Gaining a police record

I suppose that 159mph will remain the all-time PSR (Police Speed Record) on a public road. The officer who achieved this claimed that he was testing the limits of his patrol car and I see no reason to think it was dangerous, considering the road he used and the conditions. But the fact that he incurred no penalty will understandably anger drivers who had fines and endorsements for exceeding 30.40 or 70mph limits by a few mph.

That apart, the war against drivers has risen to a fresh level by allowing ordinary citizens to use hand-held camera guns to check the speeds of passing vehicles. These cameras have to be aimed at a vehicle’s number plate to record accurately, so are very likely to join the fixed cameras which, we are told, are none too correct either, to the extent, it is alleged, of something like 1,000,000 speed convictions being inaccurate, with a similar number of drivers having been wrongly fined.

Back to the hand-held nonsense. I believe that in a case of a driver in court accused of exceeding 70mph in a lower speed limit, his barrister told the judge that the hand-held camera had timed a wall as doing 11mph. Such a mobile wall could be more lethal than a fast-moving car. I hope its owner was duly prosecuted. This government does not appear to love those of us who use road transport.