Speeding Prosecution...?

Happychappy

N9eav wrote: »

It may also be worth noting that from May 1st when the new corporate manslaughter laws came in to effect. Most Police officers who drive on emergency runs will have to pass another qualifying test.

N9eav

It is the Road safety Bill which will affect all drivers of emergency response vehicles. At present police, fire and ambulance drivers have an exemption in law to exceeding speed limits, red traffic lights and keep left bollards only. When the full road safety bill is implemented, all the above drivers must also have a certificate in high speed driver training? It will ensure all levels of drivers from basic, standard to advanced all meet the high standard required.

It will not be sufficient for them to just claim Police, Fire, Ambulances purposes, they must be able to also produce the high speed driver training certificate. This will have a major effect on organisations such as mountain rescue, coastguard, blood transfusion service etc etc.

The_Undercover_ADI

Under the new legislation and guidelines for best practice on response driving all response drivers should be trained and should only use the exemptions they are given when strictly necessary.

Different exemptions are given for different vehicles and standards of drivers. Guidelines already have restrictions on how much a fire service driver can exceed the speed limit in comparison to a pursuit trained police driver.

Your standard plod is severely restricted in the exemptions they have under police guidelines. There are only a handful of officers in any force who are allowed to exceed the limits by a long way, these officers have had masses of training and have proved their ability over several years.

Mountain rescue and coastguard drivers and the like must take response training and due to the limits on the training they receive they are also restricted in the amount they can exceed the limits.

All of these drivers can only exceed the limits when either on proscribed training sessions or in the course of responding to an emergency (or in the case of police a crime in progress).

If you want to take response training you must be employed (or volunteer) in the services who have exemptions.

If you then break the speed limit while not involved in active service you may be prosecuted, as recently happened to a fully qualified police pursuit driver I know who was on his way back to base who went through a speed camera at 48mph on a 40 road. He was also subject to disciplinary action from the police.

This is not a "one rule for them and another for us" situation.

Speed limits apply to everyone. If you need to exceed the speed limit to overtake someone safely then you should not overtake them until a safer opportunity presents itself - one where you can overtake without exceeding the limit.

bargepole

The_Undercover_ADI wrote: »

This is not a "one rule for them and another for us" situation.

Speed limits apply to everyone. If you need to exceed the speed limit to overtake someone safely then you should not overtake them until a safer opportunity presents itself - one where you can overtake without exceeding the limit.

Except, it would appear, Prince Harry and his Hooray Henry chums on an emergency call to down several tequila slammers at a London night club, and his Metropolitan Police escort in their Range Rover - then it's perfectly ok to tailgate other drivers at 100mph on the M4.

Afterwards, a Police spokesperson hid behind the usual lame "we never discuss security or protection matters". What a complete sham - and these people expect the general public to obey the law? They can get stuffed.