Eescaped prison sentence for 140+mph

[Lee C63]

Drivers Caught At 144mph On A19 Spared Prison

Not only were they driving at crazy illegal speeds but look how close the Evo is to the RS.
21 year old driver of the RS????
Very lucky not to be locked up.

 

[RWDpetrol]

Haven't we all done that at some point?

 

[MCFastybloke]

Many times,cadwell,donnington,snetterton,brands,never on the public highway.

 

[mat8n]

'appalling driving'

driving fast i'd call it, if you didn't know how fast they'd have nothing to comment on it.

I knew a german lad years ago and he spent his time doing 120mph+ daily on autobahns. he said they were very safe.

it's bad driving not fast driving that is dangerous.

 

[RWDpetrol]

it's bad driving not fast driving that is dangerous.

Spot on. The road conditions in this case are good (dry/day). If it were Germany, there would be no problem - that was my indirect point when saying we've all done it. The police here need to penalise bad driving and multi-tasking drivers (eating, smoking, picking their noses - not just using mobiles). Happy they avoided prison, some penalty for driving close together would be ok.

 

[Lee C63]

I should have really mentioned in the initial post this is a dual carriage way which is well known for accidents. People always pulling out on you (road warriors i am doing 70 so you can slow down). Plenty of artic wagons even farm vehicles.

I totally agree bad driving is whats dangerous not fast driving.

So irresponsible driving giving petrol heads a bad name

 

[markjay]

Safe or not... there is another side to this discussion: respecting the Law.

 

[mat8n]

i live 3 minutes from the A19 about 5 miles north of middlesbrough. south of middlesbrough its generally a very quiet dual carriageway, with good visibility.

i'm in no way condoning what they are doing, it is breaking the law and they deserve the punishment they got. 144mph is a little to fast )

but.....in my opinion there are a lot worse drivers out there doing legal speeds who are far more dangerous with appalling driving standards.

 

[baxlin]

The road conditions in this case are good (dry/day). .

Safe or not... there is another side to this discussion: respecting the Law.

There is yet another side, which increases the danger and idiocy of this - and that's the fact that all other (law-abiding) road users are not aware of, or expect, vehicles doing this sort of speed, and drive accordingly.

Speed itself isn't dangerous, it's the difference in speed between two things that causes problems - if you fall off a balcony, it's only the difference in your speed and the speed of the ground (ie 0 mph!) that hurts. That's why motorways and autobahns are basically safe, as, in the normal run of things, there's little difference in speed between vehicles.



(or so I was told on my speed awareness course...........)

Malcolm

 

[RWDpetrol]

Speed itself isn't dangerous, it's the difference in speed between two things that causes problems

Malcolm

) I was going to use the same argument to say two cars close together at 144mph is ok.

You'll find a huge difference in relative speeds on German autobahns. The safety comes from attention and respect for others eg moving over.

Clearly, these guys broke the law and should be penalised but threatening prison is a joke and all I'm saying is 'dangerous' doesn't automatically come with speed.

 

[st13phil]

I'll resist the temptation to make comment on the standards of diving of the two individuals concerned, but will make comment on the punishment.

They both received fairly substantial Community Service orders. I'm not sure whether it's still the case, but CS only used to be used in lieu of a custodial sentence, so anyone who thinks that its a soft option is mistaken: its a significant punishment.

The second point I'd make is that imprisonment is, in my view, a wholly inappropriate punishment for all but the most serious offences or where it is necessary to protect others. The words "escaped prison sentence" implies that the two drivers were somehow lucky. I would argue that the court decided that prison was not the most appropriate punishment and acted accordingly by despatching them with an alternative, but still significant, punishment.

The trouble with the "they should be locked up" statement is that once you lock up people for less serious offences, there's no bigger sanction for the really serious ones.

 

[V12]

All this shows us is that you shouldn't buy a Focus RS, because you can't outrun an Evo in it.

 

[davidsw]

At over 140 mph cars traveling that close is not ok. It would need the front driver to ease off the accelerator and the 2nd driver wold be in the back of him before he had time to react .

 

[Godfrey]

My son was recently caught doing an average of over 100 on a bike. Fortunately the police didn't mention his top speed in court. He got six points and a hefty fine as the cops commented that although his speed was excessive he was riding well and in control. Also, those being passed at high speed were not being crowded or filtered through and the dual carriageway was not busy. I would say he was very lucky. He didn't try to escape or be offensive when he was eventually caught up by the unmarked car.

The two car driving muppets concerned seemed pretty close for those kind of speeds

 

[E55BOF]

Stupidly close, I'd say. Two young males, both awash with testosterone and stupidity...

I'm sure they would both say that they consider themselves perfectly capable of driving safely at that sort of speed, but I rather doubt they are, particularly if some pootler pulls out into the right-hand lane without using his mirror, and in any event they're doing twice the legal limit, which should tell us all something.

I see they both received three-year driving bans. Good. I suspect that will hurt much more than either the fine or the CSO. I do wonder if they'll observe the bans, though...

 

[Deleted member 37751]

My son was recently caught doing an average of over 100 on a bike.

He must have been pedalling really fast.

 

[Scott_F]

They both received fairly substantial Community Service orders. I'm not sure whether it's still the case, but CS only used to be used in lieu of a custodial sentence, so anyone who thinks that its a soft option is mistaken: its a significant punishment.

Community Service (like so many aspects of our criminal justice system) is a joke.

There was an undercover documentary a couple of years ago that filmed a group of lads (it was all young men) as they went about their service.

Travelling time to and from the place where it was organised counted against their hours and they were supervised by a well-meaning but useless mumsie type who was clearly out of her depth and usually exasperated by their behaviour as they larked around and did almost no work.

One afternoon, their minibus got a puncture and during the 2 hours (??) it took to sort it out they lay on the grass smoking and chatting and whittling down their sentences.

On a more general level, many people who don't complete their sentence have it written off as it is deemed to be not worth the trouble of chasing them as long as most of the sentence has been completed.

So I'm afraid that it all too often it is a soft option - and our dreadful re-offending rates prove it.

 

[Giantvanman]

144mph is about 65 metres per second. They cover 65 metres or more than 300 feet every second.

A really switched on driver may react (see the hazard, identify it as such, decide what action to take and then take action) in one second.

Then there is the time it take for action to be done (brake, steer etc) which might take a lot more than one second..

With a large proportion of drivers doing manoeuvre, signal then mirror these days, the net result is an impact speed of at least 70mph (they are doing 144mph and that's supposing everyone else is doing 70 mph) if someone pulls out.

To anyone checking their mirror before moving out, it is likely those two will be specks in the distance. Therefor, it was a catastrophe in the making.

Just a thought.

 

[V12]

65M is about 215ft. Good point well made though.

 

[Giantvanman]

^^^^sorry. Ran out of digits.