Mr Connors was struck on the A2016 Eastern Way dual carriageway last July while racing his cart.
Carts can be used on highways in the UK so long as the driver complies with the Department for Transport’s Code of Practice for Horse-Drawn Vehicles, reports the Highway Code.
However cart racing is illegal and not allowed on UK roads.
A spokesperson for the Met police told MailOnline: 'Racing, in a cart or car, is not an acceptable way to travel.'
No, it isn't. Why don't you enforce it, then? You know it happens. You know who does it. You know now what
the consequences of tiptoeing around these 'people' can be, after all.
Mr Budd was ordered to complete two 18 month long community orders requiring him to complete 300 hours of unpaid work for causing death by dangerous driving and 100 hours for damaging property, in respect to the horse.
Both are to run at the same time. He was also disqualified from driving for two years.
Personally, I think the ratio of those points is the wrong way round. The horse was worth more, in every sense of the word.
Now that one of their own has been tragically lost, maybe the senior ranks will stop treating the "Traveling Community" as some kind of special interest minority group, immune from the rules the rest of us have to abide by.
ReplyDeleteI don't care how many travellers get killed or injured on the roads whilst using these damned traps. I do care about the horses and any poor sod who gets injured whilst trying to negotiate their vehicle around them. Damned non-travelling-travellers race around the A roads and lanes here, with 10 month old foals tied up tight, every which way. They beat and thrash these poor horses, destroying their hooves & legs on the hard road surfaces. The near misses in traffic are regular and very scary to watch or be involved in. Most of the trap jockeys look to weigh in at about 20st.
ReplyDeleteOne early morning ride last week past our local 'camp' revealed one dead mare with a dead foal half born sticking out of her. On horseback I can see over the earth bank they built to stop people seeing the miserable lives their horses endure.
Now one copper has been murdered, it might be worth me start reporting these scumbags again. One can always hope.
The road that this man was killed on is notorious for these parasites using it as a race-track.It was only a matter of time before this happened.
ReplyDeleteWhat wasn't reported was that the gypsies set up camp outside Belmarsh where the other driver worked and were constantly intimidating the staff there for months.
They never take any responsibility for their actions.
Jaded.
Does anybody really think that Budd will comply with the instructions of the court. He will change his name and disappear into the travelling community. While a serving Police officer, I never heard once, of a fine being paid or community service carried out.
ReplyDeletePrison is the only thing these people deserve and, to make their life interesting, why not send them to a specific prison built to hold travellers and Muslims?
Penseivat
"They never take any responsibility for their actions."
ReplyDeleteThey don't have to because you police treat them like they were royalty. They can commit crime with impunity because you are either unwilling to enforce the law, or (more likely one suspects) scared to go into their camps. Funny now that a policeman has been murdered by the scumbags suddenly its a different matter.
Well said, Sobers. And the Truth will hurt.
ReplyDelete"...maybe the senior ranks will stop treating the "Traveling Community" as some kind of special interest minority group..."
ReplyDeleteIt would really be nice to think so, wouldn't it..?
Futile. But nice.
"...it might be worth me start reporting these scumbags again. One can always hope."
I suspect that hope is forlorn.
"The road that this man was killed on is notorious for these parasites using it as a race-track."
Oh, if only we had uniformed traffic enforcement people to prevent that sort of thing, eh?
"Does anybody really think that Budd will comply with the instructions of the court."
Nope!
"Well said, Sobers. And the Truth will hurt."
Yes. It will. Usually someone innocent.