Ambulance driver being prosecuted for speeding!

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BBC news artical
Crown prosecutors say a vehicle carrying vital transplant organs does not qualify as an ambulance - and have charged an ambulance driver with speeding after he was clocked at 104mph.
West Yorkshire driver Mike Ferguson was rushing a liver from Leeds to Cambridge for an emergency transplant when he was caught.

Both Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire Police recorded the ambulance speeding on the A1 in the early hours of the morning of 16 January.

Mr Ferguson, who has an unblemished record of 36 years service, was in an official vehicle with blue lights flashing. Traffic was light and road conditions were understood to be good.

'Dangerous precedent'

While Cambridgeshire officers have not taken any action, their counterparts in Lincolnshire charged Mr Ferguson.

Mr Ferguson told BBC News Online: " I was just doing my job, but the police have a differing point of view."

And he added: "I was asked to move an organ as soon as possible.

"I didn't know the condition of the organ, or the recipient."

Lincolnshire Police referred inquiries to the Crown Prosecution Service.

"Not an emergency"

Alison Kerr, the chief Crown Prosecutor for Lincolnshire told BBC News Online: "Having looked at all the facts, the CPS believes that this was not a medical emergency, and therefore should be put before the court for them to decide.

"As the law stands a vehicle does not qualify as an ambulance if it is carrying transplant organs."

Mr Ferguson's union, the GMB, has taken up his case, saying in a statement that he was acting routinely to deliver the organ in time.

Union spokesman John Durkin said the case could set a dangerous precedent.

He said: "If certain police forces say that drivers risk prosecution, then do they have the right to say who will survive these life-saving operations?

"I don't want that on my conscience."

Unison, the biggest union representing ambulance workers, has called for an urgent review of legislation to take the burden of responsibility off individuals in life-or-death situations.

Mr Ferguson's case at Grantham Magistrates' Court has been deferred at the request of the defence solicitor.

I think this is disgusting. I cannot believe that the CPS are even persuing this case. This country has gone anti speed mad.

I've just been listening to Jeremy Vine on Radio2. He is interviewing the driver and a representative from BRAKE. The woman from BRAKE is a flippin fanatic. All she cares about is reducing speed. She says, speed is the biggest killer on UK roads and she also thinks that killing speeding is the be all and end of road safety.

Why don't they ask the transplant patient if he thinks the driver should be prosecuted?

 

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Originally posted by Kitchster_uk
I wonder what that daft bint would have said if it was her or a child of hers waiting for the transplant

This was asked of the BRAKE woman by the ambulance driver. The response was something along the lines of not wanting the driver to speed thus endangering other peoples lives. She also said that it was almost certain that he would have crashed if he had been driving for much longer and as such the transplant would have been destroyed in the crash.

I love the attitude of BRAKE.

If you break the speed limit by as much as 1mph you WILL crash and you WILL die and you WILL kill a child.

So from this you can infer that if you always drive 1mph below the limit you will NEVER kill anyone no matter how you drive. Roundabouts on a dual carrdgeway? No problem, I was doing 69mph. Sleet and hail at night down a twisty road? No problem, I was doing 59mph. Hit a child? No problem, the child will live as I was doing 29mph. We all know that chocolate and flowers grow out of the front of your car is you hit a child at 29mph.

If swearing were allowed on this forum I'd be doing it a lot right now.

******* boils my blood

 

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I don't think the police are to blaim here. It's the CPS that are pushing for a prosecution. I think he was caught by cameras anyway, not a patrol.