Worrying Rise In Police Crashes

The Daily Express exclusively reveals another worrying rise in Police road crash victims. Safe Speed says training standards are to blame.

Just 12 or 15 years ago, Police Class One drivers were the most highly trained drivers anywhere. The Police driver training establishment set standards that were the envy of the world. "Hendon trained" was a description that immediately demanded great respect in dozens of countries.

But someone decided that the high standards were "elitist". The "Class one" description was replaced with "Police Advanced" and standards began to decline. In the old Class One days is wasn't uncommon for 70% to fail the course. But now, at least in some areas, everyone passes. Standards are lower.

When Police driver training standards fall there are more crashes. When there are more crashes more people die. The response to rising crashes hasn't been to restore training standards, but to introduce restrictions on what Police drivers are allowed to do. Choices are made in control rooms, not on the ground. These changes may be for the better, but NOTHING can replace the skills and attitudes that the old system created.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign

(www.safespeed.org.uk) explains: "The present incumbents of the Home Office and the Department for Transport have no idea how important the Police driver training programme was to UK road safety. It's far more than just Police crashes, because the valuable best practice techniques from the Police driver training programme have been widely incorporated in many aspects of UK road safety culture. The effect is subtle, but very important."

Paul continues: "The golden combination of best practice advice from the police driver training establishment and excellent science from the likes of the Transport Research Laboratory gave us in the UK the safest roads in the world. (And that was well over a decade before we had speed cameras!)"

"The Police driver training establishment based at Hendon was the only centre of driving excellence in the world for at least 4 decades. It should come as no surprise that the only country with a centre of driving excellence earned the safest roads in the world."

"But Hendon is now just a shadow of its former self. The skills pool has been broken up. Safe Speed demands a most urgent return to former standards. Road safety depends upon it."