Speed camera champion in trouble?

[Tony F]

From the beeb website:

Police chief car caught at 97mph

A chief constable has been criticised after his car was reportedly caught speeding at nearly 100mph on the M1.

Derbyshire Chief Constable David Coleman, a staunch anti-speeding campaigner, was being driven by a chauffeur when the vehicle was stopped. Traffic officers in Hertfordshire reportedly clocked the car doing 97mph as Mr Coleman returned from London.

Derbyshire Police confirmed a car carrying the chief had been stopped for a "road traffic offence".

"This is a serious speeding offence and one for which someone could expect an outright ban," said an RAC spokesman.

"Even though the chief constable wasn't driving, we expect public figures to set a good example.

"They are the ones involved in promoting road safety and to be involved in a speeding offence clearly doesn't send a positive message to the public."

The police chief was returning to his county after an engagement in London at the time of the incident.

Mr Coleman's force was one of the first in the country to create a Safety Camera Partnership.

It uses police, court and local authority resources to install extra speed cameras in an attempt to reduce road deaths.

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Even putting to one side the issues of Mr Plod being in the public eye, should know better etc. and that Mr Plod wasn't driving here's the thing; He wasn't getting a lift home from the pub because he'd had one over the eight and wasn't therefore in full control of all his faculties.

He was, in fact, not only coming home from work he was being driven by a chauffeur who is employed by the Police. Given he is the Police Chief in my book that makes him the chaufeur's boss and de facto in charge of the car doing 97 mph.

Where am I going wrong? Shouldn't Mr Plod have 3 points on his license and a P45 pdq?

[David Wallace]

Originally Posted by Tony F

Where am I going wrong? Shouldn't Mr Plod have 3 points on his license and a P45 pdq?

No mate,

He is of course exempt from the law, or rather one law for one and one for the rest of us. He did no doubt have an important engagement to get back for and will no doubt be let off just as you and I would be

[Alun]

Jack Straw got away with the same thing a bit ago on the M4 (I think). You can just hear the traffic guys giggling themsleves to sleep for a good while after this!

[Tony F]

Originally Posted by Skipper

No mate,

He is of course exempt from the law, or rather one law for one and one for the rest of us. He did no doubt have an important engagement to get back for and will no doubt be let off just as you and I would be

You're right of course, silly me!

I have to say being late for dinner carries the death sentance at my house

[tom]

So we find someone guilty of a crime they didn't themselves commit?

That's fair, isn't it.

When you are a passenger in a car do you keep an eye on the driver's speed?

If a taxi you were in was stopped for speeding, should you pay the fine?

If one of your employees is caught stealing from your company, should you be the one to go to jail?

[Tony F]

Originally Posted by tom

So we find someone guilty of a crime they didn't themselves commit?

That's fair, isn't it.

When you are a passenger in a car do you keep an eye on the driver's speed?

If a taxi you were in was stopped for speeding, should you pay the fine?

If one of your employees is caught stealing from your company, should you be the one to go to jail?

My point is that he WAS if fact in charge of the car and for the record, if one of my employees steals from one of my customers then I am held accountable in law.

Being in a taxi is entirely different as is being a passenger under normal circumstances. considering that he's also Mr Plod, Boss Plod in fact, these are unique circumstances.

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by tom

So we find someone guilty of a crime they didn't themselves commit?

That's fair, isn't it.

When you are a passenger in a car do you keep an eye on the driver's speed?

If a taxi you were in was stopped for speeding, should you pay the fine?

If one of your employees is caught stealing from your company, should you be the one to go to jail?

If one of my employees commits an offence driving one of my vehicles ultimately I am responsible. This fact was brought home to me when a friend had to go bankrupt and shut down his firm when being sued by the relatives of a man killed by one of his employees driving one of his vans. Said employee had no money to speech off so they went after the company instead.

If I lost my licence to drive I would effectively lose my job. It should be the same for him. He is obviously a hypocrite. No one is going to convince me that a passenger in a car doing 97mph is no aware that he / she is in a speeding car.

You can almost here him telling his driver to step on it please because he has o get back for what ever.

Truth is 97mph is no big deal in a modern car so he wasn’t doing anything that stupid, but the punishment far outweighs the crime for mortals like us. Far more serious crimes would carry similar fines and less long-term collateral punishment than loosing your driving licence. Unfortunately this tosser made a big deal of speeding so he should be hoisted by his own petard.


Mark Chase

[Bantam]

Mr Coleman's force was one of the first in the country to create a Safety Camera Partnership.

It uses police, court and local authority resources to install extra speed cameras in an attempt to line their pockets with cash^H^H^H^H^H^H^H reduce road deaths.




(For those of you not in the know, ^H is something you get in Unix if you haven't configured your backspace properly and is something used when you want to show what was originally written, usually sarcastically. the ^H is representational of a backspace push..)

[Andy the Coastie]

The ONLY person allowed to break the speed limit is










The ambulance driver carrying a member of the royal family after an assination attempt......

and thats a fact.

[Allan Carr]

There is a big difference between being in a taxi where you cannot control what the driver is doing and being in a car driven by one of your employees. He could and should have instructed the driver to moderate his speed. I do not believe that under criminal current law that he could be prosecuted but he certainly needs to make some public gesture of contrition.

A few years ago, the then Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire was caught speeding (he was driving himself) by one of his own officers. He rightly insisted that the officer should pursue the offence. I don't know what that did for the officer's career prospects though!

The first driver to be prosecuted for speeding in the 50mph limit on the A1 at Elkesley (bloody ludicrous limit) in Nottinghamshire was one of the County Councillors who campaigned for its introduction.