Widow’s Speed Plea

‘Cameras are not a game – motorists need to slow down’

 

By Ben Funning

A WIDOW whose husband was killed by a speeding motorist on the Windsor Road at Bray has called for drivers to stop treating speed cameras as a game and observe the limits.

Speaking on the second anniversary of her husband’s death this weekend, Jo Taylor, of St Mark’s Crescent, Maidenhead, said drivers should stop criticising speed cameras because they were saving lives, and were not there simply to raise money for councils.

Her husband Phillip, 33, was killed on July 26, 2001,

when his car was in a head-on collision with a driver travelling at 105mph on the wrong side of the road.

 

So just your typical camera tax bait doing 40 on an empty 30mph dual carriageway then?

Nope:

 

The driver was cleared of death by dangerous driving in July last year

because he was in a diabetic trance

 

Mind you, he wasn't the only fatality on the road, hence justifying speed cameras:

 

“I did not have to fight the council for speed cameras, they saw sense, especially after two young people died on Braywick Road last year. That meant there had been three deaths in a three-mile stretch of road.”

 

Presumably she means these two:

 

Two Killed As Car Crashes Into House

Driver and passenger die in horror smash

24 May 02

 

EYEWITNESSES have spoken of their horror at the devastation on the Braywick Road after a crash which killed a young Maidenhead man and his friend.

Driver Rafiqur Rahman, 23, of Norfolk Road, and passenger Iram Dad, also 23, from Slough, both died when the Honda Accord they were in left the road and smashed into.......

 

Not another car, not a lampost, not a garden wall, but a:

 

...house, Ashley Cottage, suffered such severe structural damage that part of it had to be demolished....

.....The car was completely smashed [back] in the middle of the road and the building was collapsing.

"...It was so badly smashed it looked like the engine was in the rear of the car...."

 

Yet another bank manager, vicar, or district nurse creeping over 35 on a safe, clear downhill stretch then.

And she thinks that speed cameras are going to stop these kind of accidents.

I hope she doesn't drive.

Whatever she is on!

From:

Maidenhead Advertiser

 

My emphasis.

Reminds me of an accident a colleague was in, which he miraculously survived with only a broken arm, despite them taking an hour and a half to cut him out of what was left of his car.

He was hit by a car that came round a bend on the wrong side of the road.

And the driver had his foot jammed down to the floor.

Mind you, the other guy had a miraculous escape too:

He was already dead before he reached the bend apparently.

 

So that'll be another one to put down to Speed Kills! then?!

 

Another typical case the cameras can cure:

Dad Blasts Hit-Run Driver

Jul 25 2003

Liverpool Echo

...driven straight through a red light before mowing down the three-year-old....

....driving while disqualied....

......"The vehicle accelerated over Liam and drove away from the scene at a fast speed...

........had more than 18 convictions for motoring offences and had served a four-month prison sentence this year for driving while disqualified....

From:

Liverpool Echo

 

My emphasis