Ok… I have had almost no tickets and accidents (except a REAL bad year in which I started it with 2 tickets an an accident all within 2 weeks, I swear I was cursed). And yet my wife will brow beat me and be one of the worse passenger seat drivers you’ll ever meet. Her own mother is embarressed at times.
So I’m reading an article about a british cop that was sited for exceeding the speed limit. Now I heard about this first on the radio as they “loved” his “I’m an advanced Certified Driver, so I was safe” comments. Well it seems they court believed him… But the Attorney General said no way.
159 mph? That’s where we draw the line..
Thu Feb 2, 2006 10:47 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) – A British traffic officer caught driving at 159 mph but cleared by a court of speeding and dangerous driving faces a legal move at the High Court in London Wednesday to convict him.
The Attorney General will appeal against the acquittal of constable Mark Milton and seek a High Court order that the advanced police driver should be convicted over his high speed blast in the early hours of December 5, 2003.
Milton, a qualified advanced driver, was recorded by an onboard camera in his upgraded unmarked Vauxhall Vectra police car traveling at 91 mph in a 30 mph zone and hitting 159 mph on the M54 motorway. The legal limit in Britain is 70 mph.
Milton’s defense, accepted by the local judge in May 2005, was that he had taken the car on a test run around Telford, Shropshire, where he was based.
The judge said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he had driven dangerously and that the car was being “used for police purposes” when the incident occurred.
The ruling prompted outrage in the media and condemnation from motoring groups.
Wednesday, lawyers for the Attorney General will argue the district judge erred in law when he made his judgment.
Wow! 159 mph. That’s faster than my Audi will go. I’ve represented hundreds of drivers in New York State, and the highest speeding ticket I’ve seen was for 108 mph. I have a friend who’s a New York State Thruway Trooper, and the speeding ticket he’s written is 113 mph. And he’s written thousands of speeding tickets.
I’m actually more troubled by the 91 in a 30 mph zone. If he wants to test his car, the police should make a test track available.
108? 113? I’m from the UK, and you’ll regularly see drivers doing 100mph. Except on the M25 round London where it’s more like 100mpd (day)…
Strange that it’s the typical speeder is so different in the US. Maybe something to do with cops being armed?
Who knows.
Andy
91 in a 30 mph speed limit is really ridiculous, its asking for someone to get hurt. I mean, if someone is pushing the limit and goes 70 in a 50 at least they are on a highway and the possibility of a car short stopping it slim, but on a 30 mph road? that’s insane!