Speeding Ambulanceman

[Murielson_2]

Congratulations to the jobsworth who insisted on processing this speeding case.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-12331100,00.html

The attitude of the bloke who is willing to pay his fine tells the real story.

What is going on in this country?

 

[flash_to_bang]

Like the police have nothing else to do!  I was passed by a police car on the M4 last night and he must have been ticking off the wrong side of 90 and no lights flashing

 

[torchy]

I was passed by a police car on the M4 last night and he must have been ticking off the wrong side of 90 and no lights flashing

Give him a break.  The poor Plod was probably trying to get to the Station before the grease on his f***ing huge take away curry had congealed.

 

[PartTimePongo]

He had the Bues and 2's going, doing 104 on a 70 limit

So fcuking what. Just asked a Copper mate, he said "If we were in the T5 and saw that, we'd probably give him an escort"

Incredible, what a jobsworth pillock

 

[Ventress]

I hope Lincolnshire's Chief Constable can get up this morning and get the Traffic bossman in and sack him! Oh and the doughnut-eating jobsworths that pushed the charge through!

But I doubt it!

The Cambridge Traffic Police didn't feel the need to nick him!

I agree the Police are not blameless, I saw a Volvo at about 60mph on the wrong side of the road go through a set of lights on the on coming vehicle's green light on a blind bend last week.

 

[BK_NAAFI_Veteran]

We ( Police ) routinely escort transplant organs, and teams of surgeons at high speed, so I have a lot of sympathy with this driver. The fact remains however that no service, be it Police or ambulance have legal carte blanche to break traffic law, and every case is judged on its merits, so without the full facts on this case, ie weather conditions, traffic density, road topography etc. it is easy to criticise and jump to ill informed conclusions. This may have been issued by a computer after an automatic camera detected the speed, so no discretion has been applied yet, and the facts will have to be put forward in court.
Police officers are frequently prosecuted for motoring offences which have occured on duty travelling to emergency calls to aid members of the public, if convicted they then suffer increased premiums on their own insurance, and risk their own licences, so this is by no means a unique case.
Just to cover another misconception there is no absolute requirement to have blues and twos on when exceeding the speed limit, the situation at the time dictates their usage, as they can be counter productive.

 

[jake]

The fact remains however that no service, be it Police or ambulance have legal carte blanche to break traffic law, and every case is judged on its merits, so without the full facts on this case, ie weather conditions, traffic density, road topography etc. it is easy to criticise and jump to ill informed conclusions.

From the various reports that I have seen:-

This incident occured in the early hours of the morning, weather conditions were good, traffic was light, the road (the A1) is motorway standard.

The Ambulance Officer is an 'advanced' driver, he was not stopped by Police but was 'caught' on a fixed roadside camera.

The final decision as to whether to prosecute was taken by the Crown Prosecution Service in Lincolnshire who have said (according to reports):-

(1) They did not deem this organ transplant to be a life saving emergency (Medically qualified lawyers?).

(2) Exemptions in the Road Traffic Law apply to Ambulances not to Ambulance cars (this Officer was driving an ambulance Fast Response Unit).


I hope for the Officer concerned that this matter is dealt with speedily and of course in his favour ... sometimes it truly is a 'mad, mad world'.     :-/

 

[Oggy69]

I just heard that the reason this was allowed to go through was because it is being treated as a "test case".

Apparantly this area of law is very grey and needs a case like this to define the way ahead.

Let's hope the driver gets let off, or the next time there's a Police accident with persons involved, the ambulance will stop at every green light and keep to the speed limit all the way there.

 

[BK_NAAFI_Veteran]

Oggy it is the CPS who prosecute, not the police. This case highlights the inherent problem with fixed cameras, there is no discretion.

 

[polyglory]

Then the CPS needs a very large hob nailed boot up its Arse

 

[Bruce_Corkey]

The final decision to prosecute will have been taken after a whole series of other officials have stamped and initialled and commented, starting with the clerk who processed the report from the camera, so it isn't good enough to simply charge the CPS with this farce; it is the system which allows large numbers of idiots to make decisions like this.

Anybody who worked with the ATO teams in Londonderry during the 70's will remember a gentleman in uniform (whose name rhymed with 'that b*****d dog') who was a road hazard all by himself if an incident happened West of the river; blue lights and loud noises was all very well, but the speed limit must be obeyed, sir.

 

[Gas Gas Gas]

If this is a "Test Case", it is a bit much for some "legal eagle" to jeopardise someone's career just to clear up a legal nicety.

Since when have lawyers been able to define what is a medical emergency?   ???

 

[ExPara]

Anybody who worked with the ATO teams in Londonderry during the 70's will remember a gentleman in uniform...

Certainly do. He once stopped one of our wreckers to tell us we couldn't use a blue light - even if we were towing the Felix transit to a call out - gearbox knackered again.

Reported me to his bosses when I told the wrecker driver to drive on. Brigadier told me to be more polite! Wish I'd shot the cnut.

 

[Bruce_Corkey]

Re Dougie the Dog: I heard some years later that he was promoted out of Traffic because he'd written up a flying panda (with a senior body inside) on its' way to a job in Strabane.  That's the only way to get people like that out of the way of the operational base, it seems.

 

[BK_NAAFI_Veteran]

I dont know how to link the relevant page, however I have just read a press release regarding this case. It appears that this is being brought to be deliberately lost in court, so case law can be used in future.

 

[Oggy69]

Oggy it is the CPS who prosecute, not the police. This case highlights the inherent problem with fixed cameras, there is no discretion.

Thanks for putting us right on that one BK, looks like the police are between a rock and a hard place on this one.

 

[BK_NAAFI_Veteran]

I am not saying that the Police do not make some monumentally stupid decisions at times, i just dislike this "outrage" that the media deliberately create over forthcoming cases. As someone who is involved in cases that subsequently reach the press I know that things are rarely as simple as the media make out and I do not like this trial by Sun readers that seems to be replacing the courts in this country. Look at what has happened to John Leslie.

 

[torchy]

Is he the guy who got away with rape?

 

[Soldier_Why]

Is he the guy who got away with rape?

John Leslie has never been accused of rape to date (I believe).  Ms Johnson never revealed the name of her alleged attacker (and still hasn't publicly) - it was the media who named and shamed John Leslie.  Now I am not saying he did or did not do what is claimed but should the case ever go to trial I imagine it would be hard to find people for the jury who haven't already made their minds up thanks to the great British media!

 

[BK_NAAFI_Veteran]

Exactly.