Unions will back ambulance driver facing prosecution

Unions
have leapt to the defence of an ambulance driver facing police prosecution for
speeding while delivering an organ to a waiting transplant patient.

Mike
Ferguson was driving from Leeds to Cambridge when he was caught doing 104 mph.

Police
say they have taken the prosecution to clarify traffic law relating to vehicles
carrying organs for transplant.

Legislation
currently exempts certain vehicles from speed restrictions, such as
patient-carrying ambulances, fire engines and police cars – but not transplant
vehicles.

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Ferguson’s
union, the GMB, has written to the Home Secretary David Blunkett and the
Minister for Health Alan Milburn, asking them to intervene, provide
clarification on the law and have the case against Ferguson dropped.

GMB
officer Gary Baker, said: "We are asking the Government to intervene
because we fear that this sort of action could have an adverse affect on the
NHS and the Transplant Programme, and there is a serious danger that lives
could be lost. Support for Ferguson has been outstanding. The public
understands the absurdity of this legal action. We just hope the court does as
well. Ferguson’s job and hundreds of lives could depend on it."