Most traffic offences are strict liability ie: there’s no need to prove any mental element such as intention or recklessness, so, like you say, if you carried out the act eg: crossing a solid white line, then what you were thinking when you did so is irrelevant and you’ll be convicted. However, the common law defence of necessity (ie: to save your life or the life of another) may apply. Also, and probably something that is encountered in real life rather than in LL.B textbooks, the person deciding whether or not to charge a suspect has to apply the Code for Crown Prosecutors “Full Code” test, which has two limbs, (1) is there sufficient evidence to make a conviction more likely than not? (2) is it in the public interest to charge them? The second limb would clearly not be satisfied in the case of someone crossing a solid white line in order to avoid a collision. I’m probably teaching you to suck eggs, but the post is for general consumption, so hopefully you’ll give me a pass (without crossing any white lines in the process of passing)
I saw my mate last night and asked him about it. He said there was a young guy and much older guy with the young one taking the lead and the older one saying nothing. He thinks the young copper may have been just out of training. He also mentioned that he passed the police car just after the corner and was back on his own side of the road and it was a couple of miles down the road before the coppers pulled him over. I said he should have just gunned it and buggered off, he said that he didn’t think for a second they would pull him and spent most of his time asking them what else he could have done. So does sound like he was unlucky and either got a total jobsworth or complete rookie where they were just doing the paperwork for practice. He did also mention he had been doing about 130mph a couple of minutes before
