Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/04/405.asp

5/18/2005

UK: 159 MPH Cop Found Not Guilty
A police officer in West Mercia, UK was let off the hook after being caught driving 159 MPH on public roads.

A West Mercia, UK police officer was found not guilty in court today despite being caught "testing" an unmarked police car on public roads at speeds up to 159 MPH. An on-board video recorder captured Mark Milton, a 38 year old constable, zipping through a 30 MPH zone at 84mph and driving on a secondary road at 131 MPH.

Milton claims he was testing the capabilities of his new, unmarked Vauxhall Vectra GSI police car. At least one senior police officer testified in Milton's defense saying that high speeds on public roads was acceptable.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign suggests that this case is evidence that the obsession with speed camera enforcement is counter-productive. "If 159 mph can be safe enough not to endanger the public, then surely this is a clear official admission that driving a few miles per hour over the speed limit isn't necessarily dangerous either," Smith said. "We have to get back to the policies that gave us the safest roads in the world in the first place, long before speed cameras and the pointless obsession with numerical speed."