Saw this on the news. Also saw his average speeds...

150 on the Motorway, 130 on an A35(?..not sure if thats thye right number) and 91 in urban areas. Got let off the first time round cos his boss said he was a good driver and he was a safe driver...tut tut :thumbdwn:

Speeding Cop Faces Retrial

Updated: 13:24, Wednesday February 01, 2006

A police officer who was cleared of driving a car at an "eye-watering" 159mph will face further legal action.

PC Mark Milton, 38, from Telford, Shropshire, was cleared of speeding and dangerous driving last year.

He claimed to have been getting used to a new vehicle on the M54 motorway in December 2003 and "honing" his driving skills.

But Edmund Lawson QC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, asked two High Court judges to direct that PC Milton be convicted of both offences, or at least order a new hearing of the case.

They decided to overturn the acquittal and order a retrial at Ludlow Magistrates' Court.

The judges said District Judge Bruce Morgan, who oversaw the first trial, had wrongly taken into account irrelevant matters.

This included the opinions of senior police, who said officer's driving was not dangerous.

Judge Morgan had described PC Milton as the "creme de la creme" of police drivers.

He described the speeds as "eye watering", said the QC, but was wrongly sympathetic to PC Milton's defence that he was honing his driving skills.

John McGuinness QC, appearing for PC Milton, said the district judge had been entitled to take account of the officer's advanced driving skills, and to conclude that his driving was not dangerous at the time in question.

"Excessive speed alone is not a basis to convict for dangerous driving."

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "We are relieved the courts are going to look at this issue again.

"People contacted us, saying how was it fair for police to prosecute them for speeding when the courts treated a police officer like this."

CC

It seems fine to berate this PC for excessive speed, and normally there is no excuse, BUT, he must be one of the highest trained, safest , fast drivers in the world, to do his job anyway. And if some scrote is going to go on the rampage in a stolen performance car Who is going to apprehend him ?

I personally don't have a problem with this case, as I have always, yes always found the police to be fair (even when stopped for speeding on a deserted M62 at 00:30 going quote ' so bloody fast its taken me 14 miles to catch you, can I have a go ' in a 10 year old Citroen CX GTI Turbo

Best car I ever had , no contest.

It seems fine to berate this PC for excessive speed' date=' and normally there is no excuse, BUT, he must be one of the highest trained, safest , fast drivers in the world, to do his job anyway. And if some scrote is going to go on the rampage in a stolen performance car Who is going to apprehend him ?

I personally don't have a problem with this case, as I have always, yes always found the police to be fair (even when stopped for speeding on a deserted M62 at 00:30 going quote ' so bloody fast its taken me 14 miles to catch you, can I have a go ' in a 10 year old Citroen CX GTI Turbo

Best car I ever had , no contest.[/quote']

Off topic but - CX GTi Turbo

I was a BX 16 valve man myself.

Sorry to lose the thread, but,

I was a citroen man since I passed my test, 3 2cv's 3CX's and umpteen (9 I think )BX's but the ZX Killed me off. No character, more unreliable than my ex-wife and uglier !

VAG reliability sold it for me in 1999 (polo sdi)

Shall we start a poll for best car ever ? it may have been done, but I am a newbie so it will be interesting for me as a new Shhkoda convert?

Off topic but - CX GTi Turbo

I was a BX 16 valve man myself.

I loved the BX 16v! 160 bhp mi16 engine right! one of my pupils lives by a guy who has two on his drive, seems to be canabilising one to make the other, can't wait till he's done, I'm gonna request a drive!

note: I had a 1.9 trs, the 130 bhp one (petrol) , was a nice car

*sharky remembers fondly driving round Scotland with massive brake fade at the end on mountain roads...........

Back on thread - hate those cr@ppy old Citroens

he must be one of the highest trained, safest , fast drivers in the world, to do his job anyway..

So those of us with IAM can drive faster than those without? :confused:

Also, he didn't have his blues on and was not in a training session - he was playing with a new car because he wanted to and didn't think he'd get caught, it's abuse of position IMHO :thumbdwn:

From a safety POV there's nothing safe about 80+ in a 30 regardless of how highly trained you are.

Fair comment, his speed was excessive and he was 'having a play' as opposed to training, I was a bit wined up yesterday and lost the plot slightly:O

I am IAM myself and should know better !

I've been meaning to post this for ages, but wasn't sure I'd remembered it right or even if it had changed over time. It was on the news last night though, so presumably I'm not making it up...

When I was at kiddie school in Shropshire, we had a visit from the West Mercia police liaison officer (same constabulary as the one he works / worked for), who turned up in one of their pursuit cars (A Rover SD1 V8 IIRC - shows when I was at school!). One of my friends asked how fast it could go, and the policeman said that the car could do 140, but that police drivers in West Mercia are only allowed to do 120, as anything more than that is too dangerous.

Lo and behold, on the news last night, West Mercia's limits are 120 for Advanced Drivers and 85 for regular drivers.

In which case, he was driving nearly 40mph faster on the motorway than he should have been! That's the same as an ordinary member of the public being caught at 110, which could lead to an instant ban.

Since the 120mph limit is there for safety, he was ignoring his local constabulary's safety policy and in doing so endangering himself, the public and the vehicle. At best that's reckless, at worst grossly negligent - neither situation is one where you're likely to stay out of trouble.

(And I'll not even start on doing 80 in a 30...! )

It seems to have been glossed over how he the only reason he got caught was that the in-car video was seen by other policemen at his station. First of all, I presume the video camera is only used for evidence gathering, and so can be switched off when not in use. Since he was not pursuing anyone, I can't see any genuine reason for having it on, other than to keep a personal record of how fast he'd been going, and possibly to show off about it afterwards. Looking at it this way, and taking into account the fact that he wouldn't be allowed to exceed 120 in the course of his work, there's plenty of evidence that the 'training' story is all a load of bull, and he was just doing it for kicks.

Then of course there's the fact that he was shopped by his mates in the first place. I know it has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not he really is guilty, but that really is nature's way of telling you something! Mr Popular or what?!

Whatever the details he should be banned for travelling at nearly 160 mph for no good reason, we'd all get banned for exceeding 100mph, regardless of how quiet the road was, how good we were at driving ..........

Travelling at 80mph on cruise along the A30 this morning. Out of nowhere a volvo estate patrol car flies past me at 110-115 I reckon. :grumpy: So glad he didn't stop me for any reason, like my plates, because I'd have bloody mentioned the fact he was shifting along like a bat out of hell.....

Perhaps if he'd been doing 150mph I may have thought he was off on some emergency, but not to have the blues & twos on in that scenario is well out of order. I mean he snuck up on me quick, and I probably check out my rearview more often that most.

I just hope that this guy gets treated like a regular member of Joe public when it comes to the retrial.