Ambulance driver called me a w****r
Discussion
Centurion07 said:
You might want to read the OP again.
He said it was narrow for an A-road and SO twisty it's possible to "easily sit at 60-80 just shaving off a bit of speed for the tighter bends". Add to that the fact that the ambulance wasn't held up then the only poor choice made was by a so-called professional ambulance driver giving the beans to a member of the public.
Apologies if I've missed this... so the road is so narrow that the ambulance can't get past but wide enough for people to drive at 60-80mph? He said it was narrow for an A-road and SO twisty it's possible to "easily sit at 60-80 just shaving off a bit of speed for the tighter bends". Add to that the fact that the ambulance wasn't held up then the only poor choice made was by a so-called professional ambulance driver giving the beans to a member of the public.
JM said:
The poor choice was made by the OP, who had plenty of space and time to allow the ambulance to pass him at the beginning of his story, but chose not to and continued for several miles at 'high' speed. For all he knew (or cared) heading directly into a collision on the road ahead of him.
Eh? I don't remember the op mentioning you were there too?Else I don't see how you can decide if there was enough space or not? At the beginning of the story there wasn't even an ambulance! So I suggest you read the first post a bit more carefully.
To me it sounds like you were damned if you do/ damned if you don't, and the driver took umbrage because he simply judged your reaction as "bad" because it wasn't the typical one he was expecting, without thinking through the implications of it fully.
Ian
Some of the usual sanctimony as expected.
NHS ambulances barely do 90mph and accelerate like an old Transit. Keeping one of them some distance behind you on a clear road is so easy your Gran might be up for it. If the OP is far enough in front of this ambulance so as not to interfere in any way with its progress then who cares?
Then again pay no attention to me, on DCs or Motorways I've even been known to overtake them.
NHS ambulances barely do 90mph and accelerate like an old Transit. Keeping one of them some distance behind you on a clear road is so easy your Gran might be up for it. If the OP is far enough in front of this ambulance so as not to interfere in any way with its progress then who cares?
Then again pay no attention to me, on DCs or Motorways I've even been known to overtake them.
NinjaPower said:
I don't have a problem with an ambulance driver calling me a w
ker. I'm just not sure how I could have aided his progress any better?
I was driving along a stretch of A Road that I know very well. It's relatively narrow for an A road, lots of corners and twists, relatively few straights for overtaking, blind crests, and often fairly busy.
A lot of drivers bimble along it at 50mph, jabbing at the brakes every time traffic comes towards them or if they see, god forbid, a slight corner approaching. Queues often form behind these sort of people, then the reckless overtakes start happening.
If the traffic is light, and you seem to end up in convoy with a couple of other drivers who also want to make progress, then you can easily sit at 60-80 just shaving off a bit of speed for the tighter bends which is what I usually do.
The traffic was light to moderate on the day in question, and when on one of the straights, I noticed an ambulance approaching from behind. It was really far back, too far to tell what sort of emergency vehicle it was, but I noticed it was being slowed drastically by every driver stopping dead in front of it to let it past. It would make a bit of progress, then come up behind a car who would then just pull over to the side and stop meaning the ambulance had to stop behind it and wait for the oncoming traffic to also give way so it could pass the stationary car.
So this carries on for a couple of miles and the ambulance still isn't catching me much, even though I'm only doing around 60-65.
As he gets a bit closer with no cars between him and me (he's still a good 300 metres behind), myself and the car in front both decide that the best way to allow him to progress quickly is to boot it and just generally keep out of his way rather than stopping dead and delaying him whilst he has to go round us and then build his speed all the way up again. So we do this as the road is clear in front of us, and he doesn't gain on us, in fact he drops back a bit whenever he reaches a hill. We start pulling away.
A few more miles on and eventually he starts to slowly creep up behind us as we have eased off a little, and when he gets to about 150metres he starts flashing his lights and waving frantically as though we hadn't seen him. He's clearly furious that we haven't pulled over despite us not hindering him at all.
So we decide to let him go past, which inevitable involves us stopping and him having to come to a stop also and then wait for oncoming traffic to stop before squeezing past. As he went past he was shouting, giving me the wker sign etc and 'are you blind'.
You try to do your best in these situations and sometimes it just gets taken the wrong way I guess?
Sometimes I see emergency vehicles hindered massively by drivers just panicking and stopping dead in front of them, when the sensible thing to do would be to keep driving. But maybe they don't appreciate it?
In nearly identical circumstances an ambulance got being me just as we arrived a t a set of bend where he was going to struggle in he face of oncoming traffic. I hit the tgrottle and left him behind easily and was waiting for him to pass in a layby by the time he cleared the bends. Rather than a wker. I'm just not sure how I could have aided his progress any better?I was driving along a stretch of A Road that I know very well. It's relatively narrow for an A road, lots of corners and twists, relatively few straights for overtaking, blind crests, and often fairly busy.
A lot of drivers bimble along it at 50mph, jabbing at the brakes every time traffic comes towards them or if they see, god forbid, a slight corner approaching. Queues often form behind these sort of people, then the reckless overtakes start happening.
If the traffic is light, and you seem to end up in convoy with a couple of other drivers who also want to make progress, then you can easily sit at 60-80 just shaving off a bit of speed for the tighter bends which is what I usually do.
The traffic was light to moderate on the day in question, and when on one of the straights, I noticed an ambulance approaching from behind. It was really far back, too far to tell what sort of emergency vehicle it was, but I noticed it was being slowed drastically by every driver stopping dead in front of it to let it past. It would make a bit of progress, then come up behind a car who would then just pull over to the side and stop meaning the ambulance had to stop behind it and wait for the oncoming traffic to also give way so it could pass the stationary car.
So this carries on for a couple of miles and the ambulance still isn't catching me much, even though I'm only doing around 60-65.
As he gets a bit closer with no cars between him and me (he's still a good 300 metres behind), myself and the car in front both decide that the best way to allow him to progress quickly is to boot it and just generally keep out of his way rather than stopping dead and delaying him whilst he has to go round us and then build his speed all the way up again. So we do this as the road is clear in front of us, and he doesn't gain on us, in fact he drops back a bit whenever he reaches a hill. We start pulling away.
A few more miles on and eventually he starts to slowly creep up behind us as we have eased off a little, and when he gets to about 150metres he starts flashing his lights and waving frantically as though we hadn't seen him. He's clearly furious that we haven't pulled over despite us not hindering him at all.
So we decide to let him go past, which inevitable involves us stopping and him having to come to a stop also and then wait for oncoming traffic to stop before squeezing past. As he went past he was shouting, giving me the w
ker sign etc and 'are you blind'.You try to do your best in these situations and sometimes it just gets taken the wrong way I guess?
Sometimes I see emergency vehicles hindered massively by drivers just panicking and stopping dead in front of them, when the sensible thing to do would be to keep driving. But maybe they don't appreciate it?
ker sign I got a thumbs up. I guess your guy didn't get what you were doing - others likely would have. NinjaPower said:
As he gets a bit closer with no cars between him and me (he's still a good 300 metres behind), myself and the car in front both decide that the best way to allow him to progress quickly is to boot it and just generally keep out of his way rather than stopping dead and delaying him whilst he has to go round us and then build his speed all the way up again. So we do this as the road is clear in front of us, and he doesn't gain on us, in fact he drops back a bit whenever he reaches a hill. We start pulling away.
Just a guess but is there a possibility the ambulance driver saw you booting it and decided a prudent approach was to give you room rather than get closer to you and risk you booting it some more?I've been in a similar situation but it was a Police car that came up very quickly behind me...
I knew the road very well and there was traffic on the other side of the road so they couldn't overtake even if they wanted too, most of the road is double solid white lines as it's not very safe for overtaking but quite easy to make progress. You can always tell with response drivers if it's serious or the next level serious where they're on it 100% if you know what I mean..
Me pulling over and letting them overtake was impossible, I attempted to slow but just got more sirens, flash of the lights and the odd horn tone that indicates MOVE! Staying the speed limit was of no use as they were needing to get on. I put my hazards on and booted it for a mile or so with them following safely behind, I kept under 100 but was well over the posted 60. To people on the other side of the road that were in the traffic it probably looked like they were chasing me. I got to the next point where I could safely pull off the road and let them pass and did so. They drove past and I got a thumbs up out the window from the passenger officer and they carried on with their journey and I dropped back to driving the speed limit.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do but emergency services shouldn't be annoyed with you at all for making a decision about your driving. You wouldn't have been round the Slough area would you? If it was a medium build but scary looking scottish bloke it was probably my FIL, but then he is a bit of a road captain on the best of days...
I knew the road very well and there was traffic on the other side of the road so they couldn't overtake even if they wanted too, most of the road is double solid white lines as it's not very safe for overtaking but quite easy to make progress. You can always tell with response drivers if it's serious or the next level serious where they're on it 100% if you know what I mean..
Me pulling over and letting them overtake was impossible, I attempted to slow but just got more sirens, flash of the lights and the odd horn tone that indicates MOVE! Staying the speed limit was of no use as they were needing to get on. I put my hazards on and booted it for a mile or so with them following safely behind, I kept under 100 but was well over the posted 60. To people on the other side of the road that were in the traffic it probably looked like they were chasing me. I got to the next point where I could safely pull off the road and let them pass and did so. They drove past and I got a thumbs up out the window from the passenger officer and they carried on with their journey and I dropped back to driving the speed limit.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do but emergency services shouldn't be annoyed with you at all for making a decision about your driving. You wouldn't have been round the Slough area would you? If it was a medium build but scary looking scottish bloke it was probably my FIL, but then he is a bit of a road captain on the best of days...
Edited by ashleyman on Saturday 1st October 21:36
Speaking as a former blue light driver, it's possible that the ambulance was on its way to a road accident, the driver knowing precisely where it was located, but saw a car in front approaching the location more quickly than the driver thought sensible.
It was a regular event on motorways, being overtaken despite our blue lights, then seeing the same car in a cloud of tyre smoke at the back of a queue.
Road rage and coffee beans gestures would have resulted in a debreif without coffee where I worked.
It was a regular event on motorways, being overtaken despite our blue lights, then seeing the same car in a cloud of tyre smoke at the back of a queue.
Road rage and coffee beans gestures would have resulted in a debreif without coffee where I worked.
Ambulance driver probably expected you would pull in to a side turning or a drive to let him past even though you might then have had to reverse onto a major road. It's difficult to know how much faster he thought he could drive on a clear road. He is supposed though to be a professional driver who would soon be attending a patient. Not the right frame of mind for such work imho!
In London I have seen similar incidents with Ferraris and Lambos who wouldn't go up kerbs to get out of the way - presumably for fear of taking out £000s worth of carbon front end or alloys. A good case for lifters perhaps!
In London I have seen similar incidents with Ferraris and Lambos who wouldn't go up kerbs to get out of the way - presumably for fear of taking out £000s worth of carbon front end or alloys. A good case for lifters perhaps!
Ambulance driver probably expected you would pull in to a side turning or a drive to let him past even though you might then have had to reverse onto a major road. It's difficult to know how much faster he thought he could drive on a clear road. He is supposed though to be a professional driver who would soon be attending a patient. Not the right frame of mind for such work imho!
In London I have seen similar incidents with Ferraris and Lambos who wouldn't go up kerbs to get out of the way - presumably for fear of taking out £000s worth of carbon front end or alloys. A good case for lifters perhaps!
In London I have seen similar incidents with Ferraris and Lambos who wouldn't go up kerbs to get out of the way - presumably for fear of taking out £000s worth of carbon front end or alloys. A good case for lifters perhaps!
ashleyman said:
Me pulling over and letting them overtake was impossible, I attempted to slow but just got more sirens, flash of the lights and the odd horn tone that indicates MOVE! Staying the speed limit was of no use as they were needing to get on. I put my hazards on and booted it for a mile or so with them following safely behind, I kept under 100 but was well over the posted 60.
Whilst I'm sure it may have been the fastest option for the Police, I wouldn't consider it these days as there are far too many jobsworths and far too few of the old school cops with common sense.This :
If the car in front starts racing away we don't know if he's just not seen us, therefor still being a hazard we have to deal with.
Personally i don't mind cars speeding up a bit to find a safe space to pull over, and if you put your hazards on then at least we know you've seen us.
I mainly work on the ambulance cars, so all you need then is for you to slow down a bit, keep left, and i can overtake.
When on the big ambulance's most of us do prefer that you come to a stop as soon as safely possible. If we're on a 40 mp/h strech and you slow down to 35 mp/h but keep driving it'll take us longer to overtake, and they are big heavy vehicles meaning we then have to speed up even more (which will take longer) and be in the oncoming lane for a longer time, which we don't really want to be, especially at speed.
Most people mean well and will try and help, some are just completely oblivious (eg 4 cars in front of them pull over to let us past, and as we start to overtake they then want to overtake the 4 cars that have moved over, despite the fact we're behind them with lights and sirens going for several minutes) and some people are just rude/nasty.
Should he have called you a w*anker ? No, you were trying to help and trying to do what you think was best. There's no point in being visibly rude to other road users, and if he does that a lot it's not healthy. Also don't think it's very professional.
Most of us come across drivers doing silly things, intentionally or unintentionally, during every single blue light run. It's part of the job and you shouldn't let it wind you up.
Funk said:
There are good and bad drivers in all vehicles, even 'professional' drivers.
Maybo also a bit of this, as it does happen : cat with a hat said:
However, I imagine the ambulance driver thought you were trying to 'race' him or use his emergency lights as an excuse to make better progress.
BertBert said:
I would suspect that in the experience of the emergency drivers, they prefer you to slow and they go by even if the 'go faster' way might sometimes be quicker for them. It just adds to risk in their view:
1 has the car in front not seen the emergency vehicle? - always a nasty time
2 generally people do stupid things when they encounter blues and twos as they have no experience of it and panic, so is the car in front being stupid too?
3 and if the car in front is doing a stupid thing, the very last thing the emergency vehicle needs is for that to be happening at high speed.
Bert
True. 1 has the car in front not seen the emergency vehicle? - always a nasty time
2 generally people do stupid things when they encounter blues and twos as they have no experience of it and panic, so is the car in front being stupid too?
3 and if the car in front is doing a stupid thing, the very last thing the emergency vehicle needs is for that to be happening at high speed.
Bert
If the car in front starts racing away we don't know if he's just not seen us, therefor still being a hazard we have to deal with.
Personally i don't mind cars speeding up a bit to find a safe space to pull over, and if you put your hazards on then at least we know you've seen us.
I mainly work on the ambulance cars, so all you need then is for you to slow down a bit, keep left, and i can overtake.
When on the big ambulance's most of us do prefer that you come to a stop as soon as safely possible. If we're on a 40 mp/h strech and you slow down to 35 mp/h but keep driving it'll take us longer to overtake, and they are big heavy vehicles meaning we then have to speed up even more (which will take longer) and be in the oncoming lane for a longer time, which we don't really want to be, especially at speed.
Most people mean well and will try and help, some are just completely oblivious (eg 4 cars in front of them pull over to let us past, and as we start to overtake they then want to overtake the 4 cars that have moved over, despite the fact we're behind them with lights and sirens going for several minutes) and some people are just rude/nasty.
Should he have called you a w*anker ? No, you were trying to help and trying to do what you think was best. There's no point in being visibly rude to other road users, and if he does that a lot it's not healthy. Also don't think it's very professional.
Most of us come across drivers doing silly things, intentionally or unintentionally, during every single blue light run. It's part of the job and you shouldn't let it wind you up.
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