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http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-w ... -19835768/

Fury as driver who ploughed into house gets off scot-free

Sep 24 2007 by David Powell, Daily Post

A HOUSEHOLDER was fuming last night after learning that police will not bring charges against a driver who ploughed into his home, causing £20,000 damage.

Ray Owen is particularly angry because he got booked by police for driving at 35mph on the same road and fined £60.

Mr Owen is demanding to know why police prosecuted him for a minor speeding offence, but will take no action against a motorist whose car ploughed into his living room.

His girlfriend, Lynn Ashton, was in the room at the time.

Ever since the crash in April at his home in London Road, Holyhead, Mr Owen, 52, has been hoping to hear from the police that the motorist in question had been charged.

Having heard nothing, he called traffic officers to check the progress of the investigation – and has now told the case had been dropped.

Police have also given him no explanation as to why the accident happened.

He said: “Words failed me. I was shaking with rage. This car came across the road, over a garage forecourt and into my living room. It sent a paving slab through the window, nearly killed my partner and caused £20,000 worth of damage to my house.

“He surely should be charged with careless driving, minimum, and some points on his licence. I was fined £60 for doing 35mph.

“There is a double standard, where they go for easy targets like myself but drag their heels with cases like this.”

Mr Owen, an Irish Ferries clerk, told how he was working a shift on the night of the accident but his girlfriend Lynn Ashton was watching TV at 9pm when the Vectra careered into the end of terrace house.

Mr Owen said: “Lynn said it was like a bomb going off in the living room. A boulder from the garden came through the window and shards of glass narrowly missed her.

“She’s an ex-nurse and even helped the driver out of his car.

“Then I got a phone call at work and she told me ‘there’s a car in the living room.’ I thought it was a wind-up.

Mr Owen added: “I’ve had to phone the police up to find out what was happening over this. They told me they are not going to prosecute the driver. It’s unbelievable.”

A North Wales Police spokeswoman said no further action was being taken because there was insufficient evidence.

She added: “Mr Owen’s speeding conviction is nothing to do with the circumstances surrounding what occurred at his house.”

Mr Owen's offence will make £60. Prosecuting the driver thast went through his wall will cost a packet and have no guarantee of success. Decision made.

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

No, his slight speeding offence casued no damage, didn't almost kill anybody, did not require the services of the Police, Ambulance (I assume they came out), recovery services, insurance assessor etc etc etc

Comments like this spokesperson's really make me mad, this country is being led by morons ever downwards, when will the rot stop.

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Nick

After reading the article a few times, I'm still left with the feeling that the police couldn't rule out it being anything more than a genuine accident - the way the article is written makes it seem that the push for prosecution was coming more from Mr Owen based on his desires/beliefs regarding the incident (and biases based on his prior experience of being scammed), rather than from the police based on their investigation of the incident.

_________________
Chris

I like these bits:



Insufficient evidence? A car embedded in the bay window of the house isn't enough evidence? There's a rather good photo of it in the newspaper as well. And the motorist was still at the scene, so presumably police would've seen him soon after the incident occurred. Sounds like it was too much like hard work for them to investigate, and would much rather sit in a nice warm van in a layby pointing a radar gun at motorists. Easy money!

We the electorate are to blame for this situation.

The police and the camera partnerships have now with the aid of the courts and the politicians got cart blanch to mug the motorist with fixed penalty fines, penalty points, and the motorist has no rights.

Is this what we call British Justice or Fair Play? Is this why we vote in our politicians?

Is the job of politicians and political parities to do the will of the electorate or to stealthily hide behind walls and in gardens to mug and bully the motorist?

As we have a deaf ear in the UK police forces (as the chief constable is not elected) the only option for the millions of oppressed motorists is to tell each and every potential parliamentary candidate when they came begging for our vote. To get these laws that prohibit the motorist from getting justice reversed or we the people will abstain from voting.

Can you imagine the constitutional mess if millions of motorists stayed at home and did not vote?

This I feel is the only way our voice will be heard by staying at home and saying nothing on voting day!

When do you have the right to remain silent?

If you explode a bomb, committing mass murder at a nightclub with hundreds of young people in side or drive into Glasgow airport with a firebomb. With the intention to murder, hundreds of families in side and get caught red handed you still...have the Right to Remain Silent. (Murder)
If you destroy the peace of a neighborhood by damaging property and indulging in anti social behavior you…. have the Right to Remain Silent. (Vandalism)
Steal from the elderly and the young and you…. have the Right to Remain Silent. (Theft)

Commit Rape on a Child or Rape the Elderly Spinster who works for the church and you….have the Right to Remain Silent!

However, whatever you do, don’t get a speeding ticket or the whole weight of the police and the British Judicial System will descend around you like a plague of locusts.
So we can see from the examples above the murder, vandal, thief, sexual deviant and the pedophile have more rights that a motorist!
Drive a Car, and get caught (rightly or wrongly) over the speed limit....I Have NO RIGHT TO SILENCE????It come to something when "proper" Criminals have more rights then the Law Abiding Motorist.

At the end of the day we the motorists are to blame. We should be telling the politicians that they can go and f*** themselves until they start to listen to us!

Safe Speed issued the following PR at 12:48 this afternoon:

PR537: They have lost the plot!

news: for immediate release

The Daily Post [1] reports of the anger of a householder who discovered that
Police will not prosecute the driver of a car that ended up in his living room
- but were only too pleased to prosecute him for driving at 35mph in the same
road.

Commenting on the news, Paul Smith, founder of SafeSpeed.org.uk, said: "The
Police have lost the plot, but I blame Department for Transport for messing up
our road safety priorities in the first place. I share Mr Owen's sense of
outrage."

"We won't get road safety back on track until Department for Transport comes
clean about the failure of their policies."

<ends>

The main purpose of this particular PR is to elevate the profile of the story to encourage tabloid pick-up for tomorrow. (In case you were wondering!)

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

Probably not relevant.
But:

More Law and Accidents

Given that the guy was driving a Vectra I'm almost certain that this was a genuine accident with no dangerous behaviour on the part of the driver (other than choosing to drive a Vectra in the first place)

Interesting that the article doesn't mention how fast he was going, can someone not calculate the speed needed to get however far into the house and see if they can do him for speeding, thus proving that speed is the cause of every accident ever

2 of you have said it may well have been an accident - but the police are still entirely guilty of double standards, Mr Owen travelling 2mph over the threshold past a speed camera was an accident, he still got pinged, fined and points - how come someone going into his house and causing untold aggro for a lot of people is not given the same unfair (if it was an accident) treatment?

i don't think that makes much sense, but i know what i mean

I think I understand you to mean: treat both as accidents, or neither.

But he must have been "speeding" or at least a more than a bit careless to plough into the living room. Wonder what would have happened had the woman been killed?

It's not exactly the sort of incident you could call a "from suddenly and nowhere"

_________________
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They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
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KEEP SMILING
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Smily to penny.. penny to pound
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Aha - precisely what I meant

Possibly, but the lack of any mention of such factors in the article makes me really suspicious about exactly what happened. Maybe the Daily Post is in that minority of papers which doesn't slip in as many references as possible to speeding, reckless drivers in articles about road accidents, I don't know. I just get an odd feeling reading the article, always waiting for the comment that justifies the thrust of the article, but getting right to the end without it ever showing up.

_________________
Chris

A follow-up, with an article from this morning's paper. It seems that N Wales plod are pulling their finger out at last.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-w ... -19873126/

If I’m fined for doing 35... what about man who hit my house?

Oct 1 2007 by David Powell, Daily Post

POLICE have re-opened investigations into the bizarre case of a car which ploughed into a house, causing £20,000 damage.

Ray Owen, 52, was appalled when after five months North Wales Police said they wouldn’t press charges against the driver of the Vauxhall Vectra which wrecked the living room.

It smashed into his home in London Road, Holyhead on April 9.

Mr Owen had been slapped with a £60 fine for speeding at 35mph on London Road in March.

He only found out about the decision not to press charges when he recently rang traffic cops who told him there was insufficient evidence.

Now he has learned the police have restarted their probe into the smash.

He said: “I am delighted that they’ve re-opened the investigation.

“I understand they interviewed two witnesses on Wednesday.

“I’m hoping for justice this time and that this motorist gets what he deserves.

“Had it not been for the Daily Post story I wouldn’t have got this far.”

Mr Owen said the driver had to claim on his insurance towards the £20,000 damage to the end of terraced house.

But Mr Owen still had to contribute towards the repairs.

He said: “My house insurance is going through his car insurance but I still had to pay a three-figure sum.”

Irish Ferries customer services clerk Mr Owen was incensed after the Vectra’s driver had apparently got off scot free a month after the 52-year-old was fined for speeding.

North Wales Police said officers had received information from Mr Owen and would be re-examining the case.

Mr Owen’s girlfriend Lynn Ashton was watching TV at their London Road home on April 9 at 9pm.

The ex-nurse was nearly injured from flying glass. Mr Owen was at work.

But he was shocked when police said they wouldn’t prosecute the driver because of a lack of evidence.

He told the Daily Post last week: “Words failed me. I was shaking with rage. This car came across the road, over a garage forecourt and into my living room.

“It sent a paving slab through the window, nearly killed my partner and caused £20,000-worth of damage.”

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-w ... -19974735/

Police still won’t book driver who hit my house wall

Oct 19 2007 by David Powell, Daily Post

A HOUSEHOLDER was furious after police decided to take no action against a driver who crashed into his living room causing damage costing £20,000.

Holyhead resident Ray Owen is contacting his MP to try to persuade North Wales Police to change their minds.

Mr Owen, 52, had been incensed when police initially investigated the collision in April involving a Vauxhall Vectra but decided against pressing charges.

But he was relieved when police re-opened their investigations several weeks ago.

However, on Wednesday he received a police letter revealing officers would not be charging the driver after all due to “insufficient evidence”.

He said: “It’s unbelievable. I am contacting my MP Albert Owen to see what he can do for me.”

The Vauxhall Vectra driver collided with the end of terrace house in London Road on April 9.

Mr Owen was at work but his girlfriend Lynn Ashton was watching TV at 9.30pm and was hit by shards of glass.

Mr Owen had been working as an Irish Ferries customer services clerk and was told about the accident on the phone by a shaken Ms Ashton.

Mr Owen has now received a letter from North Wales Police’s collision management unit’s Sergeant Heather Williams in Prestatyn.

It said “additional evidence” had been investigated.

This covers evidence from witnesses travelling in the car immediately in front of the “alleged offending driver’s vehicle”.

Sgt Williams writes: “All they can describe is that they saw the vehicle pull out from behind them as if to overtake. They then saw it collide with your wall.”

These witnesses offer “no evidence of careless driving” on the road and there was no “realistic prospect of conviction”.

Sgt Williams accepts it was a “traumatic, frightening’ incident”.

However, last night Ray Owen said: “I feel absolutely furious. I was shaking with rage.

“I can’t fathom it. My hopes had been raised when they decided to look into the case again. I’d even given them a photograph of the car’s number plate.”

The costs were paid by the driver’s insurance company but Mr Owen fears his own house premiums may rise.

Mr Owen has been particularly angered because he had been fined £60 for speeding on London Road – the same road that the Vectra driver used – in March this year.

A North Wales Police spokeswoman confirmed that there was insufficient evidence for any charges to be brought.