Your thoughts on driving at 159 mph

[Paul]

A police constable who reached 159mph on a motorway has
been cleared of speeding and dangerous driving.

It's been in the news for the last couple of days,
If you have missed it then it's here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/4559173.stm

I always belived that driving over 100mph was an instant ban. :?

Please don't get me wrong here I have every respect for the
police and the job they do, I'm very interested in your views
about this case.

Wonder if we could get away with it if we said we were
familiarising ourself with the new car.  :-k

[driftwood]

there a law unto there own! :twisted:

wonder if they will see it that way if there was an accident! a normal person would be banned and have to retest.

wonder what the braking distance would be?

and were the tyres rated at the speed they were doing, most manufacturers dont fit tyres to the top speed of the vehicle, they go for mid range with economy, or it would cost them far too much!
hmmm...a blow out at that speed :shock:  :shock:

[Dave]

They would do me if i was doing 80 not a loan 159 . Mined you that would be good getting court in tyson doing 159 :D  :D  8)

[beast5680]

they shouldnt have banned him providing he was genuinly carrying out an evaluation of the vehicle and he was conducting it at a safer time of the day but would you want to work in a place where your own colleagues dob you in?

[LOFTY]

Well car law sucks anyway, That teacher who fired a air pistol at the ground, near some yobs, who have been terroising her, she gets 6 months i believe.

Knock down somebody on a zebra crossing, and you would be lucky to get any penalty points.
 

[driftwood]

providing he was genuinly carrying out an evaluation of the vehicle and he was conducting it at a safer time of the day

not being funny (dont take it funny and i see your point) but isn't there test centers for that, like the motor industry reasearch assosiation ( mira ). i do some work there and they have test tracks for this purpose.

he was probabily late for mcdonalds opening :lol:

[thermidorthelobster]

The stopping distance was a quarter of a mile, according to the news.  Police driver or no police driver, I can't see how that can be safe.  Michael Schumacher could come a cropper in those circumstances.

[thermidorthelobster]

Well car law sucks anyway, That teacher who fired a air pistol at the ground, near some yobs, who have been terroising her, she gets 6 months i believe.

As I understood it, she fired near some youths who were not necessarily the yobs that had been terrorising her, which is a little different.

[muddyweb]

From the information in the story, which for the purposes of this I am assuming to be complete (OK, OK)....

It was the early hours of the morning.... he is an experienced and trained officer.... we spent a lot of money making him that way.

To dismiss him or take him off active duty would seem to be counter-productive in the grand scheme of things.

He should probably have been given a good shouting at, unless he was actually acting with the knowledge of his department, of course ;-)

What upsets me more is that money has been wasted bringing this to an overcrowded court system, where an internal procedure would probably have been more appropriate.

[datalas]

whilst I am not going to shed an opinion one way or the other, there are perhaps a couple of points that were outlined in the article, and a couple of points that weren't really addressed.

a) he is a highly qualified and instructed driver who specialises in high speed persuits, this would (theoretically at least) mean he is better able to handle the stated speeds.

b) "early hours" this doesn't really address the traffic density, likelyhood of pedestrians etc etc.   Without knowing the layout of the road or whether anybody else was on it at the time means we should reserve judgement.

c) 159mph is jolly quick, but there are roads which can support those sorts of speeds in this country, provided of course there are no people to hit.

[muddyweb]

b) "early hours" this doesn't really address the traffic density, likelyhood of pedestrians etc etc.   Without knowing the layout of the road or whether anybody else was on it at the time means we should reserve judgement.

According to the article, it was a deserted motorway near Telford...  so there shouldn't be any pedestrians.  The in-car video they used to prosecute him would have shown up any dangerous incidents IMHO and no mention was made of anything.

[muky-kid.]

providing he was genuinly carrying out an evaluation of the vehicle and he was conducting it at a safer time of the day

not being funny and i see your point but isn't there test centers for that, like the motor industry reasearch assosiation ( mira ). i do some work there and they have test tracks for this purpose.

Excatly what i was thinking, shouldve done this sort of test on a proper Test Track not on Telfords Dual Carrigeways. Personnely i say ban the idiot, copper or no copper. It just gives the wrong impression to the public when this sort of thing is dismissed in court. He might be a very good high speed driver but the normal public are not and someone could have panicked whilst he was driveing at such speeds thus causeing an accident, luckily it did not happen. He should have been disaplined at least.  
I feel strongly about this because an old school freind was killed by a traffic cop years ago through speeding, no action was taken against him  :twisted:

[Dave]

Your right Tim what a wast of money, bring back hanging that speed is unacceptable at anytime of the day and on any public road. Thats why we pay lots of money for helcopters for them so they can give chase safely.

[datalas]

well, the article was somewhat lacking in details.

What the judge did make reference to in his summary was teh lack of a suitable evaluation, training, testing or indeed anything procedures for the constabulary in question.  It's not beyond the bounds of possiblity that to take the vehicle to a test track would have been forced to be out of his own pocket (and potentially not cheap at that) ergo he did what I'm sure a lot of people have been tempted to do and find a deserted track of motorway at a time when everyone else is asleep.

I've done it myself, although, oddly I was in the series2 and ergo only hit 70ish according to the GPS :)

[Andy.]

One question, with regards the law which no one is above regardless of job, what is the speed limit on a British motorway  :?:

Makes no odds time or place, he was driving far to fast, no excuses.

[datalas]

hey, I wasn't passing judgement, infact I was trying rather hard not to :)

Although,  I seem to recall that nobody is allowed to speed, or run a red light, with the fine exception of a postman delivering a message of war...  or is that running red lights ?

[muddyweb]

One question, with regards the law which no one is above regardless of job, what is the speed limit on a British motorway  :?: .

Um... the emergency services are exempt from many of the UK laws as I understand it.. the exact circumstances vary of course.  If you start to take the zero tolerance approach to speeding, then you'd better report us all...   have you never gone above 70mph on a motorway ?

You have to make the assumption that driving fast is instrinsically dangerous, which as someone who has spent many years driving at 100mph+ in Europe I don't believe it is.  

I think he was, shall we say, lacking in judgement for doing what he did... but on the other side of the coin, you fire him and you loose another expensive and experienced police officer who then needs to be replaced.

[beast5680]

providing he was genuinly carrying out an evaluation of the vehicle and he was conducting it at a safer time of the day

not being funny (dont take it funny and i see your point) but isn't there test centers for that, like the motor industry reasearch assosiation ( mira ). i do some work there and they have test tracks for this purpose.

he was probabily late for mcdonalds opening :lol:

a test track is not the roads where he drives though or the area he,s in when he will be driving that car.
I have a friend in the fire brigade who instructs drivers in fire appliances and they go out on runs late to get used to handling the fire trucks on the roads in their area, not quite the same speed i know but the principle is the same.
if the police are to do their job and use the vehicles they are given then they must be allowed to test them out etc so they are safe when carrying out a pursuit, However none of the papers have made any details of whether the officer logged himself out on a call or a run etc and i would agree if he was not on official buisiness then he should have the book thrown at him

[muky-kid.]

:shock:   What the judge did make reference to in his summary was teh lack of a suitable evaluation, training, testing or indeed anything procedures for the constabulary in question.

He was just late for his shift....  
Seriously though hes lucky to get away with it, without causeing death or injury to himself or others... I mean comeon if something had happened to his car whilst travelling at 150mph do you really think he could have controlled it at that speed good driver or no good driver.
Its one of lifes big misconceptions, we all think that we are in total control of our vehicles whilst travelling at speed.. sorry were just lucky if nothing happens.

 :D Rant over...

[The Fat Controller]

testing of any car to that speed should be done at the right place,the only places in this country are either m.i.r.a or silverstone

[datalas]

ok, I'm going to get killed for saying this but..

Silverstone is a test track, should all criminals happen to drive onto it for a grid start before trying to escape I'm sure that training here would be a great idea.  As it stands, he was wrong but there is a question of "how" wrong.  The motorways around manchester are utterly deserted at around 3am and you have six lanes of motorway with a visibility of around 2 miles.  Not that I have ever driven anything that could speed down them, but it's hardly "life threateningly dangerous" when placed in this context, since the road is twice the width of silverstone and the only life at risk could well have been his own.

That said, I do not entierly approve of his action, just trying to point out that media driven hysteria over something we know sweet diddley about is perhaps not entirely called for.

It does also prove a more important question, which is.. where are we supposed to train high speed persuit drivers ?  test tracks aren't real roads, nor are they designed to vaugely resemble them...

Ahh well, I'm going to shut up now

[wing nut]

a couple o years ago, their were a couple of lads who got nicked for driving at 148 and 152 mph on their motorbikes ,both had responsible jobs, which they depended on. and both were sent to prison for two months let out after a month for good behaviour ..  :idea: what is the difference between the copper and them :?:

[datalas]

a couple o years ago, their were a couple of lads who got nicked for driving at 148 and 152 miles an hour on their motorbikes ,both had responsible jobs, which they depended on. and both were sent to prison for two months let out after a month for good behaviour ..  :idea: what is the difference between the copper and them :?:

Were they trained in high speed persuit driving and did they hold accreditations from the institute of advanced motorists as testiment to their driving abilities ?  at what time of day were they stopped and where?  If so, not a lot.

[muddyweb]

and both were sent to prison for two months let out after a month for good behaviour ..  :idea: what is the difference between the copper and them :?:

It isn't part of their job to chase down the little scrotes that steal cars, rob people and generally hurt others.   Don't forget, pursuit drivers literally put their lives on the line to take these people off the streets.... they aren't saints, and they aren't all heros... but they do have a job to do.

[muky-kid.]

Datalas, good point. It must be difficult for Police drivers to train in high speed driveing.
And to be honest seen as though there was no accident to either him self or others, and if he hadnt of been dobbed in. Wede be none the wiser..

All im saying is, hes either a dam good driver or just lucky he didnt have an accident.
Right im going to leave this now because it drags up bad memorys of my old mate.

[Thrasher]

Bah!

/me stomps out. Whatever he was driving can catch me ....

[driftwood]

It does also prove a more important question, which is.. where are we supposed to train high speed persuit drivers ?  test tracks aren't real roads, nor are they designed to vaugely resemble them...

if the manufacturers of vehicles use the test tracks to test the cars capability in all areas and redesign them as required, ie brakes, vibration, aerodynamics, noise etc....the test tracks cant be that different from the normal roads or the redisign of the vehicle would be incorrect.

If they were doing a persuite then i suppose they would be engaged officialy with blues and two's, i wonder at what point would would hq tell them to back off for air support?

Ahh well, I'm going to shut up now

me too, i think pauls chose a very hot debate on this one :lol:

[wing nut]

i agree to a certain degree ,but he still broke the law ,and for him to walk free without losing his licence is still wrong (my own oppinion of course) but any kind of speeding is not safe and to abuse the one thing your trying to enforce makes a mockery of it all

[datalas]

if the manufacturers of vehicles use the test tracks to test the cars capability in all areas and redesign them as required, ie brakes, vibration, aerodynamics, noise etc....the test tracks cant be that different from the normal roads or the redisign of the vehicle would be incorrect.

They are similar, but in different ways.  There is a difference (I would guess) between mechinical forces, and the "experience" of motorway driving.

Strictly speaking a wind tunnel has the same scientific forces,  but it's a lot easier to drive down :)

[driftwood]

Strictly speaking a wind tunnel has the same scientific forces,  but it's a lot easier to drive down :)

and alot more scenic :lol: