[Busman747]

Thursday Afternoon, November 2nd, 2006 -

On the B6254 between the villages of Arkholme and Over Kellet near Lancaster. Mr. Peter Williams 67 and his wife Jean were driving to Yorkshire for a long weekend break in their V.W.Touran. As they approached a bend in the road, a police car hit them head-on. - - - - - Peter died, Jean is still in hospital.............

That same afternoon, someone in authority decided that a new piece of equipment (VASCAR) just fitted to a police car needed testing. This equipment records the speed of the vehicle in front of it for court purposes, so they sent out two cars, the one behind having the VASCAR fitted and they tested it on a B-Road that had a reputation for accidents due to the bends and undulations on the road which made it difficult to spot oncoming traffic......That road was the B6254 and the lead police car was the one that hit Peter Williams car head-on

The police officer suffered internal bruising . . and I am sure that Lancs Police Force are lamenting the destruction of a perfectly good cop car . . . BUT WHAT THE F*** WERE THEY DOING ON A DANGEROUS ROAD LIKE THAT????

They were close to the M6 and at that time of the day, could easily and safely test this equipment up to 100mph or more. If they travelled in the early hours of the morning. they could drive to speeds in excess of 130mph without endangering life.

This story made page 17 in a national newspaper, it should have been near Page 1. The officer involved has been suspended from duty until an independant inquiry has been completed and he will surely be the scapegoat after the report ......

but what about the other (2nd car) driver?

what about the officer that instructed them both to go out and test said equipment?

Should management have laid down commonsense rules regarding high speed testing of vehicles and equipment?

If not, should Government be ultimately responsible for not legislating illegal speeding of police vehicles without parameters?

In short, what gormless berk sent out two police cars to speed on narrow lanes which ultimately ended the life of Peter Williams?

He leaves two sons. one, a Methodist Minister, and they are quoted as saying:

"While we are attempting to cope with the loss of Peter, we would also wish to express our concern for the police officers involved in the accident.
We recognise that police driving training on public roads is necessary and can never be risk-free. However, we would hope that the results of the investigation would reduce the likelihood of such an event re-occurring.".....


I would like to know the outcome of this sad event, but like so many other stories, it is unlikely to make the papers as so often is the case, the result is not so newsworthy as the original story!

As a footnote, I would just like to make the comment that this "accident" occurred through the testing of a speed camera, yet nowhere in the papers report does it say the speed of the police car at the time of the accident!
Could this be yet another strangly disappearing tape/cd/software? I am sure that if the papers were given the info, they would have printed it