Another Bib caught speeding........
Discussion
www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14968281&method=full&siteid=86024%26headline=136-miles-per-hour-name_page.html
136 MILES PER HOUR Speed cop faces sack after being clocked at double the limit on killer road
By Alistair Munro And Brian Lironi
A TRAFFIC policeman faces jail after being clocked at 136mph on a killer road.
PC Blair McMaster was stopped by his colleagues in his Subaru Impreza WRX on the A9 south of Inverness.
The 28-year-old father of two could lose his job and face a possible prison sentence if convicted.
McMaster, who received special training by Northern Constabulary to drive patrol cars and the force's powerful Volvo T5s, has now been stripped of driving duties until the outcome of his case.
He was spotted by a mobile police speed camera unit on the A9 at Daviot. The road, a mixture of dual and single carriageway, is notorious for serious accidents.
There was a passenger in the car at the time it was clocked.
McMaster is now back at work at the Burnett Road police station in Inverness after taking time off suffering from stress.
A Northern Constabulary spokeswoman said: 'An officer is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal in connection with a road traffic offence.
'It would be inappropriate to make any further comment.' Procurator fiscal Gary Aitken confirmed his office had received a report in relation to McMaster but said no date had yet been set for a court appearance.
A legal expert yesterday said McMaster would be likely to appear in court on a charge of dangerous driving.
The officer lives with his wife Sheila at Kirkhill, about seven miles west of Inverness.
Last year, Northern Constabulary police driving instructor Bob Kennedy was caught doing 121 mph on the same stretch of road.
He was banned for 18 months and fined £800 after being found guilty of dangerous driving in January.
The 41-year-old married father of three denied the charge. He claimed he was test-driving a high-powered Vauxhall Vectra 2.6 litre car which had been hired to the force for a driving course he was to lead the next day.
After his conviction, Kennedy was ordered to resign from the police but later won his £30,000-a-year job back at the Independent Police Appeals Tribunal.
Scotland's worst speeder was Jason McAllister, 28. The car dealer was caught doing 156 mph on the A90 between Dundee and Aberdeen in March 2003. At one point on his journey - which he made in the dark - he passed through a 40 mph zone at more than 120 mph.
Police worked out that, at that speed, McAllister's £45,000 BMW M3 would have taken about 1000ft to stop.
McAllister was jailed for five months and banned for four years at Forfar Sheriff Court in May last year.
A Fife businessman is due to appear in court later this month charged with driving his BMW M3 at 150mph while speaking on his mobile phone on the A92 between Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline.
>>> Edited by catso on Tuesday 14th December 21:30
136 MILES PER HOUR Speed cop faces sack after being clocked at double the limit on killer road
By Alistair Munro And Brian Lironi
A TRAFFIC policeman faces jail after being clocked at 136mph on a killer road.
PC Blair McMaster was stopped by his colleagues in his Subaru Impreza WRX on the A9 south of Inverness.
The 28-year-old father of two could lose his job and face a possible prison sentence if convicted.
McMaster, who received special training by Northern Constabulary to drive patrol cars and the force's powerful Volvo T5s, has now been stripped of driving duties until the outcome of his case.
He was spotted by a mobile police speed camera unit on the A9 at Daviot. The road, a mixture of dual and single carriageway, is notorious for serious accidents.
There was a passenger in the car at the time it was clocked.
McMaster is now back at work at the Burnett Road police station in Inverness after taking time off suffering from stress.
A Northern Constabulary spokeswoman said: 'An officer is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal in connection with a road traffic offence.
'It would be inappropriate to make any further comment.' Procurator fiscal Gary Aitken confirmed his office had received a report in relation to McMaster but said no date had yet been set for a court appearance.
A legal expert yesterday said McMaster would be likely to appear in court on a charge of dangerous driving.
The officer lives with his wife Sheila at Kirkhill, about seven miles west of Inverness.
Last year, Northern Constabulary police driving instructor Bob Kennedy was caught doing 121 mph on the same stretch of road.
He was banned for 18 months and fined £800 after being found guilty of dangerous driving in January.
The 41-year-old married father of three denied the charge. He claimed he was test-driving a high-powered Vauxhall Vectra 2.6 litre car which had been hired to the force for a driving course he was to lead the next day.
After his conviction, Kennedy was ordered to resign from the police but later won his £30,000-a-year job back at the Independent Police Appeals Tribunal.
Scotland's worst speeder was Jason McAllister, 28. The car dealer was caught doing 156 mph on the A90 between Dundee and Aberdeen in March 2003. At one point on his journey - which he made in the dark - he passed through a 40 mph zone at more than 120 mph.
Police worked out that, at that speed, McAllister's £45,000 BMW M3 would have taken about 1000ft to stop.
McAllister was jailed for five months and banned for four years at Forfar Sheriff Court in May last year.
A Fife businessman is due to appear in court later this month charged with driving his BMW M3 at 150mph while speaking on his mobile phone on the A92 between Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline.
>>> Edited by catso on Tuesday 14th December 21:30
tw99 said:
"Killer road" ? Is there a huge concrete obstacle that suddenly springs up out of the middle of the carriageway or something ?
The big problems with the A9 are tourists either forgetting which side of the road to drive on or enjoying the scenery too much to actually look where they are going!
Add to that HGVs doing 40mph, limited overtaking opportunities and speed cameras on many straight sections of the mostly single carriageway road and you've a recipe for chaos. If you can't pass the wagon on the long straight bits, what's left? I can get past safely and easily on the bike, but it's a different proposition altogether in most cars.
I bet he is more pissed off about being caught by a laser scamera
I did like the "time off with stress" bit
Maybe I can have some taxpayers money and time off for each time I am caught by a scamera and come closer to losing my job
havent been flashed by anything in 3 years but I am sure it wont be long - even driving at the speed limits
I did like the "time off with stress" bit
Maybe I can have some taxpayers money and time off for each time I am caught by a scamera and come closer to losing my job
havent been flashed by anything in 3 years but I am sure it wont be long - even driving at the speed limits
Tonyrec said:
What a complete load of old tat.
He should be fined/banned etc but that should be it.
Did he put anyone in danger, was he driving like an uncontrolable idiot?
If not then whats the big deal?
This applies to anyone..........and i mean that!
now you wouldnt get that sort of comment from a scamera !!
What really annoys me is this 'automatic' charge of dangerous driving if you exceed x mph. Total farce! If the driving is dangerous then sure do it, if not then only the speeding offence should apply.
Perhaps the CC should take an interest.............
Only joking following ND's post
Perhaps the CC should take an interest.............
Only joking following ND's post
kevinday said:
What really annoys me is this 'automatic' charge of dangerous driving if you exceed x mph. Total farce! If the driving is dangerous then sure do it, if not then only the speeding offence should apply.
Yes, it infuriates me when people, some of whom should know better, glibly spout this nonsense about it being dangerous driving, just because a speed limit has been exceeded by a large margin.
Every time they say that sort of thing it should be challenged immediately and robustly.
I hope Ian Latimer, Chief Constable of Northern Constabulary, will not go along with such hogwash.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
Bit of a confused issue this one.
On the one hand, he was driving beyond the speed limit, he is a traffic copper and should know at least as well as the rest of us what the law is and should therefore 'be done'. Anything less would be seen as 'one rule for them ......etc etc'.
On the other hand, was the speed unsafe, is the law right or wrong, does the law need changing? Is this copper about to experience an extreme change in his fortunes and life by ending up losing his job and going to prison and all the secondary consequences that will follow and for what........driving at a speed above what is little more than an arbitrary limit and does not define what is safe and what is not.
I know that road and simply doing 136mph isn't enough for me to think this guy should suffer anything more than a fine and ban. If that even.
It depends more on what other factors there are to consider i.e. was he endangering other drivers etc etc, was his style of driving dangerous.
On the one hand, he was driving beyond the speed limit, he is a traffic copper and should know at least as well as the rest of us what the law is and should therefore 'be done'. Anything less would be seen as 'one rule for them ......etc etc'.
On the other hand, was the speed unsafe, is the law right or wrong, does the law need changing? Is this copper about to experience an extreme change in his fortunes and life by ending up losing his job and going to prison and all the secondary consequences that will follow and for what........driving at a speed above what is little more than an arbitrary limit and does not define what is safe and what is not.
I know that road and simply doing 136mph isn't enough for me to think this guy should suffer anything more than a fine and ban. If that even.
It depends more on what other factors there are to consider i.e. was he endangering other drivers etc etc, was his style of driving dangerous.
The benchmark here to me is 'Autobahn'.
An M3 driver driving at 130 mph on the same section of motorway in Germany is doing something perfectly normal (Same car, same road quality).
The law in the UK is different, it is perfectly normal to do the guy for speeding.
But doing him automatically for dangerous driving has to be questionable simply for exceeding the speed limit. It may or may not have been dangerous driving depending on conditions.
Is it dangerous in the UK (Same car, same road), but not dangerous in Germany ?
The law is the law, but what is deemed dangerous needs to be looked at here.
Yet another confirmation that many BIB think our speed limits are too low and that any speed, as long as the circumstances are appropriate, is acceptable.
Good luck to him, prison would be utterly absurd and I can only think that the authorities would give prison as punishment for showing that higher speeds are not automatically dangerous.
Good luck to him, prison would be utterly absurd and I can only think that the authorities would give prison as punishment for showing that higher speeds are not automatically dangerous.
catso said:
www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14968281&method=full&siteid=86024%26headline=136-miles-per-hour-name_page.html
136 MILES PER HOUR Speed cop faces sack after being clocked at double the limit on killer road
Leaving aside the sensational reporting here, which we now come to expect, and whether or not it was actually dangerous or not there must be a little bit more to this than meets the eye. If he is local traffic plod he must know where they put the vans. He might even know when they were going to be there. If he was unsure then he is guilty of being careless, after all we all need to be aware of these things in our daily driving. A possibility is that someone in the force had a grudge against him and knew where he would be. Parking in a slightly different position to normal, so his visual check failed. Such things have been know to happen. About fifteen years or so ago there was a tit for tat spate of Met catching Surrey plod speeding and vice-versa. Also widely circulating rumours of the Black Rats making a point of catching incoming early shift plod on the A40.
IanReid said:
About fifteen years or so ago there was a tit for tat spate of Met catching Surrey plod speeding and vice-versa. Also widely circulating rumours of the Black Rats making a point of catching incoming early shift plod on the A40.
I do remember this.....however, there was more too it.
Tonyrec said:
About fifteen years or so ago there was a tit for tat spate of Met catching Surrey plod speeding and vice-versa. Also widely circulating rumours of the Black Rats making a point of catching incoming early shift plod on the A40.
I do remember this.....however, there was more too it.
If it was a while back, any chance of shedding a little more light on it?
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