[seanxair]

[MarkOlding]

- He could have wrapped it in plastic.

Having had the pleasure of a speed awareness course recently I think he missed out. It actually made me think about things a bit more - might not have made me a better driver however..........

[seanxair]

I did a course a couple of years ago too. Took enough from it to consider it worthwhile.

Still thought this amusing though!

[FlarePath]

No contest, take the course, I did, learnt a lot and it has changed my driving habits particularly as I now have front/rear facing dashcams. Plus the hassle of upto 5 years loading on your insurance is reason enough to take the course.

for another £35 you wouldn't?

If I was King I would make every new driver take the course within 6 months of passing.....

(Mine was for 34 in a 30 by a particularly vicious ~Gatso that clocks at +1mph)

[PeteSpencer]

Fine plus points affects your insurance premiums for several years :

Some I nsurance companies don’t even want to know about the speed awareness course:

No-brainer really

Peter

Edit for clarification

[PeterMa]

Not always the case that speed awareness courses don't affect insurance or that they don't care - it does come down the exact questions asked by the insurer I'm afraid .

( I'm not saying its right or wrong - just clarifying they 'may' have an affect.

[Lerk]

ISTR at one point there was speculation that an SP30 put you into a lower risk group and therefore actually lowered your premium.

[FlarePath]

Not always the case that speed awareness courses don't affect insurance or that they don't care - it does come down the exact questions asked by the insurer I'm afraid .

( I'm not saying its right or wrong - just clarifying they 'may' have an affect.

When I was on it, this question was obviously raised, and the "faciltators" did make the point if insurers do ask if a SAC has been taken and use it as a premium weapon no-one would take the course and therefore the education from it would be lost.

[PeteSpencer]

When I attended a course a few months ago I contacted Direct Line : They told me they weren’t interested in course attendance but of course required notification of a successful prosecution /fine/ custodial sentence.

For accuracy therefore I have edited my post to include the word ‘some’.

Peter

[LowNSlow1]

Speed Awareness Course is well worth the money but I found the lack of knowledge of some of the participants breathtakingly scary:

4 people on my course thought it was always legal to undertake on dual carriageways and motorways.
1 lady who boasted of driving 30,000+ miles per year would not accept that her proposed tactic of turning the car broadside in an emergency would not stop it quicker than emergency breaking. She got a lot of nods of agreement.....
The number of people who really did think listening to the radio was just as distracting as talking on a phone.
The general inability to understand why the stopping distance from 60mph is 3 X the stopping distance from 30mph not 2 X....

[Rob P]

Two courses in about four years for me. I'd never do another. Three points is a minor inconvenience (I once got twelve points in one go) and my insurance premium, even on the V8R, is so low a few quid extra would be far better than sitting through that mind-numbing bollox again.

Trust me. A first course you might find the odd thing that is useful, a second course just highlights all that is wrong with the design and delivery of the thing. I genuinely have no need to know the speed limit for a truck towing a trailer on a dual carriageway.

Rob P

[JoeC]

I've done three.

[flybymike]

Joe wins so far. Any advance on three?

[Rob P]

Three in total. One a good few years back and then the recent two.

Rob P

[JoeC]

My first one must have been about 15 years ago before they became a 'thing'. Had to travel to where the offence was committed, so a Travelodge conference centre somewhere near Hull. I'd been done for 78mph on the M62.

It was run by two traffic officers, a man and a woman. They had no idea on how to handle a room and had only an emerging plan on what they were going to talk about. So they spent two hours shouting at us. They interspersed their shouting with supposedly moving stories of cradling dying travelling salesmen in their arms after pulling them from burning Mondeos whose last words were inevitably "I wished I hadn't been speeding..."