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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Motorist clocked at 82mph in 30mph zone; judge queries why he was only charged with speeding
A judge who banned a man for driving for two years after he was found driving at 82 miles per hour (mph) on a road with a speed limit of 30mph told him that sentencing guidelines did not cover cases in which a vehicle was driven so far above the speed limit. In remarks reminiscent of some of the issues hiighlighted by CTC's recently launched Road Justice campaign, she also queried why he had been charged with speeding instead of a more serious offence.
Telegraph.co.uk reports that district judge Miriam Shelvey, sitting at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, told the motorist, 39-year-old Piotr Dobrzycki: "I have been sitting in the magistrates court regularly since 1999, and I have never seen a defendant charged with doing 82 miles per hour in a 30 zone, and it is shocking."
Dobrzycki’s speed had been registered by a mobile speed detection van on 12 June 2012 as he drove his Audi S3 Quattro along Lower House Lane in the Liverpool suburb of West Derby.
The self-employed panel beater, a Polish national and representing himself through an interpreter, told the judge he had been struggling to cope with marital problems.
"I had personal issues with my estranged wife in Poland,” he explained. "She was not allowing me to contact my children, and I just got out of control with my emotions and they interfered with my driving."
After he was banned for driving for two years, Dobrzycki, who already had nine points on his driving licence, asked: “Can I ride a motorbike?”
Fining him £200 plus £35 costs and a victim surcharge of £15, Judge Shelvey said: "There are guidelines that the courts have in relation to speed, and when I retired to consider the issue I looked at those guidelines.
"They stopped at 60.
“I don't suppose it was contemplated by those who drafted them that a magistrates court would see a charge of speeding, as opposed to a more serious charge, at that speed.
“But the charge you face is a matter for the prosecution, not the judge."
Her apparent criticism of the level of offence with which Dobrzycki was charged echo one of the central themes of national cyclists’ organisation CTC’s Road Justice campaign, launched in June, with the charity pressing for a stricter approach to the investigation, prosecution and sentencing of cases related to bad driving.
Launching the campaign, CTC said: “Road casualties can and should be prevented, yet the justice system is failing to ensure safety on our roads by not taking road crime seriously.
“The police and coroners do not investigate road collisions thoroughly enough; the prosecution services make weak charging and prosecution decisions, and the courts issue sentences that do not adequately reflect the severity of crimes committed by bad drivers."
According to the Direct.gov website, the typical stopping distance at 30mph is 23 metres – 9 metres of that is described as ‘thinking distance,’ the remainder as ‘braking distance.’
Applying the same formula to a speed of 80mph, the distance is 120 metres – identical to the maximum permitted length of a football pitch – with 24 metres being thinking distance, plus 96 metres of braking distance.
Telegraph.co.uk notes that the previous highest recorded speed in a 30mph zone for which a prosecution was successfully brought was 68mph.
That related to an incident in March 2011 in which a van being driven by a British Transport Police officer who was responding to an emergency left the ground as it went over a humpback bridge in Hackney, hitting cyclist Joseph Belmonte, who spent nine days in an induced coma afterwards.
The driver, Police Constable David Lynch, was convicted of dangerous driving and received an eight-month suspended prison sentence. He was also told to undertake 240 hours of community service, ordered to pay £1,000 costs, and banned from driving for 15 months.
The circumstances of the cases differ, not least because of the personal injury element in the earlier one, and it may be that there were factors behind the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to charge Dobrzycki with speeding and not careless or dangerous driving.
However, the issue does underscore concerns raised by campaigners such as CTC regarding inconsistency in charging, prosecution and sentencing in driving-related cases.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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40 comments
Re "There are probably less than 10 cars on the market that couldn't do 82 mph."
I suppose the cars I can think of are no longer on the market so don't count. I remember being effectively limited to a very noisy 60mph in my first car. It made driving up the M1 quite a slow experience, especially as back then the service stations had pinball machines which I liked to play.
It's scary to think that ANYONE can get into ANY car at ANY time in their life having never had more than one test. I used to work in a chemical laboratory and the tests, H&S etc that we had to go through every year to even push a trolley carrying chemicals never mind drive things like forklifts.
Yet anyone can get into cars capable of twice the speed limit having last been assessed 40+ years ago. It genuinely beggars belief.
At least in this case there's been a reasonable punishment in terms of a ban - whether or not he abides by it is another thing...
I'm with you there, both on testing and enforcement. Far too many illegal drivers on the road. Another point is new technology in cars. How many drivers have been trained in using GPS, car phones or cruse control? I certainly haven't and use all three reguarly. Bit off-topic I know.
Which is why there should be a campaign to introduce biannual re-testing with compulsory 5 years medicals and annual eye tests.
Easy enough to enforce by getting insurance companies to raise premiums by 50% then offer a 50% reduction to those that provide the relevant certification.
I'm totally against this sort of thing. The insurance companies already run an absolute racket and take the back out. This would just give them further excuse to ramp the prices up further and further.
I'm agreed on retesting, but again, I wouldn't want this to turn in to yet another revenue stream from the Government/DivvyLA like the photo card stealth tax nonsense they snuck in.
"Can I ride my motor bike?" - priceless
[[[[[[ This Polish chap with marital hiccups---I'm surprised he didn't put forward the excuse that he was drunk at the time....
P.R.
[[[[[[ This Polish chap with marital hiccups---I'm surprised he didn't put forward the excuse that he was drunk at the time....
P.R.
Ridiculous. Also, surely it would be appropriate for some sort of restriction on power for individuals like this? An Audi s3 Quattro is close to 300bhp.
+1
A 50bhp limit following re-test would be good!
A bit off-topic but there's also a strong argument for better clasification and licencing of performance vehicles. Its scary to think that a newly qualified driver can jump right into a car like this with no further training.
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