Opinion's wanted

[kevinbythesea]

There was a story about a doctor that got stopped and ticketed for speeding on the way to the hospital in Toronto. Apparently the doctor was a heart specialist who was on call at the time and was needed at the hospital to perform an operation. He explained this to the policeman that stopped him but was given a ticket anyway. He was doing 75-80 in a 40 km residential area around noon on a Saturday. Strangely the majority of the callers to the show think the cop was wrong to ticket him after he had explained his reason for speeding. There was no explanation as to how busy the roads were but it is safe to assume that at noon on a Saturday it would be quite busy.

Question:  Do you think that he was right to speed and possibly hurt someone in order to get to the hospital faster?

Should the officer have given the ticket after being told why the doctor was speeding?

By the way the doctor performed the operation when he got to the hospital and the patient survived.

[Gerry]

I think that it would all depend on how the doctor was driving (apart from speeding)

If there were a lot of cars on the road at Noon on Saturday then he wouldn’t be able to go at double the speed limit unless the other cars were also doing the same speed, or, he would be weaving in and out of the traffic and in that case he would have been driving dangerously and should have been charged with ‘Dangerous Driving’

Emergency Vehicles speed all the time and aren’t booked for speeding but they do it in a safe manner.  If the doctor could prove that he was driving to a ‘Mission of Mercy’ and he was driving in a safe manner, then I think the charge of speeding should have been quashed.

The Police have to make a decision on ‘Common Sense’ because nothing can be judged as ‘Black and White’ or we all would charged with some sort of offence (especially speeding) several times a day 

[kevinbythesea]

Your points are well taken Gerry and if I am interpreting them correctly you think that it was OK for him to speed.
You mention emergency vehicles that speed quite often but they not only have lights and siren going but I am pretty sure that the drivers have been through some sort of advanced defensive driving course, at least they do over here.
Although in this case the doctor was really on his way to an emergency operation if all they have to do when caught speeding is claim that they are on a mercy mission and get let off - is this safe or fair?
Are doctors a special breed that somehow because of their profession do not have to follow the same rules (and consequences) as us mere mortals?

Was it worth putting other people at risk? It was a residential area so presumably there were kids around and while I don't know the area in which he was traveling it seems to me that if the speed limit was 40 kmh there must be a reason as on most streets the speed limit is 50 kmh.

[Gerry]

I can't disagree with the safety factor Kevin as that is paramount but we have 40Klm zones in our area, which should never have been, and they're extremely rarely adhered to.

Maybe doctors should be given lights and sirens for use in emergencies? And if they abuse their use the penalties should be doubled? One injury or death would blow that idea out of the water though

I think it all boils down to responsibility and on that, there would be many differences of opinion

[dreamer]

dont doctors carry a green light that goes on top of their vehicle like an emergency thing,. was the doctor right or wrong if i was the patient or his/her family I would obviously say he was right. If I was on the road and he endangered me or mine I would have to say  no he was wrong.
Surely after the policeman heard his story, if it was true, then I would have thought that the policeman would have given him a police escort to get him there quicker but safer.

[Billie]

I think it all comes down to perspective like dreamer was saying, unkess I misinterpreted. that, depending on your situation in this circumstance you the driver would feel wronged and indangered maybe even angry at the thought that others get special privilages because of their job or statuse, then again you the patuent or relative of said patient would feel that the ticket was unjustified when the doctor was in a 'race for life and death'.
which brings in to queestion the value of one life for another...

[Gerry]

I agree Billie, it's a hard topic to debate for whichever person's view you look at you're damned if you do and damned if you don't

[kevinbythesea]

dreamer, On the chat show they said that the police in Toronto no longer give police escorts that exceed the speed limit due to liability issues.

Giving doctors a light of some sort would kind of elevate them above the average person but might be a good idea if they had to take an advanced driving course first and as you say would be fined at a higher level if they abused it's use. Trouble is to catch them abusing it they would need to be stopped and questioned resulting in the same sort of delay that this particular doctor was.

[PaigntonPearl]

I don't think doctors have the right to break the law just because they are going to an emergency.  Obviously, the ideal situation is to have a police escort.  But doctors are human like the rest of us, and I think it would be bad practice to allow them to speed even if the situation seems dire.  If they hit someone, particularly a child, then there will be two deaths rather than the one that might or might not occur because of the doctor's delay in arriving.  Anyway, given modern medicine, it seems unlikely that the arrival of a doctor is so critical that the patient cannot be stabilized for a sufficient amount of time to allow the doctor to get there at a reasonable speed.

Of course, if it was someone that was special to me, I would be screaming for the immediate presence of the necessary doctor!!!

[Woodstock]

Surely 1 question that should be asked is, Why did the hospital not have enough staff actually at the hospital to deal with this situation therefore negating the need for a doctor to speed to the hospital in the first place

[Gerry]

I still think the police should have used their 'Common Sense'

If the doctor was driving dangerously, then he deserved to be booked, but if not, the police should have given him an escort to the hospital

[PaigntonPearl]

Surely 1 question that should be asked is, Why did the hospital not have enough staff actually at the hospital to deal with this situation therefore negating the need for a doctor to speed to the hospital in the first place

It's pretty unusual for hospitals to have specialists on premises at all times so this doctor was on call.  This is a normal situation as far as I am aware.  Even major London hospitals don't have specialists on the premises 24/7.  They are on call in case they are needed.  Doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

[Gerry]

  Doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

What doesn't seem unreasonable? The doctor being booked or the doctor speeding?

[PaigntonPearl]

Neither.  The fact that the cardiac specialist was on call rather than on premises.

[Gerry]

Neither.  The fact that the cardiac specialist was on call rather than on premises.

But the fact is that by saying that doesn't tell us anything about whether or not you think it was right or not that he was booked for speeding

[jarvis36]

Personally, I don't think it is right for the doctor to be speeding. If it was that important for him to get to the hospital in an emergency situation, he should be given advanced training and a light to put on his car or they should have sent a courier or police car to pick him up

[99]

well it comes down to the fact the only people allowed to break the speed limit are those with Blue lights. And even then only when it really needs it.
The doctor is no different to the rest of us.

[Gerry]

I agree with the blue light for people likely to need them for emergencies but I still think the police need to have discretionary powers and a little bit of common sense.

In an extreme case, would you think twice about speeding to a hospital should one of your loved ones need urgent medical treatment? I know I'd be willing to take risks if it were me.

There are many things we would do in an emergency that we wouldn't do if we had time to sit down and think about it.  That's 'Human Nature'

[99]

i would break the limit, but I would do so not worrying about a ticket

[Gerry]

i would break the limit, but I would do so not worrying about a ticket

I think we'd all do that but if I were the policeman, I would definitely take the circumstances into consideration

[99]

some police do, I know of one instance where an officer let of someone rushing to a home. was around 15mph over the limit. and they were let off with  a warning

[PaigntonPearl]

Yes, I agree with that.  As soon as the doctor identifies himself to the policeman, he should be warned against dangerous driving and let go as soon as possible.  It also might be a good idea to allow an on-call specialist to have a blue light, just as long as the doctor was required to attend a course in speed driving before he got it and it was done through the hospital, not just the individual doctors.

[Gerry]

I totally agree with those comments PP.  Unfortunately there's always someone who abuses the system and spoils it for the genuine cases