Speed Camera News UK NEWSAMBULANCE DRIVER COULD LOSE JOB FOR SPEEDING TO SAVE A LIFE
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AMBULANCE DRIVER COULD LOSE JOB FOR SPEEDING TO SAVE A LIFE
Paul Bex was carrying a liver when he was flashed by a speed camera in Lincolnshire
Sunday August 29,2010
By Chloe Thomas AMBULANCE drivers risk being charged for speeding because of a legal loophole that means their role in transporting organs is not recognised.
Paul Bex was carrying a liver from Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, to the North East when he was flashed by a speed camera in Lincolnshire.
He was driving at 112mph after being told by a surgeon that the liver was needed within three hours on July 7.
Pictured right in his vehicle, Mr Bex, 51, from Cambridge, was sent a letter by police telling him he would be prosecuted for speeding. Despite an appeal by Lifeline, his employer, he will have to appear in court.
Anyone caught speeding at over 100 miles per hour faces a 12-month ban.
Mr Bex, who has an unblemished 34-year driving record, said: “If I am charged I will lose my licence, which means I will not be able to work.
“The idea of going to court is very upsetting when I haven’t done anything wrong. I was merely doing my job.”
Dave Cooper, operations manager at Lifeline, said: “All our drivers have been trained to drive to the same standard as the police. Although I am confident that the magistrates won’t charge him, I cannot be certain.”
The law defining an ambulance hasn’t been updated since 1946, despite the fact that organ transplants have been common since the 1960s and 2,500 are now carried out every year.
It still refers only to “the carriage of sick, injured or disabled people”. That means a vehicle used to relay organs cannot be registered as an ambulance.
Even though cars used for the purpose are fitted with flashing lights, they are not exempt from speed limits.
Don Williams, president of the Ambulance Association, the drivers’ union, said: “The law as it stands is making life impossible for our drivers.
“All it would take is the inclusion of six words in the definition of an ambulance – ie ‘and the transportation of human tissue’.”
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “We are currently reviewing whether the law needs to be changed.”
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