Chip

BBC NEWS | Wales | 'Boy racer' head teacher jailed

Anyone on here know this clown.

Chip

bluenose172

iTrader: (2)

No, completely reckless, there's a time and a place, busy roads on a wet and windy day isn't the time or the place! I do, however, want one of those instant speed guns the woman had to be able to say he was doing 120mph!

Andy-C

I agree the bloke was a complete idiot, but the statement made by the judge made my blood boil
Quote
"I believe the car and its decoration gives a clue to your real character and sheds light on why you drove it as you did on the day of the accident," said Judge Hopkins.


The judge concluded that as the car had stickers on it, it was obviously owned by a 'boy racer'.

I thought judges were meant to be impartial and not have an 'opinion' but to just look at the facts of each case independantly.

This guy may have been a rally fanatic who wanted a 'rally slag' looking car, but would only drive it to the speed limits, and the judge shouldn't have taken the looks of the car into the arguement, all IMHO of course.

The bloke could have been just as bad driving a saxo or range rover at '120 MPH'.

a_fisher

I see people like this all the time on my daily commute , people pass me on the M5 doing stupid speeds and when it rains... they continue.

Whats worse is that it seems like the innocent party is always the one that comes of worse! 3 big accidents in one day near me recently, at least two deaths and the impatient pr1cks that cause the accident walk out without a scratch. Even worse in one case... they just drove off!!!

Snazy

Andy, his attitude has wound me up too. Another old wrinkly with a wig on, without a clue.

Once again the entire car enthusiast community is marks by the actions of a wreckless idiot.
God help us if the Eastenders plot was true too.

We would be a bunch of infantile, wreckless rapists!

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I think thats worth organising a letter of complaint, that the Subaru community supports punishing those that drive inappropriately given the conditions; but, with all due respect, your honour, we think your a ****.

Or something similar..

dantastic

head on at 120 mph i don't think so, if the poor sod he hit was doing say 40 mph for (arguments sake) that's an impact speed of 170 mph how the **** can anyone come out of that alive. and as for the **** in the scooby let's hope they keep him off the road for a long time, the road's will be a much safer place without aholes like him. not all scooby owners are dangerous drivers it's just the odd few who give us all a bad name Dan.

superstar1

Aggreed, that's stereotyping at its worse, the judge also concluded that other clues to this persons true character was the fact that the car had a factory fitted performance package (PPP).
So most of us on here have just been tagged as recless boy racer types out to injure or kill other inocent road users.
If we were to use the same stereotypical principals i think we cold asume that all judges are sexual deviants with a dressing up fetish who appear in the News of the World every other Sunday.

little rick

Just what I was thinking

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Morning Lads,
I think you have to take a wider view on this case, YES the guy had a Subaru with Rally decorations on it, BUT that does not mean that every Subaru owner with the livery on it drives like this idiot, and he certainly didn't give a toss about anybody else on the road, because he certainly would not have been traveling at high speeds in bad weather (120 mph claimed) if he did, also the Police claim they did not do their job properly, does this mean at the scene or after the accident? What you have to look at is this poor bloke may spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair where as the driver will be out of jail and living a normal life in 7 months time, being in an accident in a very simular position, for the life of me I cannot see why the guy did not get a longer ban and prison sentance, and as for being a member of the Subaru community do we really want someone like this giving our cars an even worse name, As far as I'm concerned people like him should be locked up and never be able to drive again (flame suit on)
Cheers
Colin

prodrive SL

It makes me really annoyed that a judge, who is supposed to be completely impartial, and should make statement on fact, not feeling, can make a statement like that.

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Dantastic,
When i had my accident a drunk driver hit me head on at over 100mph and with my speed of 60mph a comnbind speed of 160mph+ I was trapped in the wreckage for over 3 hours and unknown to me I was slowly dying thanks to the skill of the paramedics and doctors on scene I'm alive to tell the tale although my injuries were very serious, the traffic police who attended my accident thought I was dead, but i don't lay down and die that easy, this is why I get very angry at drivers like this, Oh and the other thing the guy that hit me was drunk too and he over took 3 cars on a blind bend hitting me head on coming the other way
Cheers
Colin

Chip

Col

What happened to the guy who hit you. Was he jailed?

Chip

martyrobertsdj

iTrader: (1)

Now look.....as you well know, we are all mid-lifers, hanging on to the last vestiges of boy racerhood! We are all having our own little mid-life crices and the Impreza is one way we can do this.

It gives us a feeling of enormous well-being and we all love nothing better than to show the young-uns a thing or two when it comes to owning the road.......young man!!

Either that, or we are just boy-racers!!

Seriously though......dick head driving results in yet another life-destroying result. Only slight consolation is that he did get a jail sentence. I'm sure there are times when we have all gone abit too quick for the prevailing conditions, but it was probably when we were younger.

I for one have a greater self-preservation instinct nowadays and I can think of nothing worse than killing or seriously injuring someone in an accident, and have myself walk away from it scratch free.

Shark Man

He's quite right though. As most "decoarted" Imprezas are notably driven poorly at best...and thats me toning down my opinion.

Yesturday, there I was minding my own business overtaking slower traffic on the Halesown By-pass when a Silver Butt sniffer with light ablaze latches onto my ****, like a fly to a turd. I bet if I wasn't driving such a provactative car he wouldn't be up my **** like I was a rent boy.

Liveried and chavved up newage Scoob, driven by an older 30-something driver. Who then proceeds to drive down 40mph streches at 60mph.

All the gear...no idea. Bit sad really.

Time and place, and thats a track day...sorts the men from the boys

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Now this is the bit that really hurts, he got a £275 fine £125 court costs and a 15 month drivng ban, and I have trouble somedays walking, I wanted to punch that judge so hard it was so unbeliable, and the traffic copper who looked after me (decent bloke BTW) said I would be the one behind bars if I did, the law in this country is a joke
Cheers
Colin

scoobynutta555

2 points

I agree with the judge, he's got it spot on about his conclusions of the driver based on the car and how it looked.

Why have the BBC given the speed in kilometers after the mph figure?

little rick

Yet on a forum filled with people who own similar cars we're complaining about how stupid he was and how we don't want to be viewed in the same way as most of us are sensible enough to know there's a time and place

martyrobertsdj

iTrader: (1)

I believe we have a few Devil's Advocates on here.

I also find it hard to believe that every person that owns a 320bhp (and more) Subaru Impreza, always drives within the speed limits, except for when they go to separate the men from the boys at trackdays.

It's very easy to sit and criticize the actions of others, but sometimes we need to look at our own actions too.

I always stick to speed limits in towns, villages and built up areas, but on the open road, I sometimes go a bit quicker......time and place, etc. This doesn't make me a boy-racer, nor a danger on the roads. I use my experience and judgement to make an educated decision as to whether it's safe or not. There's ALWAYS the chance of an accident for all of us, no matter of the time, place, speed, or conditions......who knows when a deer may jump out on that quiet, winding country road that you know oh so well??

However........All that said.....120mph (if that's what he was doing) is a bit quick for poor weather conditions innit??

dantastic

know how you feel colin had bad one myself 3 years ago and the guilty party got away scott free without even going to court. it has changed the way i drive it has slowed me down a bit which is no bad thing Dan.

DaveD

iTrader: (2)

The man was driving in an inappropriate way for the conditions.

If it's wet, on an A road you have to make allowances for the possibility of standing water, as well as the reduced visibility, etc. This guy obviously didn't consider any of that and carried on his normal way, regardless - he is deserving of his sentance in that respect.

However, what makes me angry about that report is the witness stating that he was doing 120mph. How could she possibly know he was going that fast? I recall seeing a programme a few weeks ago on the TV where a traffic officer stated that a witness had told him a car had been doing around 100mph, but the officer said that witness speeds were notoriously unreliable. So how could this figure be used as evidence? I'm not saying that he wasn't using inappropriate speed and breaking the speed limit (possibly by some margin), but I find it hard to believe that he would have been doing this speed in the dry, let alone in 'wet and windy' conditions.

The fact that this quoted speed seems to have been used as part of the prosecution case is worrying. Say you overtake a car doing 40mph in a nat limit, and a few miles down the road you are involved in an accident through no fault of your own while doing 60-odd mph. What if the person you overtook later said, "he must have overtaken me doing at least 100mph!"?

Indeed, look at this thread and see how many people have said this guy was wreckless for doing 120mph!

Sonic'

I am not going to condone for one minute this guy, his driving or the accident

But how the hell can a motorist in a car, in poor road & weather conditions doing whatever speed (how do we know how fast she was going) can detect that the Subaru was doing at least 120mph (200kph added for dramatic effect like the BBC did) as he overtook her

The guy was a complete bell end for driving as he did (he clearly was speeding for the overtaking manouvres) and to cause the accident that he did

I think there possibly has been some over dramatisation of the events, 'the engine and gearbox shot out the car like a missile and hit another car'

I dont remember reading anywhere that his car was stickered up, but I can only assume that it was by the words decoration used

This story and the one from last sunday whereby 11 subaru drivers where followed by Police Helipctopter and stopped just passed bangor and all warned for the driving, after numerous 999 calls to complain about them

My guess is those 11 where on their way back from Scooby Shootout or some other subaru related motorsport event that day

Just shows some people let the performance etc go to their head

dantastic

as you rightly say m8 the only way she could judge his speed and be within 20 mph of it would be to be doing within 20 mph ot herself which would make her a dangerous driver in those conditions.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Ditto what the two above have said.

The driver got off lightly, is an utter ****, ect ect ect... - not because he was speeding - but because of his inappropriate use of speed given the conditions of the road.

The fact that some girl said "oooh, he must of been going 120mph" is an utter joke. How anything like that can be said in court - being nothing other than utter speculation, amazes me. If she said - "I was doing ##mph, and he passed me very quickly" or similar then fine - but random guesswork as to his speed is not for a Court of Law, she is not an expert witness, she is not an accident investigator. What she said was total speculation, and if I was the defence solicitor I'd want that struck off the record. (RAR! I watch far too much Crime&Punishment.. )

No one here is defending the guy - he got off lightly in my mind for screwing someones life up by driving like an utter **** in terrible weather conditions and what sounds like fairly heavy traffic.

That said - the comment about his choice in car by the judge is also wrong, and the judge should have had more sense than to say it (but we know the judicary in this country is off its head on smack.. I can't believe they're that detached from reality without the use of class A drugs). Those sorts of comments will be the ammunition that the Greens and "Road Safety" groups will use against us to get the performance cars (and by that I mean ANY performance car, not just Imprezas) banned from the road.

I see drivers with horrifically bad judgement every week driving all manner of vehicles. It is certainly not the sole domain of the Impreza.

As an aside - when you compare his punishment to those of your average joy-rider who causes death by dangerous driving.. his punishment seems very severe.

Jonno_johnson

Totally offtopic but your not the Dj Marty from the venue are you ? If so ive got a stack of venue tapes with you, Roppa, Lee Foster, Charlie etc etc.

riiidaa

iTrader: (2)

The guilty party was sent down for 7 1/2 month sentence, should have been 7 years if you think about what he's done to that other driver.

Oh and my car is stickered up, so my opinion must go against the grain in that judge's eyes.

hades

To play at devil's advocate / TV court lawyer etc - what do we actually know? The guy was driving an Impreza, probably heavily stickered up. The weather was bad. One witness claims he was dong 120mph but has absolutely no substantiation to that fact at all. He lost control on a corner and severely injured an innocent party.

Who here has in the past overtaken someone when it's raining, going a bit over the spped limit when overtaking? He could have then slowed to a brisk speed of around the limit to "have fun in the twisties", and just lost it on a diesel spill or something. In that report itself, there's only opinion and there's probably a lot of people on here who in someone else's opinion have driven too fast - everyone will have a slightly different opinion of what is an "appropriate speed for the conditions". I'd be surprised if I wasn't one of them, despite a currently clean license, no significant prangs in over 16 years etc. If, god forbid, one of us accidentally caused the serious injury/death of someone we'd feel pretty terrible and a jail sentence would make little difference to that fact.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's almost certain that this bloke in this instance was driving horrendously dangerously and so caused the crash, and ruined the life of several innocents - at which stage he deserves punishment. however, we don't know all the facts to confirm that view.

Finally, I think the fact he apparently blew the family a kiss is possibly the most damning inditement - doesn't look like there's any remorse there. If he kills by driving dangerously and doesn't show remorse, I agree he should neve be allowed to drive again.

andythejock01wrx

Good post. Driver was a tit, but the comments of the judge cause concern !

andythejock01wrx

I think this argument would be reasonable on reading an initial report of an accident, but rememeber that all the facts available had been considered by a court after a Police investigation.

MrRA

He was the Headmaster of a school just around the corner from me. My mate knows him quite well as is daughter attends the school. Apparently you could not wish to meet a nicer person. Everyone local who I have spoken to about him as said the same about, that he is a genuinely nice guy. Not that that excuses what has happened and I am in no way defending him but the spot where he crashed is known for holding excessive amounts of water in the rain and this is not first time that there has been a crash there, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

As for members of the public saying he driving at 120mph, well, since when was guesstimation allowed by members of the public?