159mph Pc's acquittal overturned

[Thos]

The car was a 3.2 litre Vauxhall Vectra. It was recorded as doing 89mph in a 30mph limited zone and over 150mph on a 60mph B road, according to the newspaper.

No matter how skilled the driver was, this is so far beyond the bounds of legality as to warrant, in my view, severe punishment,

Thos.

[Besty]

Ill agree that going near 90mph in a built up area is most definately a nono no matter what time of day or night. Drunken teens are out at all hours trust me im living the dream lol.

[CurlyWhirly]

I can confirm they are superb drivers though as I used to train them! :lol:

Really?

What would be ideal is a disused airfield for police officers and security services etc to test their vehicles on.

That seems to be the best solution as then the public isn't at risk.

The law states that 120 MPH is the limit to how fast they can go in their 'training' but it isn't really feasible as although my bike is only 600cc, it has a top speed of just over 130 MPH and the Hayabusa and other high performance bikes can go to over 200 MPH if they are unrestricted so it makes sense that they should familarise themselves with the car at higher speeds but not on a public highway.

p.s. before anyone asks, no I haven't taken my bike to the limit.

Ill agree that going near 90mph in a built up area is most definately a nono no matter what time of day or night.

I totally agree that 90 MPH in a 30 MPH zone is grossly irresponsible as a young child could have stepped on to the road from behind a parked car for example :0

[andsome]

Difficult to answer this one. The car in front who pulls out to overtake is most likely to be the one at fault as the driver did not make correct observation, even allowing for the speed of the car coming from the rear at great speed. The car travelling at high speed with a class 1 police driver does not have an idiot at the wheel and he would have anticipated the actions of the driver in front of him to the extent he could allow for that drivers careless observation.

I don't mean to sound flippant over this, but they are highly skilled drivers far ahead of the 'above average' motorist to the extent you just can't compare the two in the same breath. I think the media is also blowing this out of proportion and I'm sure that at the times he was driving at very high speed the roads were empty. I would think he slowed down quite some amount when other road traffic was in his ‘driving zone’. Don't forget most of the high speed shown as an average was not of the whole trip, but a portion of that driven on a clear motorway.

30 MPH zone! I'm sure many areas have one of these where a section of road is at the maximum national speed limit then dro[ps to 30 MPh for a couple of hundred yards then back to maximum allowed. We must stick to the speed limit and for good reason. Not because that section of road is dangerous to all drivers but because the traffic law must allow for the lowest common denominator, us the average motorist in the average car..

When looking is in the rear mirror before overtaking. We don't have ten seconds or so to spare to see if someone is doing twice the speed limit, there is only time for a quick look. I'm afraid that skilled or not, the law is the law and should apply to everyone. I'm afraid that in this instance the car did have an idiot at the wheel, skilled or unskilled is totally irrelevant. Allowance must ALWAYS be made for the unexpected.

[r4may]

That does NOT alter the fact that he was exceeding the SPEED LIMIT and the law does not allow any exceptions.

He should have been convicted, fined and Banned just like any other driver who exceeds the limits by those large margins.

This again demonstrates Police arrogance in assuming that they are above the law.

[Besty]

Im not even going to comment any more ill just get banned i mean police aarogance who do you think you are to comment and say about aarogance of the police force. Screw this when you want to slag the police think about how worse off you would be without them

[djohn]

Yes, That is correct Curly. After leaving the Armed forces I first worked as a driving instructor for BSM, then trained as a high performance instructor using most of the exotic cars of the 70's Once I had qualified on that I would along with others teach those who had passed their Advanced driving examination how to handle high performance cars. It was a 3 day course for each of them, starting with a morning in the classroom then the afternoon out on the track at Brands.

The following morning we would drive to Glasgow, across to Edinburgh and back to Brands. finish off the next day with skid control or correctly named 'Evasion' then the afternoon back in the class room. That section of BSM was sold off and I believe it is now something to do with the 'Jim Russell High Performance School' but not certain.

I then decided to lose the prestige of taking home a beautiful car each evening but with poor pay to drive London a Bus, the pay was almost double with overtime. Progressed to teaching with London Transport then moved to teaching HGV class 1.

In all teaching jobs I had to take and retake each year quite rigorous exams. While I was at the High Performance school I made contact with Hendon, the police academy and taught there on many occasions, then worked as a freelance instructor to them for a period of 6 months, though never directly employed by them, again the pay would have been poor, so it was far better to take a consulting position.

I have many teaching qualifications to do with driving and motoring in general and the last 18 months of what I call my driving career, I was a dept of transport examiner. So I saw novice drivers from both points of view.

It was all quite some time ago now, and since my health deteriorated, I had to hand back most of my licences, certainly the HGV - PSV and Instructor ones. I still have the Advanced (I.A.M) one, and R.O.S.P.A class 1 licence which is equivalent to Police class 1. I had to re-sit this 3 hour driving test every year to retain the certificate but some 8 years back I decided this was too Strenuous for me to continue. I could have dropped down to class 2 or 3 with test every 3 years but the strain of concentration required for this is completely draining, so I gave up while still on class 1.

So, yes, I know a little about motoring in general, been driving since I was 16, now 59 years of age. 10 seconds to spend looking in a rear view mirror? I will test myself tomorrow but from memory, I would think I normally check both side mirrors and the interior one roughly 3 to 4 times in succession starting with right/central then left mirror and through the whole process again in about a 30 to 35 second period. When the day comes that I can not judge the speed of any vehicle approaching me from the rear or the front, I will send my licence back to DVLA. I know just as much about what is happening behind me as I do in front of me and what is approaching my field of view from every junction starting at 150 yards ahead then progressively scanning closer as I approach each one. I class my self as a profesional driver, not an excellent one by any means, but I'm not one to get in a car and drive from A to B without giving it 100%. I'm still learning after all this time and enjoy my motoring to the extent I'm always driving with full concentration on what I'm doing. I often give a running commentary, talking out loud if on my own as it helps to keep one sharp, other motorist must think I'm bonkers when they see me.

I have lost a great deal of reaction time due to my health, but anticipation of other road users is very sharp, concentration is failing as well, but I make allowances for this.

Back to the subject. I don't know, but I will not condemn out of hand something I did not see and knowing how the media like to dress things up a little I will take that into account. Yes 70-80 90 is dangerous in a 30 zone, no one can argue with that. But there are a hell of a lot of motorist out there that are far more dangerous driving at 20 or 30 MPH in any speed zone than the person concerned in this issue. I don't know the full facts, I have read some of them, but I'm not in a position to judge so, I wont. I hope I've not bored you with a resume of my driving, just thought you would like to know my experience then take this into account when I say I can't judge something I did not see.

[andsome]

Im not even going to comment any more ill just get banned i mean police aarogance who do you think you are to comment and say about aarogance of the police force. Screw this when you want to slag the police think about how worse off you would be without them

They are rarely available when we want them. The local police station recently re-built at a cost of over £1000000 is rarely open, There is a phone in the vestibule for us to contact the police at Cannock, IF they will bother to answer. There are regular complaints locally about difficulty in getting any police at attend incidents. The police are answerable to the law the same as everyone else, and to plead differently to this is definitely arrogance.

[CurlyWhirly]

Yes, That is correct Curly. After leaving the Armed forces I first worked as a driving instructor for BSM, then trained as a high performance instructor using most of the exotic cars of the 70's Once I had qualified on that I would along with others teach those who had passed their Advanced driving examination how to handle high performance cars. It was a 3 day course for each of them, starting with a morning in the classroom then the afternoon out on the track at Brands.

You've led an interesting life djohn as I didn't know that about you :)

It was all quite some time ago now, and since my health deteriorated, I had to hand back most of my licences, certainly the HGV - PSV and Instructor ones. I still have the Advanced (I.A.M) one, and R.O.S.P.A class 1 licence which is equivalent to Police class 1. I had to re-sit this 3 hour driving test every year to retain the certificate but some 8 years back I decided this was too Strenuous for me to continue. I could have dropped down to class 2 or 3 with test every 3 years but the strain of concentration required for this is completely draining, so I gave up while still on class 1.

Sorry to hear about you having to pack it all in because of your poor health though :(

[Thos]

Interesting stuff.

I took and passed my IAM advanced driving test and enjoyed the experience. I kept up membership until I retired but have let it lapse. I could see no material benefits except the inner satisfaction of membership.

Thos.