Police drivers to face speeding fine even during emergencies!
31 Aug 2008, 1827 Hrs

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London, Aug 31 (ANI): Brit police drivers will be slapped with fines for speeding even during emergencies, according to a new law.

The traffic safety laws will be applicable even to the officers who are on duty, and only drivers who have been trained for high speed driving will escape punishment.

The only downside to the change, which is due in October, is that it will cost the forces huge sums and could even lead to some officers being banned from driving, as per senior officers.

"Not everyone in patrol cars is trained to do high-speed driving at the moment," the Mirror quoted a police source, as saying.

"They are either going to have to pay to train up everyone who might use a police vehicle, or accept these speeding tickets and penalty points. It will pose all kind of problems, not least the admin required to identify who was behind the wheel and what level they were trained to," the source added.

It is not only the police who will be affected by the new rules, but also fire and ambulance services, though in the case of the police they will be worst hit as most officers do not have specialist training. In 2006 more than 900,000 police cars set off speed cameras but only 354 drivers got fines or points.

The new rules, drawn up in 2006, were designed to cut crashes involving police cars, but the impact of speed penalties was apparently not spotted.

"This is a huge issue. Forces have a major amount of work getting through the requirements of training officers," Inspector Alan Jones of the Police Federation said.

However, Jones insisted the new laws were in everyone's interest.

"What this does is set national standards that should be consistent across England and Wales. And that holds chief constables to account - which is a good thing," he added. (ANI)

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