9/25/2007
UK: Police Prosecute Owner of Home Into Which a Stranger CrashedPolice in Wales, UK focus efforts on prosecuting a homeowner for speeding while allowing a stranger who crashed into his home in April to go free.
Police in North Wales, UK refused this week to prosecute a driver who crashed into a man's living room while vigorously pursuing the homeowner for violating the speed limit on the same road by a few miles per hour. Ray Owen, 52, told the North Wales Daily Post that he believes the police have their priorities in the wrong place.
"There is a double standard, where they go for easy targets like myself but drag their heels with cases like this," Owen told the Daily Post.
Owen was charged £60 (US $120) for driving 35 MPH in Holyhead on London Road. On that very road in April, a Vauxhall Vectra had burst into Owen's living room nearly striking his girlfriend, Lynn Ashton, who had been watching television at the time at around 9pm.
"Lynn said it was like a bomb going off in the living room," Owen told the Daily Post. "A boulder from the garden came through the window and shards of glass narrowly missed her."
The accident caused £20,000 (US $40,000) in damage. North Wales police dropped charges against the Vectra driver because there was "insufficient evidence." Law enforcement in Bedfordshire had its own trouble last Tuesday when a police car crashed into the home of Terry Miller, 67, located on the A507 Ampthill Road.
"I share Mr Owen's sense of outrage," said Safe Speed founder Paul Smith. "The police have lost the plot, but I blame Department for Transport for messing up our road safety priorities in the first place."