Me, a driver of another car and a police officer all being breathalysed at the roadside by a second police officer. Well, that’s what happened this morning!
Bit of background – I was caught on a mobile speed camera a few weeks back doing 59 in a 50 (Without going into great detail it was on a section of dual carriageway I was unfamiliar with in Samlesbury, I was travelling east on the A59 and thought the limit was 60 – it wasn’t).
A week later I received the dreaded letter. My licence is clean and I was given the option of 3 points and £100 fine or no points and attendance on an £85 Speed Awareness Course. No brainer.
I booked and paid for a course that was running locally. So this morning was the date of the course, which started at 8am. Anyone who has been on one knows you have to arrive promptly: registration is 20 minutes before the start of the course - if you miss the registration you fail the course and so you’re £85 down, plus you get the 3 points and the £100 fine on top.
So back to this morning; I set off for the course giving myself 20 minutes for what is no more than a 5 minute drive.
I’m at my first junction and waiting to turn right onto Garstang road, the light changes to green and I indicate right and set off. Then I hear sirens and see to my left a police van rapidly approaching the junction, so I break and the car behind hits me.
The police van races through the junction (and the red light) but then pulls over a little further down the road so I pull over behind him and the guy who hit me parks up behind me. He’s driving a newish BMW 5 series.
First thought is what’s the damage
A quick inspection and to my huge relief I can’t see so much as a scratch. The police office and his partner are out of the van and the other driver is there too. It’s all very congenial, I’m just relieved that there's no damage to my ZED. Nor is there any damage to the front of the 5 series.The officer strongly advises us to exchange names addresses etc. and also takes our details and checks our insurance, then tells us that we now have to wait for a police incident unit to arrive. So I’m looking at my watch and its now ten to eight and I’m panicking about missing the registration. I don’t feel that it’s prudent to tell the coppers that I’m going to be late for my Speed Awareness Course, but time is ticking on
Fortunately, the traffic incident car arrives within minutes, but then that officer informs us its standard procedure in any RTA (no matter how minor) to breathalyse all involved – including the copper who was driving the police van!
So there we all are being breathalysed – he tested the officer first, which I’m sure puzzled the passing motorists. Minutes later, we have all passed the test and its now five to eight and I’m seriously sweating but trying to appear calm.
Eventually it’s all over and the officer who was driving the van apologises to me, I’m guessing because he stopped he was probably under instruction or on a training exercise.
I’m back in my car and desperately trying not to break the speed limit getting to the registration. Fortunately all the lights are with me and I get there and sign in on the dot of 8.
Back home afterwards I gave the rear of the Zed another thorough once over, no dents or scratches and the bumper hasn’t come loose so I feel sort of lucky. As one of the coppers said: BMW’s are solid cars.
