Safe Speed Forums

I was stopped in a 2 hour traffic jam on the A3 heading towards the M25 last Thursday afternoon. The jam was caused by a accident involving just one car - a Sussex police landrover. The driver of the vehicle lost control and rolled off the road onto the embankment. The driver was taken to hospital with serious injuries. No other vehicle was involved. The accident occurred at 4pm. The injured officer was removed to hospital within minutes. I was still stuck at 6.30pm. Why? When I passed the scene, there were three other police vehicles in attendance, with officers standing around scratching their chins and ruminating about what had happened. I realise that the accident investigators must make their assessment of the scene before the vehicle can be moved, and also that drivers on the A3 were slowing down to have a look at the accident, but it seems to me that the police were not making any effort to get the traffic moving again. The left hand lane was closed off for recovery. I don't suppose we will ever know for sure, but if this accident and the subsequent traffic jam was caused by driver negligence and/or speeding, will the police prosecute one of their own as they would any other driver?

It really annoys me that police drivers can speed and drive recklessly and I don't buy into the argument that they are preventing crime. Catching a thief is no compensation to the families of road traffic accident victims of police speeding.

Is there a campaign group against police speeding?

It's very wrong indeed to assign such an incident to speeding, especially when we have absolutely no idea what happened.

This is a BIG problem in road safety - if we knee jerk and complain about the wrong thing, and then go on to fix the wrong thing, that CANNOT be expected to make the roads safer.

We need full information and accurate targeting of real problems. Anything less is bound to fail.

Having said that, I AM quite worried about declining Police training standards (and consequently driving standards) - but in this case we have no idea if the crash was due to bad police driving or not.

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

Indeed you do need full information and my information is that most Police Officers I have spoken to said that they wouldn't stand a chance of passing their police driving tests now as the standards had gone up so much. How strange and how contrary to your supposition that information is.

Actually - gameboy - you need fullest information for any RTAC whether police or civilian! Why do you think we cordon off the area and take to to clear things up?

And - may be sounding - (gulp) old-ish , but things ain'tat all what they were in my day!

Training has deteriorated and been cut - that is why your PCs say it is "harder" to pass - less time to do it in! In real terms - it is cutting corners and it can lead to trouble