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Visibility of speed signs and other recent case law

It is important to motorists that they are given sufficient warning of any speed restriction so that they can avoid exceeding the prescribed speed limit. So does this mean that all speed signs must be visible from a particular distance in order to allow the drive to slow down from one speed limit to the next? The court was recently asked to give this matter consideration in the case of Coombes v DPP.

In this particular case the relevant speed signs were situated as normal at the beginning of the reduced speed limit. The signs in question complied with all the legal requirements in the fact that they were the right height, the right shape, the right colour and in the right style, but unfortunately they were not immediately visible due to the overgrown hedgerow and they only became visible at a point where the motorist had more or less driven past them. The signs in question were giving warning of a reduced 30mph speed limit. The applicable speed limit just before the signs was 40mph. The driver in question was caught travelling at 46mph within the 30mph limit. The driver attempted to argue that because of the overgrown hedgerow he was unable to see the relevant traffic sign and unable to reduce his speed to 30mph in time. When running his defence he relied upon section 85 of the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984.

He was convicted at first instance before the magistrates’ court and then appealed to the crown court. The crown court rejected his appeal and sent the matter on to a higher court for an adjudication. The higher court held that there is a requirement that at the geographical point where the motorist exceeded the speed limit the requisite signs could reasonably be expected to have conveyed the limit to an approaching motorist in sufficient time for the motorist to reduce from a previous lawful speed to a speed within the new limit. The court also held that if the signs failed to comply with the regulations, but the motorist knew of the speed limit because of his knowledge of a particular stretch of road, this did not make him guilty if the signs although visibility was non compliant with the regulations.

This may be something to watch out for therefore in speeding offences that take place in rural areas, especially during the summer months when our local hedgerows are prone to excessive growth. Certainly in such a case photographic evidence of the hedgerow and the relevant speeding signs would greatly assist in defending the case in the lower courts.