Safe Speed Forums

Following discussions on Tuesday with the court reporter for the Derby Telegraph I can now reveal for the first time that yet another cop hasbeen acquitted after alledged high speed in a 30mph zone. Safe Speed issued the following PR at 03:29 this morning:

PR198: Reaction to another acquitted high speed cop

News: For immediate release

Safe Speed has learned from Johanna Burch, court reporter with the Derby
Telegraph, that another Police officer has been acquitted following
accusations of driving at very high speed in an urban area.

The case again raises the issue of an extraordinary and unacceptable double
standard.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "The public anger expressed over last week's case
(where PC Milton was acquitted following his 159mph jaunt) was astonishing and
frightening. This week we're going to see much more of the same. It's another
nail in the coffin of the once great Police / public relationship."

"The underlying problem here is that the Police are responsible for enforcing
the speed limit laws against the public with excessive zeal and insufficient
intelligence. The vast majority of the 10,000 speeding tickets issued each day
go to responsible motorists who know that they were driving safely at the
time. It's not surprising that resentment is building up. The root of the evil
is speed cameras. They stand by the roadside threatening the livelihood of
responsible members of society, they make the roads more dangerous and they
seriously undermine vital public confidence in the Police and the judicial
process."

* Over 12 million speeding tickets have been issued by camera raising around
£700 million in fines.

* British road safety is now the slowest improving in Europe.

* Last year, Germany saw a 12% fall in road deaths in a single year. We've
only seen an 8% fall in deaths in the last whole decade. But it wasn't always
like that. Before speed cameras we saw the following falls in deaths:

1991: -12.4%
1992: -7.4%
1993: -9.8%

<ends>

=====================================
Notes for editors

Johanna gave me the details over the telephone at a time when I wasn't in a
position to take notes. It appears that there was a crash during a Police
emergency response. A member of the public pulled out in front of a very high
speed Police car in a 30mph zone. An accident followed. The case against the
Police Officer collapsed when evidence from a black box recorder - showing
pre-crash speed of 90mph - was excluded. A case for driving without
due care and attention against the member of the public continues.

It's for others to comment on the specifics of the case. We feel that it's
extremely important to comment on the overall effect of such cases.

The full story will appear on the Derby Telegraph web site shortly:
http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk
========================================

You heard it here first!

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

If Police car came over a brow, round a bend, or had restricted vision for any reason, and found the other driver in road and couldn't stop then Police driver should be prosecuted as they were driving faster than the safe speed.

But if the member of public pulled out after the Police car was in full view then they were at fault for not looking properly.

Not as simple as Police driver exceeded speed limit so they are automatically at fault.

Seems that if you're involved in an accident with a police car , charges are always brought against you , I have heard this is because officers are automatically suspended from driving duties until such time , but I can't vouch for this .

What I can however say for sure is that I was rear ended as I stopped at a roundabout in Dec 2004 by an off duty inspector and ended up with a CD30 on my license for my troubles due to what could only be described as a tissue of lies told in court and "witnessed" by people who weren't even there !

Bitter ? Oh I think so , so to agree with Paul , yes , ANOTHER nail in the coffin.

We allow for a debriefing session....cool down period and so on.

Um - we are not in the habit of pressing charges on the public either We do investigate objectiviely - believe it or not.



Don't get.... he rear ended you at roundabout? You sure you did not change lanes at last minute or something? Still was not there - does not seem right to me and can only feel sorry for your alleged rough deal. Unlucky - does not happen often. I do not look at police life with rosy coloured glasses either.

But am sorry - if what you say is true.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

I was involved in an accident with a Police Transit van which was on a blue light run in London. I was on my m/bike, driving correctly when the van pulled out from between a row of stationary vehicles into my lane giving me no chance.

I was very impressed with how it was handled. First off I wasn't injured but the police were keen to make absolutely sure I was OK, I didn't actually loose control of the bike so injury wasn't a factor. Both the police driver and myself were breathalised, both negative and statements taken from us at the scene.

The Met police accepted full responsibility with no argument and I was invited to give a more formal statement to assist in the prosecution of the Police Driver. I declined advising the Serious offences unit that in my humble opinion the driver did not warrant prosecution and the shock of hitting a biker (he really was messed up by it) had been punishment enough.

_________________
Former Military Police Officer and accident investigator

The misconduct hearing - we all get them if we have a bit of a mishap. Those cars cost money and we have to explain the damage and why we damaged it... and so on. Blac box is supposed to be recalibrated after any incident and checked over regularly. Cannot understand why the box waas not available - though. We are not supposed to - er - lose them.

Part of it seems to me to be a CPS ***** - up again - they did not prepare a case to answer and no idea how fast he was actually going.

As for the other driver...pulled out into the path of a car with blues flashing and presumably a siren. Don't know the road lay-out - so no idea if police driver had time to react or not or whether other driver should have anticipated speed of approach better and just waited till the cars were clear.


Rule of thumb at cross roads/lights... we use the whoo-whoos and the big flashing lights and we slow up and cross when the nice nice law abiding and courteous members of the public let us though. We are not allowed to barge straight through - this places our lives in danger as well as yours.

But agree and take the point ....160 mph "testing the car" and a CPS ***** up, missing evidence is not building bridges.


Public and Police alike deserve better....

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

That's the problem... We're all supposed to be "on the same side" but politically-motivated criminalisation of relatively innocuous behaviour, added to the perception that the law is becoming increasingly onerous upon the "law abiding" and increasingly ineffective against those who don't give a sh*t, is driving a wedge between "us" and "them".

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