Ambulance Fine Driver Unrepentant

12:04pm UK, Tuesday May 27, 2003

The ambulance driver who may face a fine charged with speeding after a 104mph mercy dash to deliver a transplant organ has said he would do the same again.

Mike Ferguson

Mike Ferguson was clocked while taking a liver from one hospital to another for a transplant patient.

The road has a 70mph speed limit and Mr Ferguson was driving an official car with flashing blue lights on deserted roads at 3.30 in the morning.

But he must appear in court after being charged with speeding - and may lose his driving licence and job if convicted.

Mr Ferguson, 56, is a senior ambulance officer with more than 36 years' experience and has undergone advanced driver training.

He said: "I have no regrets about breaking the speed limit that night because I know it helped to save a life."

The case has caused uproar nationwide and unions and MPs fear it could set a precedent for halting the high-speed delivery of organs for life-saving procedures.

Mr Ferguson's predicament has so enraged one kidney transplant recipient, that he has offered to pay any costs incurred by the ambulanceman as a result of the charges.

Mr Traylor, a 44-year-old father of two from South Wales who received a kidney transplant five years said:"I'm supporting the gentleman wholeheartedly.

"I just find it pathetic. This gentleman should be supported by all the organ transplant patients."

He added: "If it wasn't for the ambulance service I wouldn't be here."

Mr Ferguson was clocked on the A1 in Lincolnshire by a speed camera as he ferried a liver from St James' Hospital in Leeds to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the case was not a medical emergency and should be put before Grantham magistrates to decide.

A GMB union spokesman said: "The precedent it could set is a very dangerous one. If ambulance drivers won't be able to use blue lights and speed to get organs to hospital as quickly as possible, our worry is that lives will be lost."

Commons Health Committee chairman David Hinchliffe said: "I find it absolutely astonishing. When you are saving a life, it is perfectly reasonable to exceed the speed limit."