Organizations that provide ambulance service in the UK are being distracted by an increasing number of speed camera tickets issued to drivers responding to emergency calls. In the Tyneside region, police issued tickets to 146 drivers, with 45 drivers forced to pay the fine and 101 acquitted.

Officials in charge of ambulance services believe the situation is making drivers concentrate more on saving their jobs than the well-being of the patients under their care, even when they are not responding to an emergency call. Receiving just a few speed camera tickets can result in a driver losing his license.

"They are given boards full of patients, they want to do the best they can and while it might not be an emergency, they are still patients and still ill. All that pressure builds up," Joel Byers with the Unison trade union told the Shields Gazette newspaper. "I am not excusing them breaking the law, but if they are only doing a few miles over the speed limit, I think there should be more discretion."