Safe Speed Forums

A BUSINESSMAN was convicted of dangerous driving for speeding at an alleged 150mph along rural roads.John Lee, a property restorer from Devon, was clocked driving at excessive speed in his left-hand drive Porsche 911 as he headed for Poole, down the A35 Puddletown bypass.

He told Poole magistrates that he was visiting a dying relative at Marlborough House Nursing Home on Saturday January 29 last year and that it had been a "dry and sunny" afternoon.

PC Julie Loveless and PC Graham Davis clocked Lee with a Home Office approved Urban Speed Ace camera before setting off in pursuit.

They finally caught up with Lee as he approached the Bere Regis roundabout as he turned left on to the A31.

Daniel Ip Piang Siong, prosecuting, said Lee's driving could have put lives at risk and several overtaking manoeuvres required oncoming traffic to deviate in order to get out of his way.

He reminded the court that it would have taken Lee 85 car lengths to stop while travelling at that speed. (85 car lengths in a moris minor?)

Explaining why he had failed to stop when he saw a police car with flashing lights behind him, Lee told the court: "The police officers would not have been able to overtake and I did not feel comfortable holding them up so I overtook the vehicle in front.

"I thought he was on an emergency run which required me to overtake the vehicle ahead."

He added: "I was exceeding 70 miles an hour but I would have judged my speed at around 90 to 95 miles an hour."

When stopped, he told the court, PC Davis had told him: "You're driving like a lunatic."

The presiding magistrate told Lee he had driven in a way that was "an obvious risk to road users". "It fell far short of what should be expected from a careful and competent driver," he said.

He said the fact that Lee was driving on rural roads with lay-bys, where animals could present a hazard, added to the danger of his behaviour.

Earlier the court had heard from Lee that when he had asked to see the speed camera indicator it had been re-calibrated.

PC Loveless had admitted that it had fallen from her lap while in pursuit.

But the presiding magistrate said that the police officers' evidence was not in doubt.

He told Lee: "We are in no doubt that you were doing 150 miles an hour."

The court also heard that Lee held the British Motorcycle Federation's highest award for motorbiking.

Lee received an interim disqualification and will be sentenced at Bournemouth Magistrates on March 17. (jail?)

The defence indicated they would appeal the conviction.

Daniel Ip Piang Siong, senior crown prosecutor, said after the case: "John Lee was not only travelling at an excessive speed when he drove down the Puddletown bypass at 150mph, he was putting others at risk.

"This is one of the highest speeds recorded in Dorset and today's conviction sends out a message to other drivers that driving at such high speeds can amount to dangerous driving."

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Rural roads my arse, it's a ten-year old dual carriageway.

It makes a more dramatic report if "goes past some fields"="rural road".

If he could do 150 down what I call a rural road he would have rally teams all over the world trying to sign him up.

If he was doing 150, how did plod catch him?

Now if the businessman had been a copper, he would have been sorted with a not guilty before the trial had even began.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

Whilst I was not in Porsche speed teritory, I can sympathise with driving to see an enderly relative on their last legs. Speed limits don't feature too high in the list of priorities. My first post ever to a motoring forum was to the uktraffic group (run by Grant and a few other traffic police), outlining that I had been pulled over for a 3-figure speed the day before my father died - Xmas day. The road was wide, dual, traffic was light and I was not even approaching the limit of safe speed for the conditions. Had I had a Porsche at the time, who knows, for the grace of God...

I do not know to this day if any dark forces were at work or if the police had a pang of good spirit, but I heard no more of that, and was most grateful.

I have to say, as someone who has been into three figure speeds at certain times in his life, that 150 mph is really quite awfully fast and really beyond safe limits on British roads at least, apart maybe on the M6 north of the Lune Valley at around 03.00 on a Sunday morning

Sorry, but I don't have much sympathy with this chap.

I still hate the cash cameras though

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

That's one of the best quality roads in Dorset, right?

If I was going to do 150mph on a road in Dorset it would be on my list of roads to do it on. I don't know if it would be entirely safe though, maybe for a short period, I've never driven that fast!
100mph would be fine for most of the length of that dual carageway in good conditions though.

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Andrew.

Or the M69 near Leicester...

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

Aston Martin used to test their cars on the M1 in the early hours of the morning and I am sure they probably reached those sorts of speeds. They don't do it now though; the M1 at three o'clock in the morning is busy these days.

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Shooting is good for you and too good for some people.

Last summer my friend & I used to have regular weekend jaunts to Scarborough (from Hampshire) and we never used to encounter any traffic on the M1 in the early hours.
A total journey of 305 miles would take us on average 3h 40m from start to finish if we left at 4am in the morning.
Obviously we spent a lot of time in the triple figure bracket in order to do the journey in that time, but what does it matter when you are the only car on the road?

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

A friend who bears a striking resemblance to me and has a similar car is fairly sure he's done 120 down there....