Safe Speed Forums

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 15,00.html

Top traffic cop has speed convictions

Dipesh Gadher, Transport Correspondent


A CHIEF constable who will this week be appointed as Britain’s most senior traffic policeman has twice been caught speeding.

Meredydd Hughes, head of South Yorkshire police, is likely to launch a crackdown on tailgaters and drug drivers and favours the introduction of a variable speed limit of up to 80mph on motorways.

Motorists expecting him to take a more lenient line on speed camera policy than Richard Brunstrom, his predecessor — nicknamed the “traffic Taliban” — will be disappointed. Despite his own indiscretions — which resulted in two £60 fines and six penalty points on his licence — Hughes has claimed that all speed cameras should be hidden and mobile.

The police chief, who will take over on Tuesday as head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), was first photographed by a fixed camera on the A61 as he drove to work in Sheffield at around 6am.

Months later Hughes, who was born in Cardiff, was clocked by a mobile unit during a private trip to visit relatives in south Wales. It is not known how fast he was travelling on either occasion.

After the disclosure last year Hughes, 47, said: “At least you can’t call me a hypocrite. If I had my way, all cameras would be completely hidden and mobile. If we are serious about speed cameras, we will have to think about that.”

Hughes has previously conceded that the spread of speed cameras has dented the public’s faith in road policing and he has called for the introduction of variable speed limits as a means of restoring trust.

He is also an advocate of speed awareness courses, which motorists can attend as an alternative to receiving penalty points on their licences.

“I think we have lost the PR battle at this time and we shouldn’t have,” Hughes told a Police Federation conference last year.

He claimed that technology should allow road signs to vary the speed limit “to not just 70, 60 or 50, but something more” if driving conditions were appropriate. Hughes pointed out that it made little sense for the same limit to apply at 2am on a Sunday on a deserted motorway as it did during a weekday rush hour.

Hughes has also revealed plans for automatic tailgating cameras, similar to speed cameras, to catch motorists who deliberately drive too close behind other vehicles. The cameras will use lasers to record the gap between two cars over a given distance, their speeds and the numberplate of the offending driver.

Having served as head of roads policing enforcement technology at Acpo until now, Hughes was viewed as Brunstrom’s natural successor.

Brunstrom, chief constable of North Wales police, avoided being caught by the cameras he championed by fitting a speed limiter to his Mercedes. He once said: “I’ve been told that I drive like an undertaker and I take that as a compliment.”

Hughes was unavailable for comment this weekend.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

http://www.yorkshireposttoday.co.uk/Vie ... eID=892290

To think, he was twice caught even with the current ‘all cameras to remain highly visible’ policy.
Do you think someone like that would face losing his licence if his own ‘all cameras to remain hidden’ policy is adopted? Of course not – he has a chauffeur!

I claim my right to call him a hypocrite

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Dumb and Dumber

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Speed camera policy Kills

http://www.yorkshireposttoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=892290



Looks like they’re all at it to me. An easy way out of receiving a speeding fine, and appearing well-behaved in the eyes of the public. Shame we can’t all afford chauffeurs!

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Dear God, this would be worse than speed cameras - there would be panic braking all over the place. Its bad enough as it is with speed cameras. I do just wonder if this guy has ever heard of more traffic police.




Idiot to that is all I can say. Surely that guy must have looked at road death stats over the last 10 years, and realise that cameras aren't bloody working




Yea, I bet he was


Now I do applaud him on wanting to catch drug drivers. And I do cautiously welcome a variable speed limit up to 80 on motorways (depends if they'll go overkill on lowering the limit like when theres a spot of drizzle for example), but overall this guy really is, at best, no better than Brunstrom for road safety

I love the word "deliberately". As opposed to what exactly, "accidentally" or perhaps "unwittingly"? Just how will the detectors detect people's intentions?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Could give rise to a whole new "sport"...

Once you know where these amazing devices are, it'd be relatively simple to follow a car that for some reason had "<Mr Bridger> incurred your displeasure </Mr Bridger>" and on the run-up to the camera, nip in front of your "target", lift off or dab the brakes and.. Shazam!! Instant tailgater.

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

if brunstom fitted a speed limiter to his merc - he was a bit dim, since most Mercs are fitted with variable speed limiters as standard. Or was this some sort of GPS affair