A ROW has broken out after the blind land speed record set by a former policeman who lost his sight in a high-speed crash was taken from him by a sighted driver wearing a blindfold.

Disabled groups have hit out at the Guinness Book of Records' decision to accept the record by motoring writer Alistair Weaver.

Wearing a blindfold, he reached speeds averaging 140mph in an Audi S8 at Elvington airfield near York, in April.

In doing so he beat the 131mph record set by blind 44-year-old Ken Moss, of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, in 1999 in a turbo-charged MG EXF racing car.

Mr Moss lost the sight in both his eyes following a crash with a 30-ton lorry while he was following a suspected stolen car in November 1992.

His injuries were so severe doctors gave him just a five per cent chance of surviving.

A spokesman for the Royal National Institute for the Blind said yesterday: "We believe that to be eligible to hold the world blind land speed record competitors must have a genuine sight problem.

"For sighted competitors to simply wear a blindfold whilst making their attempt is inappropriate as this is a world apart from the reality of actually being blind or partially sighted."

The magazine Disability Now has also criticised the Guinness decision.

Editor Mary Wilkinson said: "We have put pressure on the Guinness World Record bosses to do something about the title and they have changed it to the blindfold landspeed record, but that doesn't help blind people."

Mr Moss said he felt cheated. "I don't want it to sound like sour grapes for I would have been happy for another blind person to have beaten me, but to lose the title this way, one which I worked so hard to claim, does not seem fair."

Mr Weaver said he had not intended to deny a blind person the record.

"My breaking the record does throw extra attention on the feats of disabled people. I would be very happy if both mine and Ken's records were recognised as separate titles," he said.

A spokesman for the Guinness Book of Records said: "We don't discriminate between people who have and people who do not have disabilities. The record is for the fastest blind driving."