Safe Speed Forums

The A in COAST is anticipation, right? Applies just as much when an ambulance or whatever is roaring up behind you. So I reckon a good approach is to imagine the situations were reversed and work out what you would want your car to do if you were driving the emergency vehicle. Perhaps not so easy for inexperienced drivers, but after a few years on the road most of us should be able to do that pretty instictively. Strange that the instinct of so many drivers is to stop dead and wait for the emergency vehicle to get round them somehow.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

This is an interesting subject. If I am at the lights and there is a fire engine or ambulance behind me with the lights flashing I will be prepared to go across the white line to pull out of the way. Even if it means breaking the law to go accross a red light

However.....If it is a police car I refuse to break the law in order to let them past on the basis that if i get busted by a red light camera I would get screwed! Sorry but you can't have it both ways

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Speed camera policy Kills

In quiet cars it is very difficult to tell where sirens are coming from, and in built up areas the sound can bounce and be deceptive.

Most blue light drivers turn off their sirens when stuck in thick traffic to avoid people panicing and doing silly things - eg. drive through a red light into traffic.

I haven't heard any more about that neat directional siren - a bit of searching reveals it is the Sound Alert Localiser, and is in use in the UK:

http://www.soundalert.com/emergencyvehi ... ystems.htm

Gareth

Southend seafront monday 840 pm on way home from running (not boy racing!).

Checked mirror (chili peppers too loud to heard siren!) saw rozzers in a Focus lights a flashin'. Sped up and shot in to a pull in place and stopped. Rozzers pulled into a pull in opposite, turned lights off and stolled into one of the arcades. Good one. Were they the same people that took nearly 24 hrs (I kid you not) to appear when the office at work was burgled?

I used to, but now I won't. About two weeks ago, an ambulance with blues and twos drove up behind while I was first in the queue at a set of lights that has a "safety camera". While I could have driven over the stop line to allow the ambulance to pass between my rear and the central island, I didn't. The risk of being unable to convince magistrates that I had good reason was too great and If the ambulance wanted to pass, he could drive around the "wrong" side of the island.

FWIW, I've noticed that in the last couple of years my driving priorities have changed from safety and consideration to preservation of my license almost at any cost. Selfish, I know, but I need my license to survive.

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Will

Even the cost of someone's life? Sorry - but I think you were very wrong in consciously failing to facilitate the passage of an ambulance on a 'shout'. It's tantamount to deliberate obstruction.

As I wrote, the ambulance could have driven around the central island -- there was plenty of room for him to do so and all traffic had stopped, giving him all the room he needed. He's allowed to violate normal traffic rules; I'm not.

I can just see the scene unfold. I pull across the stop-line, triggering PC Gatso, and the ambulance drives around the reservation anyway and so does not trigger the camera. I refuse the fixed-penalty option and turn up in court. How sure would you be of convincing a magistrate that you were in the right?

If someone dies, I'm sorry but that's the authorities' fault and a direct consequence of myopic legislation and pedantic enforcement of the same. I need my license. Without it, I lose my livelihood, my house, and everything for which I've worked damn hard for decades.

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Will

I agree to some of the previous posts, It depends on the situation and type of road. You could be going up a ONE WAY Street, cars parked on the side of the road, What do you do? Keep Going or try and Pull over? Before now I have seen an Ambulance go down the wrong side of a Dual Carriageway because It was Easier for them . I don't know If there is a Legal standing about going through red to Let an Emergency Vehicle through?

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RoADA Member -GOLD 2008
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

That's exactly why we need police instead of cameras.

Regards
Peter