Transplant-Dash Driver is Caught by a Speed Camera

Daily Mail, Friday July 15th 2005, By Daily Mail Reporter

A hospital driver delivering a donor organ was fined £60 after being caught by a speed camera.

Lois Rolt even had a police escort as she transported the lung for an emergency transplant patient.

She had under four hours to travel the 160 miles from Kilmarnock to Newcastle upon Tyne.

Just a few minutes into her journey, the blue light on top of her emergency vehicle fused and she was forced to request a police escort to make sure she kept her deadline.

Nevertheless, the merciless speed cameras still managed to do their job.

The mother of four was stunned when she received a letter a few days later saying she had been caught doing 68mph in a 40mph zone on the A77 and must pay a £60 penalty.

She refused, and was then told she would have to appear before East Ayrshire District Court in Kilmarnock on August 29.

Mrs Rolt, 46, from Blyth, Northumberland, said: “I felt absolutely gutted when I saw the fine. It was like a slap in the face. You try to help save someone's life and you end up getting penalised for it. I've never been in trouble with the police before.”

She enlisted the help of a solicitor, John MacGuiness, of Glasgow, who agreed to act on her behalf free of charge. Yesterday it appeared the case would now be dropped. An official from the Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership, which issued the ticket, said the case had proceeded as a matter of course.

Sergeant William Shields said: “If it had been one of our own vehicles detected without blue lights then we would have carried out the same initial investigations. However, I'm now satisfied this was an essential journey where the speed limit was being exceeded. With the new evidence presented to us, the Procurator Fiscal has withdrawn the case. That means this is an end to it.”

Transplant bosses at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle said yesterday that the lung arrived in time and was successfully transplanted into the patient, who was now doing well.

After being told no further action would be taken. Mrs Rolt, who has been a trained driver for more than three years, said: “It's a massive relief. It's all been going on for so long.”