I fought the law....

NCC-1701

If you think a police van could have panicked you and caused you to crash perhaps driving is not for you.

Eagles1905

Thanks to those chaps who have taken the time to reply this morning, whilst I do not agree with some of the comments I shall take what has been discussed on board and will leave it at that.

Have a good day all.

Cheers,

gilbert_and_sullivan

AdrianC wrote: »

...but the OP assured us that he had seen them coming in plenty of time, remember?

Agreed, but if you're stuck at the back end of a line of traffic with a solid line of traffic (nose to tail as always lest someone should dare to jump in front) one side and armco the other it doesn't matter if you saw the police vehicle a minute before, unless a gap gets created in the traffic you can't do a thing about it until the traffic moves and you a space to move over, which from my reading of the OP is exactly what he did.

I don't think the emergency vehicles on call realise quite how intimidating it can be, especially if you're already trapped.

OnanTheBarbarian

OP, this is MSE remember, posters on here all have ESP and 20/20 vision with hindsight and would have lead the police van to the incident, assisted the officers, filed a full report and would still have been home in time for X-Factor before it finished.

Personally, I would forget about it and move on.

almillar

I didn't see anyone mention that as soon as you saw them, you should have indicated left. This would have at least let the people in the left lane see that you wanted in, with plenty of time to take action. If they then looked in the mirrors and saw the flashing lights, they may have been a bit more cooperative and you'd have been out of the way sooner.

livetoclimb

I had a similar situation to this about 2 years ago. Two lanes, travelling uphill, left lane packed with crawling lorries and me doing 70ish overtaking them with empty road ahead. A police car was approaching very fast behind, and I had to either slam on the brakes and try and slip into a small space between lorries or get out their way forwards. I got to well over 100mph before I reached the end of the lorries (thanks, twin turbo BMW) and got a thumbs up from the driver of the police car. I suppose I was probably lucky!

In your situation I'd let it slide. It probably, with the benefit of hindsight, could have been dealt with better by all parties at the time but unfortunately sometimes these things happen and it's a good learning experience.

Iceweasel

Well done shaymarriott - I'd have done the same - foot down - leave the police car behind - and then pull in to the first clear slot on the left.

Speeding up to get out of the way is always a good option.

Mercdriver

curlywurlytalktalk wrote: »

I wish I had such a hassle free life that the only worry I had was whether to report the driving standards of a Police officer.

Welcome to the forum. You really registered to say that? I wish I had such a hassle free life that the only worry I had was to wonder about the worries of someone about a police officer...

Strider590

In the situation described I would have accelerated, people think you have to slow down and pull over, but actually you need to make yourself less of an obstruction. You should do whatever you can to avoid delaying that vehicle.

DoaM

Strider590 wrote: »

In the situation described I would have accelerated ... straight into the rear of the vehicle in front of me

Methinks you might want to read the OP's posts again, especially the follow-up (post #6)?