Another ton-up police chief hypocrite
Anti-speed chief constable stopped for speeding
According to news reports, the Chief Constable of Derbyshire, David Coleman was being chauffeur-driven at 97mph when stopped by police on the M1 recently on his way back from London.
Chief Constable Coleman is known for his "anti-speeding" stance and 59,000 speeding tickets were issued in his area last year.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign commented, "This is rank hypocrisy, and he's not the first. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Thomas was caught and Harriet Harman, the solicitor General was similarly caught. Perhaps the most famous of all was the (then) home secretary Jack Straw. When are these people going to preach what they practice and admit that 100mph on a motorway in good conditions isn't necessarily dangerous?"
Paul continued, "Road safety cannot be reduced to a simple matter of vehicle speed. It's more about consideration, courtesy, and matching speed to conditions. While we've been concentrating on numerical speed road safety results have stalled, culminating in a wholly unprecedented rise in the fatal accident rate last year. We must get back to the road safety policies that gave us the safest roads in the world as soon as possible."
The RAC said, "This is a serious speeding offence and one for which someone could expect an outright ban. 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."
A Derbyshire Police spokeswoman said, "The matter is now being dealt with by Hertfordshire Police."
Phew, for a minute there I thought he was going to get a way scott free
I'm never happy about the police investigating themselves. We need a seperate entity (something like the FBI) who can investigate cases where police maybe involved. I presume his driver was a serving policeman?zumbruk said:
If his driver is a policeman, and the vehicle can be said to be being used on police business, them I'm afraid the speed limit does not apply.
Not strictly true is it? I think they have to have reasonable justification to exceed the limit, i.e. chasing a toerag or getting to the scene of a serious accident. I'd hope that being late for a meeting etc. wouldn't cut it.
I recently was travelling home up the M3 on my motorcycle and I followed a police car all the way at 90mph.
I bet you if I was in front of that panda car, I would have been done.
Now you tell me how that's fair!?????
Not strictly true, his driver was stopped. The chief could have been sitting in the back doing paperwork/reading the paper, not looking at the speed.
Not enough details to go on. Was it his regular driver, what car limo or jam sandwich, what was the destination was he late, was he aware that he was late
robert farago said:
With each speeding ticket issued to a "safe" driver, the government degrades public respect for the rule of law. Every time a government official is caught speeding, it simply hastens the process.
Is it any wonder that the UK is beocming increasingly lawless?
most elloquent!
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