Safe Speed Forums

I found a letter printed in the Whitehaven News on Thursday July 1, 2004. I think you'll agree that the letter, written by Mark Mower of Whitehaven makes interesting reading.

SIR- I wish to complain about the treatment meted out to me by a Whitehaven police officer on June 14. I was heading north towards Whitehaven when I turned right onto Coach Road. A police transit van was travelling from Whitehaven town centre and turned left onto Coach Road and followed my vehicle.

He flashed the vans headlamps at me (which led me to assume he wanted to pass me). I was travelling at less than 20mph so I took no action and waited for him to overtake. He then switched on the blue flashing lights and I pulled to the side of the road outside St. Begh's Infant School.

The first thing the officer said to me was: "You were driving over the speed bumps too slowly." I was taken aback by his statement, bearing in mind that I was driving past an infants school in a built up area at 11.42am. I think it is irresponsible to speed, more so in town, and it is something I will never do.

With the current furore over excessive speeding and speed cameras, I find it quite ridiculous that I was stopped for going too slow in a school zone.

Perhaps Cumbria Constabulary would like to explain its current policy regarding speed limits and their enforcement-or is this, as the poor downtrodden motorist already suspects, just another revenue gathering excercise?

I obviously know what the maximum speed is but I would be grateful of someone from Cumbria Constabulary would enlighten me as to what the [i]minimum[/i] acceptable speed is in a 20mph zone.


[i]A Spokesman for Cumbria Police said: "We can understand the concerns voiced by Mr Mower and we will look into the matter and contact him when we have spoken to the officer concerened."[/i][/i]

Colin, this posting needs to be sent to Richard Littlejohn c/o The Sun newspaper, he would absolutely love it.

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

Maybe there was a Talivan at the end of the road and they wanted him to speed up before he got there.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein