Shropshire-Guy

Is this taking the Pxxs or what. Cambridge police suck. I hope one day is may be a liver for one off those guys. Considering He had blue lights etc on as well. Typical . Pity they carn,t get off there asses and catch criminals. Mind you that would involve work wouldn,t it


Ambulance driver booked for speeding
LONDON (Reuters) - An ambulance driver taking a donated liver for a transplant will appear in court on Wednesday charged with breaking the speed limit, according to reports. Mike Ferguson, an ambulance driver with more than 30 years behind the wheel, was clocked twice exceeding the 70 mile an hour limit as he drove the organ from Leeds to Cambridge in an official car with flashing blue lights. Police in Cambridge decided not to prosecute, but colleagues in neighbouring Lincolnshire took a harder line, the Times reported on Tuesday. "I have no regrets about breaking the speed limit that night because I know it helped to save a life," the newspaper quoted Ferguson as saying. However, the Crown Prosecution Service took a different view. "Having looked at all the facts, the Crown Prosecution Service believes this was not a medical emergency and should be put before the court for them to decide," it was quoted as saying in a statement.

Sbradley

Yep, I really do believe I've seen it all now.

This is fecking insane.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/2937910.stm

Presumably now fire engines and ambulances will start being ticketed for stopping on yellow lines (although they might be able to claim loading and unloading)and the rest of the stupid petty authorities will declare open season on emergency vehicles.

Tossers.

SB

Reffro

Now you know the lengths to which the Lincolnshire speed ***** will go to raise a buck.

They are completely blinkered to reasoned arguments......

The Zohan

Thank God the police are there for us protecting us from speeding ambulances - that well known cause of accidents and road related problems - they should and have got better things to do with their time - Really bad call on behalf of plod on this one!

Back to revinue generation and stealth taxing - not tough on crime and it's causes - ar$e!

[Edited by Paul Habgood - 5/27/2003 9:21:57 AM]

fast bloke

Taking this to its logical conclusion, Lincolnshire police will be on the lookout for police cars chasing stolen cars following armed bak raids... not a medical emergency, so the seem to be fair game. Then they can get other police cars to chase the police cars chasing the speeding police cars chasing the stolen car. That way all the police drivers will get banned in a couple of months and Lincolnshire will be a safer place to speed.

NotoriousREV

If I was waiting for that liver I'd consider it pretty fecking urgent.

I wonder what the CPS does consider to be a medical emergency if not a liver transplant?

Shropshire-Guy

Just E mailed them in Rant mode. Like posted above, Patient and Doctor would think it was pretty ruddy urgent.

Popeye P1

For gods sake is there no-one with any common sense in this country??? He's an ambulance driver ffs.

We're really a complete joke. Put it this way if he loses his appeal then it will have a knock on effect. Driving to an emergency etc will take twice as long.

God I despair of our stupid country sometimes-sigh

T.C

The driver should get away with it when it gets to court although he shouldn't have been done in the first place.

The legislation is quite clear that any vehicle being used fpr Police, Fire or Ambulance "Purposes" are exempt from speed limits. It does not say that Ambulances have to be carrying patients, but the mere fact that it was being used for that purpose of carrying an organ for transplant should be quite sufficient.

The CPS are not qualified to say that an organ being carried for transplant is not an emergency, so I can certainly see the driver being aquitted and costs awarded against police.

MarkCSC

A friend of mine is a Policeman in the Cambridge force. Everytime he get flashed by a speed camera (while on a call, blue lights flashing etc) he has to write a report explaining why he felt it appropriate to break the speed limit.
This never happened when he was in the Met. I think maybe there is one very **** person working in the Cambs police.

The Zohan

This sort of thin kinda sums up what is wrong with this country for me, No use of common sense just strictly adherring to a set of stupid rules made up by people just looking after no1.

This should not even get to court, this is being funded by us the taxpayers at the end of the day!

This money would be better spent on proper crimes and dealing with such like - Fecking madness if you where to ask me!

Sounds like something out of Brasil (the film)

RB170

My wife is an Ambulance TECHNICIAN, if I call her an Ambulance DRIVER she'll kill me

The only time they are permitted to break the speed limit is when they are on a Cat1 or BLUE call.

If they are clocked speading then they have to provide a full written statement explaining why they were speading.

The control centre will inform the crew of the type of call they have but once there It's up the the Ambulance crew at the time to categorise the call that they were dealing with so I guess it comes down to the CPS's and majestrates interpretation of an EMERGENCY.




[Edited by RB170 - 5/27/2003 12:49:46 PM]

Popeye P1

Emergencies should be exempt from ANY sort of justifying you're speed BS.

You're wife shouldn't have to explain to any pompous Tw*t why she was breaking the limit on a call. They're not in the front-line, she is.

RB170

I agree but thats exactly what they have to do

Molds

FFS!

alistair

Makes glamorous headlines - but don't lose sight of what it's about!

It's basically a question of defining an emergency. In an emergency the emergency service crew are exempt from speed limits but could still be done for due care & attention etc if the speed is in-appropriate.

I have no idea about things medical, but I would guess that if the transplant is question was a true emergency then the guy will no doubt be found innocent. However, if he had ample time to get there for a scheduled operation and just fancied driving down the A1 at 100mph+ because he could then that's a different question.....

Personally I have much more of an issue with plod screaming through built up areas in crappy little beat cars, but that's another issue entirely !

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Just out of curiosity how many innocent people have been killed by speeding Police cars in comparison to speeding Ambulances adn Fire Engines.??????

Apparition

Just to put my spoke in, I read that the law states that the emergency vehicle must be carrying people or a person to avoid being ticketed for speeding. This wasn't an actual ambulance and he wasn't actually carrying a person.
I say the law needs updating, it was probably written before the dawn of transplants.
On another score.... why do emergency vehicles have to dash about at 2 am or thereabouts with their sirens going? the roads are hardly busy at that time of the morning and there's not likely to be many people out and about. I live on a popular through run for these vehicles and I can't count the number of times I've been woken from my slumbers by this cocaphony.

RB170

An emergency can be going to or coming from an incident

If an Ambulance crew are given a blue call by their control then they have to be there within 8 mins (In London anyway)which means that getting to the incident they can and will break the speed limit run red lights etc.

The guy was driving a Fast response Unit which is an emergency vehicle.



[Edited by RB170 - 5/27/2003 1:03:02 PM]

Popeye P1

If we can't back our own emergency services up fully, then its a sad day.

TelBoy

Does anyone actually know what speeds he was clocked at?

If it was at 150mph, would we still all be saying WTF? There has to be some sort of limit as to how/when/who etc is exempted, surely, even though the headline has been media-ised...?

NotoriousREV

Telboy, he was clocked at 104mph, but not sure on what road.

midget1500

this is pathetic. i'm sure we've all driven at 100mph, woo bloody hoo. and besides, it's an ambulance, the sort of vehicle people see and tend to expect to be moving quickly when possible.

how many people here live in fear of being hit by ambulance drivers? now, how many are afraid of muggers, car theives and the likes? good to see the police and government are doing the right thing....NOT.

he's been driving for 30 years in the job, so if his driving was a problem it would have been noticed by now.

this sort of thing really pisses me off, at least the other police force didn't push it any further - this alone should highlight how the system is flawed.

WHAT A ****ING JOKE

scunnered

iTrader: (1)

Back in the ninties there was a police camera car tranporting a human organ across London. This film has been shown on telly quite often.They were at times getting up to some very silly speeds, and dangerous overtaking manoeuvers. The ambulance man only needs to get a copy of this video to show in court. (If it ever gets that far)

thecirsch

I can't agree more with the comments as above. However, I think there could be more to this then meets the eye. As already stated, emergency vehicles (when used in an emergency capacity) are exempt from the speed limit, red lights (to be treated as give way) and keep left bollards. Everyone from the Chief Constable to the newest probationer and civilian staff should be aware of this.

I would like to know the full circumstances, i.e, was he caught going through red lights, junctions or something similiar, in which case he would be reported for dangerous driving/without due care. If it was just a case of excess speed, he has a defence and I'm sure the case will be thrown out at court.

If it is the latter, I quite agree, what a waste of money..

Ed

Edited coz I can't speel


[Edited by thecirsch - 5/27/2003 2:20:25 PM]

Popeye P1

'Back in the ninties there was a police camera car tranporting a human organ across London'

Yes it was an old Rover 3500. Drove like a maniac too. But it got the job done.

alistair

Sounded like he was on the A1 which is 2 lane dual carriageway north of Peterborough and 4 lane motorway to the south. Assuming that the weather wasn't that bad then I've got a friend who would regularly exceed the 104 said ambulance bloke was apparently clocked at !

As I stated earlier, it will be down to defining an emergency - if he had loads of time to get to a scheduled operation then he may be in the ****, however, if he was really up against the clock and time really mattered, then he will get off.

rozzer

Under the Road Traffic act a vehicle used under emergency circumstances for the purposes to which it were to be hindered it may exceed the speed limit. As the vehicle was carrying human tissue under the afor mentioned act is is deemed to be an ambulance there is no offence to answer. By the way it was Lincolnshire Police

TelBoy

rozzer, not true. The precise point in question is whether the ambulance was indeed in an emergency situation.

If nobody was at risk of dying if the ambulance didn't arrive pretty damn sharpish, then it wasn't an emergency, however heartless the headline reads.

D'ya think the chap in the ambulance just assumed, after 30 years, that anyjob implicitly gave him permission to rag it? Maybe.

Leslie

The guy was driving on the A1 which is virtually a motorway class road.

Yes of course it was against the law because the speed limit is 70 on that road. But what the hell is a policeman thinking about feeling he has to book a bona fide ambulance driver trying to get a live organ to a hospital for a transplant? Is it that important to his career to get a conviction in this situation? Would that same policeman think twice about travelling at that sort of speed or even greater if he was on a duty call? We are becoming ruled by "jobsworths" who are unwilling or too stupid to be able to make due allowances for a deserving situation. 104 MPH is not that dangerous on a full four lane dual carriageway with an experienced driver in a modern car anyway.

There was no reason why that policeman could not have said to the bloke " keep it down a bit mate!" and sent him on his way to get the organ to the hospital as soon as possible. Maybe someone from 5 0 com. or whatever could let him know that he should be less than proud of himself!

Les