Selfish &*%*&%*%

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

It might be common practice but it doesnt make it 100% correct. The OP wasnt in those other cars. there could have been genuine reasons it wasnt safe for them to pull over.

If its safe to pull over fair enough but thats upto individual drivers to make the decision. Its that driver who will be in court if they make the decision to pull over and it causes an accident. Not the OP.

MothballsWallet

Milesy wrote: »

I see plenty of people who chase ambulances to get through rush hour traffic.

They're called personal injury solicitors *joke*

ChrisCobra

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

It might be common practice but it doesnt make it 100% correct. The OP wasnt in those other cars. there could have been genuine reasons it wasnt safe for them to pull over.

If its safe to pull over fair enough but thats upto individual drivers to make the decision. Its that driver who will be in court if they make the decision to pull over and it causes an accident. Not the OP.

Yes its situational but if i heard sirens id pull over and let them thro , we dont know all the facts and leave it at that , at least you never slagged me off

olias

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

1) Often police cars dont use sirens other than at junctions thus motorists might not notice it immediately

2) There is no legal obligation to pull over. In fact the official line is you shouldnt do anything and they will get past you and that you should only do something if its safe. maybe these motorists didnt feel it was safe to pull over/brake suddenly

3) Police cars don't have any right to break laws etc

4) Stereos sound it out.

Its more likely the cops were rushing to get some reduced price donuts at tesco than to an emergency.

Also maybe your attention should have been on the roads rather than what others were doing or not doing

Yawn..............................

Olias

Quasar

I wonder if those drivers who have their sound systems on so loud that the car rattles, can hear anything, even a siren. Such high volume is a hazard imho.

ETA - not that I'm saying the drivers in the OP were listening to loud music. Unfortunately there generally seems to be more selfishness and incompetence on the roads these dayse.

Equinox

As a hypothetical situation, I was wondering about this recently. What would happen?

I found the answer a few weeks back when some newspapers ran my hypothetical situation. There was this woman in Derby that deliberately blocked an emergency vehicle, and she got a prison sentence and fine if I remember correctly. I'm trying to find the source but am having no luck. I know she was 25 because that number stuck in my head.

Here's another case I found of blocking an emergency vehicle in my search:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/92460

I'm pretty sure deliberately blocking an emergency vehicle is illegal when it is safe to move out of the way.

mustrum_ridcully

Had a similar experience myself, saw a police car with blues and twos on traveling in the opposite direction that needed to overtake stationary traffic on my side of the road.

I pull over into a large gap (enough for 6ish cars), guess what the gormsters behind me did. Yep, carried on regardless and prevented the police car from getting past the traffic.

savvy

angle wrote: »

I'm so angry that I just had to share it with someone.

I've just walked to Tesco to buy some milk and on my way home I heard a siren. I looked up to see a police car speeding towards me with 2 cars infront of it. Neither of these 2 cars had the decency to pull over or stop, but just carried on as if nothing was happening.
All 3 cars were approaching a roundabout and because of the selfish, self-absorbed attitude of the 'normal' cars the police car was forced to drive on the opposite side of the road at the roundabout and round a blind corner.

What on earth is wrong with people????!!

Course you do know that these are propbably the same type of people that whinge and complain that the emergency services took far too long to get to them in their hour of need and try and claim compo! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Dr.Rock

This brought up memories of an interesting situation I found myself in a few months ago and at the time I didn't know what to do. I later checked with a friend who's a former Paramedic and he said I made the right choice but I wondered what others would do in this situation.

Here is the scenario:
You are driving at 50mph down a motorway that roadworks have reduced to one lane and a 50mph speed limit. There are cones on either side of you and no other vehicles until you see an ambulance in your rearview mirror with flashing lights approaching quickly.

Do you:
a) Pull over into the cordoned off area and let the ambulance pass you.
b) Continue driving at the posted speed limit.
c) Increase your speed as much as you can to get to the end of the roadworks quickly to let the ambulance pass.
d) Slow down and hold it up.
e) Do something else.

Would be interested to hear what you'd do, btw I didn't do D.

sarahg1969

Dr.Rock wrote: »

This brought up memories of an interesting situation I found myself in a few months ago and at the time I didn't know what to do. I later checked with a friend who's a former Paramedic and he said I made the right choice but I wondered what others would do in this situation.

Here is the scenario:
You are driving at 50mph down a motorway that roadworks have reduced to one lane and a 50mph speed limit. There are cones on either side of you and no other vehicles until you see an ambulance in your rearview mirror with flashing lights approaching quickly.

Do you:
a) Pull over into the cordoned off area and let the ambulance pass you.
b) Continue driving at the posted speed limit.
c) Increase your speed as much as you can to get to the end of the roadworks quickly to let the ambulance pass.
d) Slow down and hold it up.
e) Do something else.

Would be interested to hear what you'd do, btw I didn't do D.

Keep going without breaking the speed limit, and without driving into a cordoned area. The ambulance driver is trained to deal with such situations. You are at risk of points on your licence and a fine if you speed or drive into a coned-off area.

I guess b) would be the option I'd go for if there was no way to move out of the way without committing an offence.

The ambulance driver would know what to do anyway.

OP - how about driving through red lights to allow an emergency vehicle to pass? What do you think?