Road ban for YouTube man
Thursday 23rd April 2009, 2:11PM BST.
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An 18-year-old man was today banned from driving after video footage of him “showing off” at high speeds and taking his hands off the steering wheel while driving on Shropshire’s busiest roads was posted on YouTube.
Michael James Hughes, of Falcons Court, Much Wenlock, handed himself in to police after the Shropshire Star published images of him driving between Shrewsbury and Telford in January.
Please be aware that the video contains strong language
The YouTube video showed Hughes driving from the Column area of Shrewsbury to Tesco in Telford in just 10 minutes.
Shrewsbury magistrates today heard Hughes was seen to take his hands off the wheel to change a CD in London Road and his speedometer showed speeds of more than 100 mph on the A5 at Emstrey and the M54 at Junction Six.
Hughes, who works for car dealership Inchcape in Shrewsbury, was banned for 28 days and ordered to pay £225 after he admitted careless driving between September 1 and September 30.
Phil Mason, prosecuting, said it was an “unusual” case. He said: “Mr Hughes was caught because of the modern age. His friend had made a video of his driving and it had been downloaded onto YouTube where it was for public consideration.
“On London Road, Mr Hughes is seen to remove his hands from the steering wheel to select CDs. One might call it showing off.”
Mr Mason said it could not be known how accurate the vehicle’s speedometer was but police tests found the maximum speed of the car was 96mph and the driving was definitely in excess of the speed limit.
Stephen Scully, for Hughes, said: “It is an offence of the modern age – now you have trial by YouTube and the Press. He accepts what he did on this occasion was wrong. I would describe it as youthful immaturity.”
Mr Scully said Hughes could face losing his job as a result of the ban. He said: “He has suffered great embarrassment as a result of this.”
By Rebecca Lawrence
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have all the other drivers who passed him at speed or drove dangerously been dealt with as well?
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While I do not condone this sort of driving behaviour and agree to the sentence, it is a shame that the driver of the 4×4 which he was following at 100mph or the BMW that went flying past him at those speeds could not also be caught and suffer a similar punishment.
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The reason they wouldn’t be able to prosecute the others is the footage is probably of not sufficient quality to measure time against the comparatively short distances, however it does not preclude police from having a word in their shell like.
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Great move by the courts and police, now then what about that Policeman who was “trying out” the super fast car on the M54 a few years back, not responding to an emergency or such like but happy to use the Motorway as a speed track clocking if i recall 135mph.
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well said jeff and john i came on to say the very same thing,and he did nothing different then anyone else at 18 years old or even older.
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Banned from driving for a whole 28 days & fined an enormous £225 for putting every single person along this idiots reckless route on the line?
It is difficult to believe that this moron will be back behind a steering wheel in a months time.
And will Inchcape do the honourable thing in order to retain its credibility and sack him?
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Completely agree with Xhristo. What a joke of a sentence. How is that going to put others off? There is a joker near me drives like a cretin and has a car covered in dents. He must be on every CCTV in the county. Why isn’t he stopped? Why have a driving test if once you can drive you don’t have to play by the rules!?
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He followed far too closely on occasion especially when trying the harras the 4×4, and steering with his knees was just stupid. I don’t think his speed down the A5 and M54 put anybody at risk but the level of fine and ban as a result of getting caught is about right.
He deserves everything he got because of his choice of music however ;)
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If Inchcape sack him, I won’t buy another car from them. A minor motoring misdemeanour doesn’t reflect on his professional life. I have no idea what he does at the dealership, but it wouldn’t deter me from using his services.
Only today I have been driving the Hard Knott Pass and Wrynose Pass in Cumbria (steepest roads in Britain) and took a dash mounted in car video of it.
However I won’t be posting it in U-tube even though I probably did not exceed the National Speed Limit that applies.
I can relate to his enthusiasm, if not over exhuberance, but this has been dealt with by the appropriate authorities and I am sure that the dealer in question will harness this lads enthusiasm and energy towards making a significant contribution to their organisation.
Walt Disney was expelled for taking a mouse into school – his exhuberance was channeled rather well I think or do people think we should never watch a Mickey Mouse cartoon because he made a mistake with a mouse once?
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Xhristo why should he lose his job,he didn’t disclose who his employers were, it is just a filler from the reporter, it is completely irrelevent. Likewise there’s loads of people out there also who have achieved fame at the expense of other peoples efforts and ideas,should they lose their jobs too?
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Personally, I would feel safer being in a car with him than some of the other morons that I see on the roads daily!
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Is that all, it should have been a longer ban and higher fine. He got away easily.
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The only thing he did wrong there was to drive with his knees whilst changing a CD.
the speed differential between him and some of the other cars was nothing special, especially considering some were travelling at the same speed or faster.
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the only thing he did wrong was get himself on u tube. doh. good job he didn’t take my family out really, else he’d probably be up for manslaughter.
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The speed shown in the video doesnt look particularly dangerous to me, loads of people drive at those speeds on motorways and dual carriageways, he just needs to leave bigger gaps between him and the vehicle in front.
The government has just brainwashed everyone into thinking speeding is bad, when its the poor driver training and much too easy driving test which should be addressed, even re-test drivers every few years would improve safety massively.
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Agreed Brian.
I remember watching the video clip in question, and his lane discipline and forward awareness far exceeded that of most drivers I see every day driving 20,000+ miles per year on urban roads, B roads, A roads, and motorways.
This lad’s only crime was to expose himself to a journalist who a) happened upon this video on the ‘tube during a lunch hour b) thought outright speed was was more important than driving skills and c) thought it would be a good story. D) – of course – was the fact that the lad got a ban, probably lost his job, will endure huge insurance bills for years to come.
And all because some lazy “journalist” saw it fit to publish and subsequently demonise a driver doing something that most drivers have done at some point in their driving career.
Moderate this post as you wish, as I’ll post it in its entirety on an open discussion forum.
Ta.
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Thank you for the words of support for Mike but to the others. . you don’t know him. .the story behind him doing this . . his total remorse, shame and upset over this incident. One stupid act by a very kind funny friendly shy nice ordinary boy. You have no idea of his ability at work or how much his career may suffered because of this one act of madness. He didn’t hurt anyone so step down of your moral high ground and look in the mirror are you really so perfect law abiding people yourselves! I think the saying is “those with out sin should cast the first stone!” We will be proud to work with him tomorrow would your work collegues say that about you!
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well just goes to prove you can drive at 100 mph without it being a real danger.
Hardly much traffic on the road and 4×4 was the real villain of the piece.
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To Mike’s work mates, i agree he shouldn’t lose his job, that solves nothing, but this could be a different story if he had crashed at that speed. I really hope he has changed his driving habits and slowed down. He’s better off living with the shame of being caught driving at speed than having killed someone. And he did have the decency to turn himself in.
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A bit close to the car in front at times and of course not holding the wheel is a bit silly, but his driving in general wan’t too bad. A ticking off and an explanation of how his driving could be improved would be more suitable, not an hysterical ban. Too much hysteria these days.
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Xhristo must live in a dream world. most people drive like this from time to time, especially 18yo’s.
does everyone deserve bans/fines like this or worse every few months?
wake up!
might not seem like much but can lose you your job/house.
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If he had been on the German Autobahn, he would have been one of the slowest cars there, in some places and the traffic would have been a lot heavier too. The Germans don’t get hysterical of speeds over 70MPH, why should we?
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Jane, you seem to live in a world full of “IFs”. The fact is he didn’t crash at that speed or any speed, he also didn’t do a lot of other things but IF he had done then you could castigate him for it just as “IF” you were to crash or kill someone.
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Well I am sure that Mike’s employer will take legal advice which will tell them that Mike has not brought the firm’s name into disrepute.
In fact quite the opposite, he made a foolish mistake but recognised his error and admitted his mistake at the earliest opportunity.
Now I have experienced garages who make mistakes but lie after lie rather than admit it. If a garage is going to make a mistake on my car, I’d like it to be Mike – at least it would be sorted properly.
From the comments of his driving, it would seem that all the reasoned comments infact support Mike.
Overall, Mike seems to be a credit to Inchcape, lets just hope the managers are likewise.
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cleensheets … How do you know the newspaper wasn’t tipped off by the police to bring this into the public domain where the idiot would have to hand himself in!?
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It seems a shame that most people commenting here do not value life sufficiently to be angry that laws made for good reason have been flouted.
He was wrong, other drivers in the video were wrong, the government is at last acknowledging the high price we pay as road users in deaths and serious injuries daily and is introducing lower speed limits at last.
You quote Germany but what about Canada who have much safer roads.
I feel sorry for him as he is young and foolish but at least he isn’t another young person road death that is being reported on.
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its “uploaded” onto youtube, not dowloaded. Also, the speeds didnt look that fast anyway really. A metro speedo at 100mph will have a massive error quotient so the sensationalist “speeds of over 100mph” bit is probably fatuous. I very much doubt his metro can even do 100mph ad lets face it 96 on a motorway isnt particularly fast, unless youre a granny or a hippy.
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Having driven for nearly 45 years, and travelled well over 800,000+ miles and..
Also having driven many different types of vehicles, under many different conditions, and in many countries, I do feel qualified to comment:
ANYONE who travels frequently, especially those of us that cover large mileages daily will know that the speed of vehicles especially on Dual carriageways and motorways often exceeds the 70MPH limit by a “comfortable margin”, and that generally, the standard of driving by what I would call “the professional driver” is quite high.
With this in mind, what I saw in this video showed a young driver displaying quite a good standard of driving overall.
His lane discipline was good, and he certainly didn’t seem to me to be doing anything other than keeping up with the traffic. He may well have driven at an illegal speed on the dual carriageway – but that in itself, whilst maybe illegal, wasn’t, under those conditions: dangerous
As for changing CD’s — how many of you have done that, or changed radio stations, or had an argument with the wife /girlfriend etc whilst driving ?
How many of you can honestly say that you have NEVER done anything “iffy” whilst driving ?
So … as someone else has said
“let he who is without sin cast the first stone”
My bet is that this lad is quite a competent driver overall.
Becoming a “competent driver, in my opinion” requires you to expand your skills, and that might mean making mistakes here and there.
When I was his age -we used to practise hand brake turns and skid control (off road I might add) and at the time… that I KNOW looked to many as “outrageous” behaviour, but .. the fact is those skills gained from those exploits has saved me on several occasions, where inicidents have occured requiring “evasive and sudden action /reaction” and control
The fact is -as many of us on these columns will confirm, the BAD and DANGEROUS driving is (with the Excess speed angle in mind here) very often shown by those driving the slowest.
I do hope that Mike Hughes learns from this.
He would do well to remember…
The essence of good driving is all about observation: “NOTHING should come as surprise”
And I mean NOTHING!!
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Theresa, you are suggesting that the police now target criminals via surfing the ‘tube!! If that really is the case, then I’d want my money spent on more traffic police on the roads pulling drivers that – although not exceeding the posted speed limit – drive in a manner likely to cause more trouble than Mike in the video.
In my 22 years of driving, averaging 20,000+ miles per year (many on the continent in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy), the standard of driving skills in this country has plummeted over the last 10 years. Part of the reason, borne out by other comments on this story (you especially, eva land), is that the average driver has been brainwashed into believing the “speed kills” dogma.
Latest available Department for Transport figures show that exceeding a speed limit accounts for just 6% of all roads deaths (and about 2% in RTA’s involving drivers over the age of 25). And now, we see that the NSL on A-roads may be reduced to 50 from 60!! What difference this will make I do not know, as the majority of drivers I see on NSL A-roads could only attain 60mph in their wildest, over-medicated dreams.
As another commenter has alluded to, if Mike had been on any stretch of de-restricted autobahnen doing that speed, he’s have his legs slapped for not trying hard enough!
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The lad has learned a valuble lesson early in his driving life some learn a much harder way give him a break and I really hope he keeps his job
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Eva , you mention Canada , please enlighten us. What are the road deaths per million miles(kilometers) driven? I quote Germany because it is similar/closer to us and is a country that I have driving experience of.
Do you have driving experience of Canada? If so please enlighten us in where this country (and Germany) is going wrong.
The latest government speed limits and future proposals are unlikely to reduce deaths and people who drive for a living expect deaths to go up.
Mqaybe the majority of people quoting on here actually cover high anual mileages, (I certainly do) and can see the folly of the “speedkills” message.
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This country is slipping in the European table of road deaths and the only reason for it is the Speed limits are being tampered with instead of curing the root cause of accidents….careless driving, which does not neccessarily mean exceeeding a posted limit.
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Eva,
You mentioned Canada and the only experience that I have is a short visit to British Columbia and a quote that I have found from a BC website is;
“Speed variance and crash risk: This graph shows that crash risk is minimized for those drivers travelling 10-15 km/h over the average speed. (Average speeds in BC are almost always over posted speeds.) Contrary to popular belief, there are more crashes at slower speeds than at faster speeds. Raw speed and crash risk are not directly related, however, there is a U-shaped relationship which shows few fast drivers involved in crashes, and many more slow drivers involved in crashes.”
How does this back up your argument about exceeding the speed limit being dangerous?
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Just as Eric feels qualified to comment on the basis of his experience, I like wise feel qualified as I have crashed cars all over the world.
Firstly Canada: There is loads of room out there, their single lane roads are as wide as our dual carriage ways. And hardly any traffic anyway. Rush hour in Montreal is about as demanding as Telford Town Centre on a Sunday.
Brian 2: You are quite right, although very controversial to say in these politically correct days we live in anything other than ‘speed kills’, it is quite true that generally driving to a level that increases perceived risk will dramatically enhance reactions to the extent that the real risk (which is smaller than the perceived risk) will be more than compensated. Hence the logic behind the statistics you uncovered.
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