Safe Speed Forums

"Bolton Evening" - page 11 - Paul Keaveney and Deborah Linto report.

A police van on an emergency call collided with a car turning into a supermarket car park last night.

Passengers in the car had to be cut free by fire crews.

The crash occurred on Blackburn Road - in the Astley Bridge area of Bolton - opposite the Asda supermarket at 11.30 pm.

It is believed the police van crashed head on into the side of the Peugeot - which had five people inside. The driver (30 -ish) and the rear seat passenger immediately behind him had to be cut free. The others were able to get out of the car. The rear seat passenger is reportedly seriously injured - sustaining severely broken leg and arm.

The incident has been reported to the Police Complaints Commission and the fire crew had to remove the doors using hydraulic cuttting equipment to get the men out.

The road was closed for a while after the incident and the police officers were not injured.

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If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
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Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
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Hope you don't mind Mad Moggie link to the above Bolton Evening News

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Dixie - knowing Ted - our Mad Doc - as a good friend as well as someone who married my cousin - of whom I am very fond - I know he would welcome someone who can verify his posts.

As I understand - his two sisters who live in Worsley area of Manchester mail him scans of local news and if he thinks the pieces are worth discussion - he pastes and posts them up.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

A follow on question to this...

As I understand it, the police underwrite their risk themselves (i.e. they don't buy insurance, they payout themselves following a crash). Has anyone had to deal with this? I've had a couple of insurance claims and it is always a fight to get what you are owned. What have peoples experience with the police been like?

I think they are covered by what's known as 'Crown Indemnity' as are the armed forces, Fire Service and Coastguards.
They would be anxious to avoid a claim going to court, one might imagine.
Interestingly, 'Stagecoach', the bus company, don't insure with an insurance company, they simply lodge the necessary bond and that meets the legal requirement.

Does anyone know the exact circumstances surrounding the accident?

I only ask because, from the description it sounds like the car pulled out in front of the van. With the best will in the world, no matter how much training you have, a transit takes a fair while to stop, if the time isn't there, impact occurs.

Isn't the case that all police accidents are referred to the complaints comission as a matter of course? I always believed this, however I am open to be corrected.

Yeah the electricity board i worked for used to underwrite themselves, then they got around insurance when they went from public utility to private company by simply creating an insurance company as a wholly owned subsidary, in essance little more than an insurance department. I think nowadays you can still be self-insured but need an bottom line underwriter.

lol, wonder what the premium would be- several thousand people 17-65 to drive anything.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

Back in the old days - when the Mail and Telephones were one company - in effect part of the civil service , both were covered in the same way - believe it was a large sum lodged , and i seem to remember an excemption certificate for VED .
Poor old Royal mail and Post Office Telephones got quite a shocK when they became private and had to pay insurance and VED.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

And her Majesty the Queen.

I believe (but could be wrong), that anyone who can demonstrate that they can meet the cost of a claim from their own pocket can be exempt paying for insurance.
Or is this an urban myth which I fallen for

RP - from my recollection of the explanation of Crown Insurance - some sum had to be lodged - and the right extended to individuals .

_________________
lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

I just reported what the paper article said. Possibly the car turned - misjudged the speed or approach completely. Am trying to visualise as I do know the road vaguely as my clinical was based in Manchester and I did all my on ward practical training in Bury, Blackburn, Bolton and Manchester hospitals. The Asda store is on the left hand side of the road as you travel the A666 Blackburn Road towards Blackburn. It's on the right as you travel towards Bolton. The Moss Bank Way Ring Road crosses at traffic lights in this area.

So if the driver's side was smashed - then the car had crossed the lights in the Bolton direction and had moved to position to turn right. The police car must have been heading into the same direction - towards Bolton then. He must have been on wrong side of carriageway to collide if my vague recollection of the road layout is correct?

It's a fairly wide road here if my memory is exact - I will get one of my sisters to take some photos to clarify. She teaches in Bolton. But the Asda store is on the left in direction of Blackburn and on right in direction of Bolton. If he turned left into the supermarket - police van would be on wrong side of road. If he turned right .. police van again appears to be incorrectly positioned given the width of the carriageway .. as I recall and it may have been re-engineered. Shall ask my sisters to take a photo to post up ... from each direction. I think this may help debate

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.