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Godfrey BloomGodfrey Bloom says speeding "has nothing to do with accidents", considers standing for Westminster
Colourful European Parliament member Godfrey Bloom says speed has nothing to do with accidents, and Britain’s 30 million drivers are “the most oppressed group of people” in the country. He’s considering running for election to the UK Parliament as an MP for fringe pressure group the Drivers’ Union.
The former UKIP MEP now sits in Brussels as an independent. He left UKIP earlier this year after saying that a group of female party members who did not clean behind their fridges were “sluts”.
Now he is taking aim at the police and road safety charities for their emphasis on the role of speeding in road crashes.
He said: “Speed is not the offence. In law the offence is driving without due care and attention or reckless driving.
“Speeding on its own is meaningless. It has nothing to do with accidents.”
According to Department for Transport statistics, exceeding the speed limit was a factor in 194 fatal crashes in 2012, and a further 1,295 that resulted in serious injuries. A driver travelling too fast for the conditions was cited as a contributory factor in 183 fatal collisions.
Mr Bloom claims to have evidence that speed cameras are placed to raise revenue.
He said: “The police can set a trap for you and then they can intimidate you into taking one of their profit-making driving courses. I don’t know of anything else in the British constitution where the police can suspend prosecutions in exchange for money.”
And he doesn’t like the way road safety charities “make their points using the grieving mothers of road accident victims.
“You get these emotional women talking about how their child has been killed. But those people are killed because the driver wasn’t driving with due care and attention.”
As executive patron of the Drivers’ Union, Bloom has associated himself with an organisation whose founder, Keith Peat has claimed that road design “induces” drivers to speed, and who argues against 20 mph speed limits by claiming that “every 1 mph we slow road transport is about 2-3 billion a year from the economy.”
Unsurprisingly, then, Bloom also opposes 20mph speed limits, which he claims have made the streets less safe.
He said: “The extension of 20mph zones is actually causing more accidents.
“Pedestrians aren’t paying the same level of attention and, for drivers, it’s difficult to maintain a speed under 20mph. You have people looking at the dashboard, making sure the needle’s at 19mph, rather than the road.”
However, he said he had not yet decided to run for Parliament he was “just getting my feet under table” at the Drivers’ Union, but added: “I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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89 comments
Yes of course. They often are. Most dangerous driving is below the limits and so are accidents. It has nothing to do with the limit.
And his comment is just dumb as any advanced driver will tell you. The advanced driving mantra is simple. TTR = Time to React.
Another daft comment heard but years ago was when I asked a colleague who was driving me why they were driving so close to the vehicle in front. It was a question I thought would lead to a comment like "oh yeah sorry didn't realise, of course" and then a drop back to a sensible distance.
Instead I was treated to the most warped logic I have ever heard. "It's safer" said the culprit because if I hit a car I am close to it causes less damage than if there was more of a run up before the impact".
The person had a driving licence and as far as I know they are still alive and they are still out there.
Incorrect. We are ex police advanced drivers. 'Speeding' cannot cause anything.
Unless you can explain the physics of how by putting a number up and exceeding it something will happen.
The Police Advance drivers will tell you, that driving too fast for conditions, ability, the vehicle, the circumstances causes accidents. This is mostly below the limits and is an element of dangerous driving. Since dangerous driving happens at any speed, then clearly 'speeding', even if present, cannot be a factor.
It is this myth about 'speeding' that generates so much profit for the Speeding Industry. It's explained here. http://bit.ly/HaR59V
Who's the "we"? Are you more than one person? Please explain.
1993 called, it wants its web design back.
Farage must be doing his nut. UKIP is doing very well in the polls. Think how much better they would do if they could get this arse to shut up.
Ah, the old oppressed motoring community chestnut on whom a war of attrition is being fought! If they weren't breaking speed limits etc then they wouldn't be paying the consequences.
Could we have more cycling news, this place is becoming depressing lately and I don't want to have to stop frequenting until the new year and some actual cycling news appears.
Thanks.
+1
I'd like to read about ridiculously expensive bikes being ridden in unfeasibly warm weather through stunning scenery by people who are patently enjoying themselves.
I know there are bad things happening out there and the world is full of reactionary nutters but there is a limit to how often I wish to be reminded of these facts. Ditto helmet/hi-viz/ASL debates.
Hope the user feedback is welcome.
Won't be surprised to be shot down in flames of course by the more 'committed' members here present.
Keith Peat - The Dog Fingerer...
..
Speed may not be the direct cause of many accidents but it is a significant factor in almost all of them.
The faster a vehicle is travelling means that, when something unexpected occurs, the driver has correspondingly less time to take avoiding action and the impact forces will be greater.
Godfrey is "the gift that keeps on giving" for the media desperate to fill their pages or hours on-air each day.
Godfrey Bloom
Moonfaced Loon
Silverspoon fed Goon
Please depart,
expire,
quite soon.
I think he's right about this though.
"I don’t know of anything else in the British constitution where the police can suspend prosecutions in exchange for money".
We have a constitution?
We do have a constitution but not a codifide one like the Americans have.
Ours is made up of Statue law and legal precedent.
stop trolling us road.cc. Let the twit rot in obscurity as he deserves.
Another old white man who still wishes we were living in the 1970s. The world has moved on, Godfrey.
1870s. I hesitate to recommend this, contradicting my earlier post, but if you want to get a measure of the man then look for his performance on 'have I got news for you' recently. He's beyond satire really.
Careful with the old white man stuff, ? I'm headed that way myself. What would be said if you wrote, "Old black man" ?
I too am grading that way but it is the emphasis on the word 'another' which means it is not offensive or racist. Old Black men do not, with very rare exceptions, hold positions of power through an old boys network.
That being said, at least he is not an anodyne career politician. He has settled for being a dipstick.
Yes, whatever you do, don't use his name in the comments else he will get more internet traffic.
As for speed not causing accidents - yes they aren't accidents, often. If I decide to cross a road based on what I can see and reasonably expect to see enough of the road so I can cross safely and some idiots barrels along at say 40mph in a small 30mph road and knocks me down, speed clearly *is* the reason I couldn't get out of the way in time and they couldn't brake in time.
The specific road and weather conditions are a factor but one has to realise why certain speed limits are set for certain roads and why flouting them is an offence.
To an extent he does have a point, speed in itself doesn't cause accidents, but speed does make accidents worse. Driving fast and paying attention is safer than driving slow and not paying attention.
However speed differentials, the attitude that accompanies some drivers, i am good i can drive fast safely, etc does lead to complacency and hence to accidents.
Is he a muppet, bit harsh on muppets if you ask me.
Drivers being hard done by, well as there is no right to drive... Everyone who has a driving licence knows the rules when you get one, if you don't like them don't get a licence, if you get caught breaking the rules, unless you had a GOOD reason, tough.
Godfrey?
Agree. Don't give him the oxygen of publicity. If everyone ignores him hopefully he'll crawl off back under his rock the odious little man
Why does he exist? Why?...
More importantly why give this toolbag any more air-time?
This misogynist cannot back up a single one of his feeble and flimsy petrol-fume induced arguments. I hope he loses his deposit, for all our sakes.
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