WTF, metro today, ambulance driver gets Gatso'd

[Tahrey1043]

The traffic police really are disappearing up their own backsides, i think if we get enough people together we could storm all the copshops in the land and take the power back, maybe instill a bit of common sense back into the proceedings before it all goes a bit too SS?

Story in every suv'ners (& meedlanda's) favourite free commuter paper today - following on from the one about the crappy laser guns, in spirit.

(paraphrased from memory)
An ambulance driver is taking his case to court after refusing to pay a speeding fine - that he got whilst on the job. Snapped doing 52mph through a 40mph set of roadworks on the M25 at 2.20am on (insert recent date here), whilst taking a seriously ill patient to hospital, he doesn't see why he should be taking the rap for protecting the health of a member of the public, by getting him more quickly and safely to hospital than he otherwise might, i.e. doing the job he has been recruited and is being paid for. The patient in question was paralysed with a broken neck after a car accident (discharged, but needing to be urgently brought in for other reasons) and was at very high risk of cardiac arrest during the journey, so it was in his best interest to reach comprehensive medical care as soon as possible.
A spokesman on behalf of the uptight nonses in the police's "safety" scamera partnership defended their position, saying in their judgement there was no good reason for the driver to have been exceeding the limit.

Makes your blood f***ing boil does it not? What about the stuff such as "the golden hour" of A&E transport/treatment we often get drummed into our heads? Will fire engines and police vehicles themselves soon be subject to the same scrutiny, having to carefully check their speed to the posted limit, regardless of the time of day, traffic conditions, or even if they end up holding up all the other traffic which overtakes and speeds past at the earliest opportunity?
The guy would only have been in greater need of fast transit had he just been involved in an actual accident or already been arresting when the crew arrived on the scene. Way to go chaps. Great increase of public safety you're promoting there.

Dya think if they get enough outraged letters of protest at this obvious mockery of justice and morals that they'll drop the case? If a judge goes in the camfilth's favour I think it would be fair to launch a small investigation to make sure he's not in anyone's pocket...

Seems like they've forced the "speed kills" lie on us so many times, that they're even starting to believe it themselves. Speed doesn't kill. Inappropriate use of speed does. Appropriate use of speed, such as in this case may well have prevented death.

(and it could be argued the driver was acting quite conservatively, after all yer average ambulance is not exactly the slowest transit that ford ever made, 70 should not be a problem to one - 52 was probably, in his judgement, the best balance of swift progress vs general safety... and comfort for the passenger in the back over the bumps!)

[ModifiedMadness]

I saw it in the Sun, it's pathetic! Then you have that copper doing 159mph down the motorway, what was his excuse "I was familiarising myself with the car" right so you wern't on an emergency call then, unlike the paramedic! What is the world coming to, we are definitely becoming a Police state.

[mysteryboy]

Bunch of bull isnt it...If anyone should be allowed to speed is ambulances & fire enginesas they are saving lives constantly.
Police dont really save lives as such they just break up fight & stupid sh!t like that. Hardly ever prove themselves usefull.
There has been several occasions where policemen were speeding & it was deleted from their records... Come on wheres the justice,? The world really is turning into a sh!thole...

[waveydavey]

There was a BIG case similar to this end of last year up here in Yorkshire............. North or West Yorkshire Paramedic driving a paramedic car, (rather than an actual ambulance), was taking an organ from one hospital to another....... It was required urgently to save a life i seem to remember rather than being for a run of the mill transplant..... Anyhow the guy went through a speed camera site on the A1 doing around the 100 mark, with his blues & two's goin' i hasten to add, and Lincolnshire police decided to prosecute him!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Common sense prevailed and the case was thrown out but it goes to show how stupid the law can be!!!!!



Cheers

Dave.

[Tahrey1043]

they want to cover london in SPECS now, as well ... as if average travel speed isnt already low enough, they want to knacker your ability to progress in off-peak times. no matter that someone who's just cruising through at 36mph at 3am when there's NOTHING else on the road will get caught by it*, but someone who's being a complete arse in slightly heavier traffic (ducking, diving, spiking up to 60mph then screeching to a halt) but gets a 29mph overall speed (compared to a traffic average of, say, 20) will be ignored by them. heaven's sake are there no more pressing, sensible, worthwhile issues that they can pursue?

and oh, just to make it even more of a stupidity that the ambulance/transplant/police etc are getting hit by camera fines, don't they get specifically trained in how to deal with high speeds safely and be all-round advanced drivers anyhow? it's kind of an insult to their ability and training.

* or a bit closer to home in my case, someone who ensures they stay fully awake whilst in the serious business of staying alive whilst commuting and not being late for work, by carefully choosing times to - safely - change lanes in order to pic 'n' mix the best traffic flows... increases my average speed probably by a good quarter to a third on average to poor days... possibly enough to trigger one of the specs if the seperate flows manage peak speeds just high enough, and i chain them.