YP Comment: Speeding coroner

The fact it is such a respected figure as David Hinchliff, senior coroner for West Yorkshire, only compounds this incredulity. Mr Hinchliff, who has been banned from driving for six months after racking up 12 penalty points for speeding in three years, admitted he was “not proud” to have been banned from the road as a result of several “low-level speeding” offences.

Nor should he be. In his role as coroner, Mr Hinchliff regularly presides over inquests involving road deaths, some of which feature speeding drivers. As recently as May last year, he ruled on a hearing into the death of a motorcyclist who was travelling over the speed limit and hit a lorry which was performing a U-turn.

The road safety charity Brake has long campaigned about the dangers of speeding on our roads and works every day with families up and down the country whose lives have been destroyed because someone chose to drive 
too fast.

According to the charity, vehicles driving too fast and breaking the speed limit is a contributory factor in more than one in four fatal crashes in the UK – a statistic that Mr Hinchliff ought to be well aware of.

Speeding can ruin lives and we have the right to expect prominent public figures like Mr Hinchliff to set a better example. We can only hope that he has learned his lesson and heeds this wake-up call in the future.

I’m not proud says Yorkshire coroner banned from driving for speeding