Ambulance driver speeding charges dropped
An ambulance driver charged with speeding as he delivered a liver to hospital for a life-saving operation has had the case against him dropped.
Mike Ferguson, from West Yorkshire, was due to appear in court next week after being stopped by police and charged with speeding earlier this year.
The 56-year-old senior driver with West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service handed a petition in to Downing Street this week signed by 18,000 supporters.
Mr Ferguson faced losing his job if convicted. He said he was “overjoyed” by the news that the case had been dropped.
He was clocked doing 104mph as he drove down the A1 in Lincolnshire in January delivering a donor liver from St James’s Hospital in Leeds to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
Gary Baker, the regional officer for Mr Ferguson’s union, the GMB, explained that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided that the prosecution was not in the public interest.
“The only good thing to come out of this absurd situation is in highlighting that the law needs to be updated to keep up with medical advances like transplants,” he added.
The union plans to continue campaigning to secure a change in the law that would avoid similar incidents in the future.
