Yep I heard that one too Rev, and here is more...
PR198: Reaction to another acquitted high speed cop
News: For immediate release
Safe Speed has learned from Johanna Burch, court reporter with the Derby
Telegraph, that another Police officer has been acquitted following
accusations of driving at very high speed in an urban area.
The case again raises the issue of an extraordinary and unacceptable double
standard.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(
www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "The public anger expressed over last week's case
(where PC Milton was acquitted following his 159mph jaunt) was astonishing and
frightening. This week we're going to see much more of the same. It's another
nail in the coffin of the once great Police / public relationship."
"The underlying problem here is that the Police are responsible for enforcing
the speed limit laws against the public with excessive zeal and insufficient
intelligence. The vast majority of the 10,000 speeding tickets issued each day
go to responsible motorists who know that they were driving safely at the
time. It's not surprising that resentment is building up. The root of the evil
is speed cameras. They stand by the roadside threatening the livelihood of
responsible members of society, they make the roads more dangerous and they
seriously undermine vital public confidence in the Police and the judicial
process."
* Over 12 million speeding tickets have been issued by camera raising around
£700 million in fines.
* British road safety is now the slowest improving in Europe.
* Last year, Germany saw a 12% fall in road deaths in a single year. We've
only seen an 8% fall in deaths in the last whole decade. But it wasn't always
like that. Before speed cameras we saw the following falls in deaths:
1991: -12.4%
1992: -7.4%
1993: -9.8%
=====================================
Notes for editors
Johanna gave me the details over the telephone at a time when I wasn't in a
position to take notes. It appears that there was a crash during a Police
emergency response. A member of the public pulled out in front of a very high
speed Police car in a 30mph zone. An accident followed. The case against the
Police Officer collapsed when evidence from a black box recorder - showing
pre-crash speed of 90mph - was excluded. A case for driving without
due care and attention against the member of the public continues.
It's for others to comment on the specifics of the case. We feel that it's
extremely important to comment on the overall effect of such cases.
The full story will appear on the Derby Telegraph web site shortly:
www.derbytelegraph.co.uk
Contact Jo Burch (Derby Telegraph court reporter)::
email: jburch@derbytelegraph.co.uk
tel: 01332 291111 ext 6445
About Safe Speed
================
The Safe Speed road safety campaign is primarily the work of engineer-turned road safety analyst Paul Smith.
Since setting up Safe Speed in 2001, Paul Smith, 49, an advanced motorist and road safety enthusiast, and a professional engineer of 25 years UK experience, has carried out over
8,000 hours of research into the overall effects of speed camera policy on UK road safety. We believe that this is more work in more detail than anything carried out by any other
organisation. Paul's surprising conclusion is that overall speed cameras make our roads more dangerous. Paul has identified and reported a number of major flaws and false
assumptions in the claims made for speed cameras, and the whole "speed kills" system of road safety.
The inescapable conclusion is that we should urgently return to the excellent road safety policies that gave us in the UK the safest roads in the World in the first place.
Safe Speed does not campaign against speed limits or appropriate enforcement of motoring laws, but argues vigorously that automated speed enforcement is neither safe nor
appropriate. Cheers,
Pete
Sound your horn every time you go past a manned speed camera.
Let them know you're not happy!
You can make a difference!
Go here for more info:
www.roadsense.com.au/Welcome.html
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