Phil

A bit difficult as he was caught by speed camera NOT a traffic cop

I would find it hard to believe that a traffic cop would actually pull any other emergency vehicle unless they were being reckless

Of course the answer is now to fit snoopers to all emergency vehicles

Phil

Butkus

Did anyone hear the woman from BRAKE talking about this on Jeremy Vine's radio show today? She was infuriating - you can just imagine the sort of person she was. The more she said, the more angry I got. The guy was doing 104 mph - big deal! I just don't understand this obsession with speed. It was at night on a motorway, he went by something like two cars in total, and was trained to drive by the police. How is that dangerous? Literally a walk in the park for a modern car.

johnfelstead

I think part of the problem with this over emphasis on speeding is the fact that the jobsworths who are enforcing this type of crap have no concept of what driving at 100MPH is like, 100MPH is not fast, it's damn slow on a good road like the A1M.

It's not actually the Police who are chasing this guy, it's the CPS. I cant see any Police Oficer taking this further, in general they have more common sense than the average CPS lawyer.

scoobynutta555

pathetic to have him done for this. Its on the same stretch of road where im facing a court appearance for doing a whopping 100.3 mph. Imassuming that the guy is qualified to drive at that speed and he was in control of the situation.

Minus points being that looked like a cavalier he was driving and if he did have an accident due through speeding then the oragan might not have made it to the donor on time assuming it was any use after a crash.

The crux of the thing is I think that much higher speeds can be justified according to all the factors in each case. After all, there were only speed limits introduced in this country 36 years ago due to manufacturers testing their vehicles and the fuel crisis a bit later. 70 mph is an absolute pi55 take for our motorways in this day and age.

unclebuck

Unbelivable. Especially if he gets a ban, then loses his job. He has been an ambulance driver for 30 years and has always had a clean license.

We are always told that saving human life is top priority, and it is certainly more important than a dumb assed GATSO photograph.[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

UB

BuRR

Just for the record - my father had a liver transplant around this time last year. His liver came from down south somewhere, and was rushed to Leeds in a manner such as this.

I personally think this action is disgusting.

Please, however, do not tar all forces with the same brush. I hear that he was clocked at speed in two separate counties. One county realised he was on a special run, and acted accordingly. The other did not

Luke

That old video.....It was made as part of a documentry that just happened to be there when this emergency dash was made. I believe that one of the escort bikes blew an engine and one of the riders/or the car driver retired from driving/riding after that job. As they felt it had all been a bit too much !!!!(Bit of an understatement!!)

It was a class job.


Anyway...stop complaining you little people. How can you complain in a country like ours????

we have a Third world health care system
We have a out of this world legal system
we have a police force out of their minds
we have criminals taking over.
we have a education sysyem that doesnt work.
We have british homeless people


you dont know lucky you are !!

DEEDEE

If I may add my thoughts. In the village where I live, a few years ago a Fire Tender was called upon to perform its duty. Lights blazing, siren screaming this Tender roared through the small village. On a mission to save lives. Not sure what happened next but the outcome was CRASH an Old Lady was crushed to death (on the pavement). Now this Tender did not make the emergency it was called for. It did not save any lives but took one away. Yes everyone was sorry for this Tragedy but if the Tender driver and crew were aware of what was around the corner, Well if. What Im trying to say is, is it worth killing someone trying to save someone. That Old Lady was a mother Grandmother wife. If this practice continues why not have a escort through each county. Oh and yes he should have all offences dismissed.

boomer

I am surprised that Lincolnshire police are not also going to nick the guy for displaying a blue light and using a two-tone siren as well [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Total madness!!!!

mb

chiark

Couple of facts:
- Occurred at 3AM in the morning.
- Was not an old creaking ambulance, was a new shape 2.2 Diesel Vectra.
- Carrying a liver which someone will be needing rather urgently.

In the book of everyone with more than a handful of braincells, not in any way threatening to life. To stop him would be threatening to life.

Yes, it makes for a simple form of journalism, but this guy should not be badgered for doing the job he has been fully trained to do.

I'd love to know what the prosecuting officer was thinking of...

Nick.

Phil

IT WAS A BLOODY SPEED CAMERA

No decent officer in his right mind would have stopped and issued a ticket to the ambulance man

Phil

Butkus

Chiark, I think you've hit the nail on the head. What seems to be happening is that common sense is going out the window. Driving at that speed, under those conditions is not dangerous driving. People need to get some proper perception of risk into their heads. The difference between 70mph and 104mph under those conditions, in terms of risk, is so minimal that it is almost irrelevant. We all take risks every day, but they are calculated, and we are designed to deal with them. Risk is slowly being removed from our lives, and that is a frightening thing.

scoobynutta555

Deedee

why are you comparing what happened in a village ruring 'normal hours' to some1 getting nicked on the A1 at 3am in the morning, and a big fire engine (one assumes) to a modern car?

Leslie

I have to modify my earlier post because the initial report I saw gave the impression that he was stopped by the police and did not mention the Cambridge Force action. Yes I would expect a police officer on the scene would probably not have stopped him anyway recognising he was an emergency vehicle and if he had may well have sent him on his way when he realised the facts.

The criticism then should be directed at someone in the Lincoln Police Force who processed the information and the CPS for deciding so far anyway to take action against the driver. The feelings I expressed before then have not changed with regard to those who have continued with this action.

I hope they will be swayed by public concern or at least the court will throw the case out.

Les

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

I hope he gets off with it, lets face it, where would we be without these people the guy was going to save a life FFS.
Cheers
Colin

alistair

The principle sounds OK to me - you're in an emergency service vehicle so you can choose to use the blue lights & drive fast - no-one should stop or delay you on your journey, but you should be accountable for your actions afterwards.

If this guy can justify the emergency status of the journey and the need for speed, then he'll be fine. If he can't then he shouldn't have been doing it - simple.

I think all the hype about he may lose his job is bollocks too - if he got a ban I expect he'd sit behind a desk for a few weeks.

Pete Croney

His Lawyers have requested an ajournment and this has been granted by the court.

He has offers of help to fight the case flooding so I'm sure he will be back with a top legal team.

Madness, pure madness.

rozzer

CPS stands for 2 things, 1, if you're a bad guy = "Criminal Protection Society" or 2, if its dificult = "Can't Prosecute Service" I don't really know where this one fits in but I hope the prosecutor doesn't need an ambulance in a hurry

bluenosewrx

iTrader: (2)

wonder if the plod would take offence if i was transferring my yamaha organ to my mates house,i hate the police ,remember the fire strikes police escorts screaming about the place with 50 year old fire engines and 17 year old drivers trying to keep up with them .trust me i was there.

Witchfinder

I suppose they need to raise money so they can pay compensation to hijackers...

Mycroft

FYI...

The police kill 120+ members of the public thru crashes involving motor vehicles... The 2 other services?... 11 (eleven) think about whether there is any value prosecuting the most useful and least dangerous Emergency service!

Mycroft

Just to put that into perspective... the Police service alone constitute more than 5% of this Countries Road Deaths since 1985!

'Never have so many died at the hands of so few with so little public complaint.'

Mycroft

Or perhaps as TRRL put it... ''...if we overnight stopped police pursuits and bad driving practise, it would constitute the greatest single achieveable cut in road deaths for the smallest cost.''

Odd, that ACPO don't say much about this sort of thing... isn't it!

MartG

Just on a lighter note on this as I think like everyone else this chap should never get convicted for this, but was wondering if I got pulled for speeding on way home from work, would it apply if I said I was transporting an important organ home for the Mrs!!!! Just a thought.

Luke

An old client of mine was a senior CPS lawyer.


She would take files home at the weekend. friends would come around and read all of them and pick who gets done and who doesnt. They would always drink loads. other times she told me....... they would just pick up the top 5 files and "do them" leaving the rest "OFF the hook.".

They just want an easy life like everyone else.

DaveD

iTrader: (2)

OK, so the local police don't think this was a 'live saving' situation which justified the speed.

So should I report the Police Volvo estate which was doing in excess of 100mph up the M5 at 11pm last night, without it's blue lights on?

It's quite scary how little common sense some people are showing these days!

Scoobs_4ever

By my reckoning its about 150-miles between Cambridge and Leeds. Should normal take about 3 hours or so to do, May be at 100mph-ish say it takes 2/2.5 hours.

I just wonder if it was such an emergency then why send it by car? I can think much quicker forms of transport than a car to such an extent that the journey time would be less than an hour.

logiclee

The logistics of arranging a Helicopter or similar for transport of Organs sometimes takes longer than a two hour car drive.

The Facts.

It was a Modern car not a Van/Ambulance.
He was a trained and experienced high speed emergency driver.
It was 3am on the A1M which was virtually clear.
He was in full emergency mode with lights and siren.
The quicker the Organ can be transplanted the more chance there is that the opertion will be succesfull. Every minute can be vital.

No one else was at risk and he was only doing about 15-20mph faster than the normal daytime traffic flows anyway.

I hope this gets thrown out.

Lee

fast bloke

Anyone see Graham Norton tonight? Now the emergency services can be stopped for speeding


Plod - Evening sir... Wheres the fire then?

Speeder in big red truck with blue lights - Erm.. over there ya pillock

Echo

So will ambulences have to be fitted with Road Angel and laser diffusers in the near future?

This helps highlight the lack of real police on the roads (who can use discretion and help enforce lane dicipline etc etc) and the over abundance of cameras.

:-(

Mike