Speedchecks (specs) owner caught speeding.
Discussion
INVESTIGATOR CAUGHT FIRM'S OWNER BREAKING LIMIT NEAR SCHOOL FOUR TIMES
11:00 - 19 April 2005
The owner of a company supplying the latest speed cameras has been caught by a private investigator breaking the limit outside a North Somerset primary school - four times in three days. Christopher Booy, aged 52, is the executive director of Speed Check Services, the firm behind the controversial new Specs cameras.
The machines, now in use on the M4, read the number plate of every vehicle that passes at the start and end of a monitored section of road.
They work out a driver's average speed and do not flash. The first motorists know that they have been clocked is when a £60 fine notice arrives.
According to a Sunday newspaper, Mr Booy was caught with an old-fashioned hand-held radar speed gun outside St Mary's Primary School, in Portbury, where the speed limit is 30mph.
An investigator hired by the News of the World clocked the businessman doing 38mph in his convertible Jaguar XK8 just before 5pm last Wednesday.
The primary school is in Church Road, which is clearly marked with the speed limit, and there are signs warning that children may be crossing.
The next day the same investigator caught Mr Booy speeding again. At just after midday he set off from his home in Station Road in a dark blue Ford Fiesta. Just 200 yards past the school the radar detector recorded his car as travelling at 41mph.
On the way home, directly outside the primary school, he was clocked doing 39mph at 3.38pm - minutes after parents had collected their children from school.
On Friday the investigator caught him speeding for the third day in succession. He left home just before noon and this time was clocked travelling at 38mph as he neared the school.
Campaign group Transport 2000 says a pedestrian hit by a car at 35mph is twice as likely to be killed as someone struck at 30mph.
When confronted, Mr Booy said: "Obviously, I shouldn't be speeding and, if you say I was, I probably was. That's life, I guess.
"Our speed cameras are primarily for safety zones. That's what we're about - to restrict people from speeding.
"We provide what we believe is something to reduce speeds and the evidence is in the pilots we have done. Maybe this is a good lesson, that we should have more of them so everybody stays within the speed limit."
Last year Mr Booy sold his consultancy firm, Symonds, for £30 million to the Capita Group, which runs London's congestion charging scheme.
The Evening Post contacted Speed Check Services yesterday and a woman who answered the phone said she would pass on our request for Mr Booy to contact us.
We called later and she confirmed Mr Booy had received the message. But by time the Evening Post went to press, he had not returned our call.
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So why didnt this lemon get his own speeding message after spouting all that crap?
11:00 - 19 April 2005
The owner of a company supplying the latest speed cameras has been caught by a private investigator breaking the limit outside a North Somerset primary school - four times in three days. Christopher Booy, aged 52, is the executive director of Speed Check Services, the firm behind the controversial new Specs cameras.
The machines, now in use on the M4, read the number plate of every vehicle that passes at the start and end of a monitored section of road.
They work out a driver's average speed and do not flash. The first motorists know that they have been clocked is when a £60 fine notice arrives.
According to a Sunday newspaper, Mr Booy was caught with an old-fashioned hand-held radar speed gun outside St Mary's Primary School, in Portbury, where the speed limit is 30mph.
An investigator hired by the News of the World clocked the businessman doing 38mph in his convertible Jaguar XK8 just before 5pm last Wednesday.
The primary school is in Church Road, which is clearly marked with the speed limit, and there are signs warning that children may be crossing.
The next day the same investigator caught Mr Booy speeding again. At just after midday he set off from his home in Station Road in a dark blue Ford Fiesta. Just 200 yards past the school the radar detector recorded his car as travelling at 41mph.
On the way home, directly outside the primary school, he was clocked doing 39mph at 3.38pm - minutes after parents had collected their children from school.
On Friday the investigator caught him speeding for the third day in succession. He left home just before noon and this time was clocked travelling at 38mph as he neared the school.
Campaign group Transport 2000 says a pedestrian hit by a car at 35mph is twice as likely to be killed as someone struck at 30mph.
When confronted, Mr Booy said: "Obviously, I shouldn't be speeding and, if you say I was, I probably was. That's life, I guess.
"Our speed cameras are primarily for safety zones. That's what we're about - to restrict people from speeding.
"We provide what we believe is something to reduce speeds and the evidence is in the pilots we have done. Maybe this is a good lesson, that we should have more of them so everybody stays within the speed limit."
Last year Mr Booy sold his consultancy firm, Symonds, for £30 million to the Capita Group, which runs London's congestion charging scheme.
The Evening Post contacted Speed Check Services yesterday and a woman who answered the phone said she would pass on our request for Mr Booy to contact us.
We called later and she confirmed Mr Booy had received the message. But by time the Evening Post went to press, he had not returned our call.
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So why didnt this lemon get his own speeding message after spouting all that crap?
This is the bit that was getting up my shnozz:
"Our speed cameras are primarily for safety zones. That's what we're about - to restrict people from speeding.
We provide what we believe is something to reduce speeds and the evidence is in the pilots we have done. Maybe this is a good lesson, that we should have more of them so everybody stays within the speed limit"
Didnt stop him tho did it? The hes got the brass neck to try and suggest we need even more his bullshat systems.
More of the same, "dont do as we do, do as we say" attitudes.
"Our speed cameras are primarily for safety zones. That's what we're about - to restrict people from speeding.
We provide what we believe is something to reduce speeds and the evidence is in the pilots we have done. Maybe this is a good lesson, that we should have more of them so everybody stays within the speed limit"
Didnt stop him tho did it? The hes got the brass neck to try and suggest we need even more his bullshat systems.
More of the same, "dont do as we do, do as we say" attitudes.
Hoisted by his own Petard!!! 
deltafox said:SPECs ... M4 ... clearly this hasn't been beaten to death yet. The article would have even more impact if it got all its facts correct. You do wonder about the ability of reporters today ... or should that be the integrity of their editors? - Streaky
The owner of a company supplying ... the controversial new Specs cameras.
The machines, now in use on the M4, ...
Yes I had a man from one of my contracts get very, very angry with me because i dared tell him that there were no specs on the M4 and even the TVP website clearly stated that fact...
Of course he "had a mate" in the road planning division who "oversaw the entire project"
Some people are so hoocked on urban myth that they wil do almost anything to defend!!
Of course he "had a mate" in the road planning division who "oversaw the entire project"
Some people are so hoocked on urban myth that they wil do almost anything to defend!!
deltafox said:
Didnt stop him tho did it? The hes got the brass neck to try and suggest we need even more his bullshat systems.
More of the same, "dont do as we do, do as we say" attitudes.
Yes just like the pro-camera campaigners who complain about others driving down their street find that they themselves get nicked when on the way to school, Tescbury's, goff club.
Or even (tongue firmly in cheek) shooting past a turkey at 70-ish.
Where's he gone from that other thread then?
[Cpl Jones]
They don't like it up em.
[/Cpl Jones]
parrot of doom said:
The hypocracy of the director of this company is quite shocking.
Suggesting that more cameras will improve driving skills is frankly ludicrous.
But it's nothing to do with improving driving skills! It's about reducing speed, full stop. Then when the inevitable accidents happen (because they haven't improved driving skills), they are at a lower speed, which should reduce the KSI figures (as long as you're below the threshold at which speed makes a difference of course).
That's why speed limits will continue to come down, cameras will be used more and more, and limits will be enforced with decreasing leniency. Get speeds down, reduce KSIs at camera sites. 40% target achieved. Job done.
Improved driving skills? Don't be silly. That costs money and makes people happy. It gives people freedom, a sense of wellbeing, a sense of achievement. Much better to impose frustrations, penalties, overheads, restrictions, limitations. That way you get equality of outcome -- the ultimate of aim of all socialism.
Peter Ward said:
...Much better to impose frustrations, penalties, overheads, restrictions, limitations. That way you get equality of outcome -- the ultimate of aim of all socialism.
Absolutely; the whole ever-increasing restriction by stealth via cameras using self-interested bodies staffed by refugees from other non-jobs is socialism personnified.
An older example concerned Sir Robert Watson-Watt ('father' of radar). His booking for speeding led to the following poem:
Pity Sir Robert Watson-Watt.
Strange target of his radar plot.
And thus, with others I could mention,
A victim of his own invention!
I wonder?
Pity SPECS man Mr Booy,
...
Umm! How do you pronounce "Booy"? To rhyme with 'Huey', or "buoy" (perhaps pronounced the American way 'boo-ee')? How do I work "hypocrisy" in there? And "Speed Check Services" is difficult to scan! Over to you ...
Streaky
>> Edited by streaky on Tuesday 3rd May 09:37
Pity Sir Robert Watson-Watt.
Strange target of his radar plot.
And thus, with others I could mention,
A victim of his own invention!
I wonder?
Pity SPECS man Mr Booy,
...
Umm! How do you pronounce "Booy"? To rhyme with 'Huey', or "buoy" (perhaps pronounced the American way 'boo-ee')? How do I work "hypocrisy" in there? And "Speed Check Services" is difficult to scan! Over to you ...
Streaky
>> Edited by streaky on Tuesday 3rd May 09:37
That's gotta be the reason they don't put scams outside schools, ah the truth comes to light.
That's a great story tho, this bloke knows where these scams are setup and how they work and gets done by a handheld, if he's a half decent chap he should resign immediately or give me my hard earned dosh back.
That's a great story tho, this bloke knows where these scams are setup and how they work and gets done by a handheld, if he's a half decent chap he should resign immediately or give me my hard earned dosh back.
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