arsie

get off his back

we(well I)'ve all sometimes done silly speed some of us unsafely

FFS he got nicked and has probly regretted it ever since

but that doesn't make him a nob

let him go - natural justice has had enough of a piece of him

-------

now about that NIP...

j8mie

Busamav - Not being funny mate, but I don't think anyone can seriously think driving at these kinds of speeds on public roads is in anyway acceptable. I'll admit, I break the speed limit, every single time I drive my car, I'll also admit to being a passenger on the back of a Honda Fireblade doing 135mph, and it scared me stiff. I'd never think of doing those speeds in my car, because I know I couldn't cope. No one could, regardingless of what training they might have had.

Had he been on an emergency call, then fine, he's doing his job, and I could understand the need. But I think he should really have been "testing" his car on a race track, and not on the road. I don't doubt that the extra training he gets, will help him to cope at higher speeds better than most drivers, but what happens if someone else changes lanes in front of him? He'll kill someone.

What grates people the most, is that he appears to have gotten off scott free. As I already said, had that been me, I'd be in prison. So why has he not been locked away? Hardly seems fair. Also, just because a lot of people do something, doesn't make it okay. Hundreds of people are raped every year, but it doesn't make it okay.

rahula

Busamav, I have no issue with the speed he was doing but he was familiarising himself to his new car without being supervised or being on a training course and that is wrong. How do we know that he doesn't always do this because he thinks he will get away with it? If he had been authorised, supervised or on a test circuit I could understand but the fact is that he wasn't. It really is as simple as that and hence the court case against him. If he was within his capacity and authority to do those speeds he would not have ended up in court or being found guilty.

If we were to believe him and his excuse of driving fast and not being a danger to anyone else on the road because of his training then every racing driver with an appropriate licence should be able to use the same excuse.

Dracoro

I think some people need to think rationally about this.

He was doing UP TO 159 on an empty motorway at 3am in the morning. The only person he's likely to hurt is himself and that's only if something untoward happens to the car. Regardless, we've probably all (with likely far less ability than a trained police driver), put our foot down on an empty motorway 'just to see' what we can get up to.

Far more dangerous is people sitting at 80 on a semi busy motorway not paying a great deal of attention (we ALL, bar NO-ONE, do this from time to time) as everyone else is sitting at 80 (or 70 whatever) so the speed seems 'normal' although it won't if something goes wrong, 80 is still bl**dy fast if you have a blowout.

It also goes to show that speed by itself clearly doesn't kill and it's great ammunition and proof as well. As I say, I bet this police driver doing 159 on an empty motorway at 3am is safer than all of us doing 80 on a motorway 'in the flow of traffic' not realising how close we are to the car ahead at 80mph. Think about it.

Yes, if you want 'do' him for speeding if you so want as he was driving above the speed limit. As to whether it's dangerous driving, you have to prove the danger, what would/did happen, all the circumstance etc. This is for the courts to decide and they have decided!

Put it this way, people drive WAY over the speed limit on empty motorways at 3am ALL the time. Now tell me the last time you heard of a big smash up at 3am on an empty motorway. I can't although heard of loads at 3pm under the speed limit by people who'd no doubt, ironically, think they'd be driving more safely than the 159mph police officer.

Busamav

I cant agree with that. I would expect that sort of comment from a doddering magistrate .

A place and a time for everything, but its something you need to be building up to and getting used to , I dont think my bike has ever been out and done less than 150 + clicks

I would rather the cops were practicing at those speeds rather than going out and hitting 160 for a first on a call .
They would have vision as though they were peering down a smartie tube , I remember the first time I hit 140 's , thats how it seemd , peripheral vision just disapeared .

I dont suffer from that at all now , even at much greater speeds , but most of the big numbers are done on a closed airfield , honestly .


I also dont believe the cop has gotten away scot free , his life will be hell now with somebody waiting for him to make just one mistake

mikerich

A lot of sound and fury here!
Speaking as an old fart in his late sixties
I wouldn't have thought there were too many other road users on the M54 in Shropshire at 3am on a December morning. IIRC most of that road has forward visibility of well over 1/4 mile should you need to come to a complete stand still - which is highly unlikely to say the least. Usually you would only have to approximately speed match.
Interestingly, if the guy had been on an autobahn, in most places, noone would have blinked an eye (except the Greens) - and look at the accident figs there.
131mph on an A road? Think A3 for example.
60 in a 30? I don't know about you - but round here we suffer from 'creeping limits'
and gallons of white paint.

What I find interesting, is that the evidence came from onboard cameras of which he must have been aware: so whose toes had he trodden on?

Chris Type R

the general public who have to abide by the rules.

juansolo

Agreed, done it (not 90mph over the limit!) myself a couple of times. However he got caught. If any one of us had got caught we'd have been buttf**ked over that sort of speed. More than likely demonised in the papers in the same way also, but the essential difference is that we'd have been made an example of, and he hasn't.

It's double standards that people have the issue with, not the crime. Which here it is remember and it's a law everyone else has to abide by. It's not neccessarily the speed or the time of day or his ability... Oh yes that, this 'creme de la creme' thing really is starting to get on my tits. So a regular circuit driver, more than used to dealing with very high powered machinery travelling at huge speeds and possessing way above average car control will have this taken into account when caught travelling at 90mph over the speed limit? Will he bollocks. He'd be in jail.

He got caught and he got away with it when NO ONE else would, that's what stinks.

juansolo

Also can you imagine being nicked by him now?

Picture the scene: Sunday evening, wide open country road, nice inapropriate speed limit of say 40mph. Not a school or a child in sight and PC McLucky pulls you over for doing 15 over the limit and then starts telling you how dangerous you were being and how you are the reason that insurance is expensive and how you're endangering little Jonny by driving so recklessly...

You might have been ok if you'd possessed godlike, second-to-none driver training (that the Police haven't had in years now). However you're a statistic to him, a target. You'll get your 3 points, you'll get your

juansolo

F**ks me right off when footballers and celebrities get off scott free also. "I had diarrhoea", "the paperazzi were chasing me in there little Uno so I had to plant my foot in my V12 Ferrari", etc. Again it stinks of us and them.

I'm for starting the MLA (Motorist Liberation Army) for shit like this. It's about time we took a stand!