" would have been a better description.

His punishment was miniscule - a fine of £267, a victim surcharge of £34 and £85 in costs and three points on his driving licence.  I'm sure that the £34 will help with the loss of a £50,000 car.

I'm normally a softy lefty Liberal.  All words that right-wingers think are insults because they don't know the meanings of them - like "Socialist".

But come on!

His speed wasn't safe - his load wasn't safe - MULTIPLE PEOPLE COULD HAVE DIED!

It shouldn't need a death to match the punishment to a crime like this.

At least the morons in this other BBC video today did actually get banned:

A Quick Bit of DIY.

The host of DIY SOS has been caught speeding.

You'd have thought the host of Car SOS would have been caught speeding.

But no - this story is about Nick Knowles - he was also done for using a phone while driving.

Don't know if that is the actual phone or not.

 

He was given six points on his licence which got added to six he already had so he got a six-month driving ban.  He was also fined £666 for speeding and £666 for using his phone, with a victim surcharge of £66 and prosecution costs of £85.

 

They should have reduced the prosecution costs to £66 for consistency.

 

He did not have any professional legal representation either - I guess he wanted to do it himself.

Ant-erior Collision

Ant McPartlin was up in Court today after a collision.

He was found guilty of drink-driving.  He was fined £86000 and banned from driving for 20 months.

 

Meanwhile, outside, there was another collision:

Oops!

Embarrassing.

At least Wayne Rooney didn't crash when he was caught drink-driving.

Although that was supposed to be embarrassing because he was driving a car owned by a woman he was having a fling with.

 

I'd have thought the fact it was a VW Beetle would be more embarrassing.