Emergency Services.

[TWR]

Radio 2 today, there was a discussion about the blue light services Eg/Police etc & the excessive speed they at times go at, what is your opinion? should they slow down & run to the law? the police have trained drivers so they can to a point "read what other drivers intend to do" running on the blue light, there are things they can do, & things they cannot do regards their driving, what do you think?

[bednobs]

i don't think they should have complete impunity to drive like cocks, however, they should have more leeway than normal drivers

[emmie]

it's a wonder more people aren't killed by emergency vehicles here in the capital.

[woofgang]

Is this the police hot pursuit thing? The problem tends to be (not always) not what the police do in their cars but what the suspect does to avoid capture. The argument is that if the police were limited to legal speeds, the suspect wouldn't put others in so much danger. Having today see a BMW driver scream through a 30 zone with no one in pursuit, i think that idiots will be idiots. I do think though that if the police get it wrong they should be punished and I believe that they are.

[craft1948]

If you 999'd to say your mother was being attacked by an out of his skull druggie how fast would you like the police response team to drive?

[emmie]

perhaps i would want them to get a move on, but nothing or very little traffic moves at speed here, traffic calming on many residential roads, so the emergency vehicles will only get through if it's not too busy say at the dead of night.

[craft1948]

"perhaps i would want them to get a move on"

LOL em that must be the understatement of the year. If you called the police, in a life-threatening situation, and they took a while to get there, you would be wanting to sue them!!

[Brimoan]

I do know police pursuit driver and he said he averages 1 bump / scrape per year which I do not think is too bad.
He has never injured anybody but he has been rammed a few times 4 times in 1 year but he thought that he was extremely unfortunate that year.
In over 40 years od driving I have only seen 1 pursuit and most of my friends have not seen any.
My friend has said programmes like road wars do not represent police work.
How many times has anybody been in hospital on this site when it has been like the programme Casualty.
I have visited hospitals on many occasions and not seen any like Casualty once.

[emmie]

i live in a very busy city, and at night the noises of the emergency vehicles can be heard quite clearly, at all times of the night, so they are getting a move on presumably.

[rockyracoon]

How many accidents have the emergencies services caused when they are actually on an emergency, as opposed to when they have been playing silly buggers.

I think if it's safe to do so then they should speed and obviously if not then no.

[craft1948]

Early on his career my brother was a trained advanced driver with the police. He was deployed on 999 calls, not on stolen car chases..........perhaps things have changed since then, or maybe it's not the advanced drivers doing the chasing.

[baza]

If I see an ambulance or fire engine with blue lights flashing when I am out driving I will get out of their way, the old bill stuff em since I saw one with lights going and a hundred yards up the road he pulled into a kfc.

[craft1948]

lol baza I've seen a fire engine with lights and siren going stop at the local chippy (and no, it wasn't on fire)

[VictorMildew]

Was that a chip pan fire then?

[baza]

craft.. in future then its only ambulances, as one very kindly took me to hospital with lights flashing and all the trimmings.

[Brimoan]

Oddly enough I had a police car go past me a few weeks ago with his blue lights flashing and he suddenly slowed down and turned his lights off and drove normally.
We were not near any shops etc.
Probably several units were rushing to the crime, some had got there and decided no more were required.

[Brimoan]

baza

When they took my father to the hospital they did not use blue lights.

[factor-fiction]

How is he now, Brimoan?

[vulcan]

I sometimes wonder if the speeds they do are totally necessary even though it is an emergency.There has been a series of documentaries on TV following police and paramedics on duty and recently a call came through of a motor cyclist over running a roundabout and the policeman set off to attend. I acknowledge he didn't know what to expect but I wonder if his speed of 120 mph was really necessary.

[Eve]

I live in a busy city area too and not far from a large city hospital (and Moss Side) so lots of emergency services around here.

They often take alternative routes such as quieter into city sides of the road rather than busy rush hour right side of the road for instance. They are very noticeable though and slow by junctions etc... to be safe.

If they are well trained, safe drivers then I don't see a problem. If I needed the emergency services urgently then I'd be grateful for the quick response (and, indeed, have been).

Some emergencies can be time critical, people who have stopped breathing or bleeding seriously, heart attacks etc... and the speed of emergency treatment could mean the difference between life and death.

I see loads of emergency services day in and day out and can't think of an occasion when I've seen any of them driving what I'd call dangerously, buses and cyclists and general drivers on the other hand... I've had two very close calls being on a bus with idiot drivers (car drivers in this case) in just the last week or so.

If the accident rate was high then there would be more cause for concern. I know there have been incidents, especially people hit by police cars on emergency calls though I assume there were enquiries considering the circumstances and individuals involved and action was taken. Just because one driver makes a mistake, doesn't mean the whole lot are at fault.