Drivers pulling out from side streets not looking/giving way

[Oliverrun]

caelite said:

This annoys me so much when they pull out and doddle. I honestly dont mind when they pull out, realise they have fked up and boot it up to 30.

This. If they're in such a rush they need to pull out, why not make decent progress after? Even more annoying on an NSL, perhaps they don't actually expect anyone to be travelling at 60pmph...

[delta0]

Saw that today. After pulling out in front of me then continued to weave around lane driving well under the speed limit. Clearly pished.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

caelite said:

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

This IS happening more and more.......but what REALLY worries me the most, is that people are doing it in front of my company vehicle when I am working...

...Which looks like this:

[IMG Snipped]

now THAT is an Olympic standard lack of attention!

It absolutely infuriates me how some road users react around blues, especially ambulances. 60 seconds out of your day to move over and make room for them and you could literally save a life. Some people are just entirely oblivious to whats going on behind them or even try to exploit the space that other road users are making for you, it really boils my piss. Ive had to ride in the back of one of your vans on multiple occasions and have the utmost respect for what you guys do.

Thanks ever so much for those kind words, that really does mean a lot, and I hope my colleagues - wherever they are in the country - did their best for you and treated you well. It sounds like they did.

I have to say, actually MOST people are pretty good, it's fortunately a bit of a minority with the observation skills of a dead newt.....

Some of my colleagues get a bit angry and road ragey when they come up behind an oblivious one - I am perhaps a bit more charitable, I put it down to ordinary people doing ordinary things, driving on autopilot thinking about what they have to do in their day.....does that make sense? So despite the fact that they're not on their phone or anything, but simply miss us, despite our lights and sirens behind....I sort of understand in a way. We're all only human, after all.

[fangio]

Mr Tidy said:

Then they usually potter along at about 23 mph (if it is a 30 limit) until they decide to turn into another side road!

Not new. Used to call it 'Turner's theory strikes again' when we were quite young, 50-odd years ago! Pull out right in front of you and drive slowly until the next turning, usually to the right, then have to wait behind them for a gap in on-coming traffic.

And still they do it.....

[brrapp]

Mr Tidy said:

The most annoying thing is most of them slow down, look and then just pull out anyway - WS! Then they usually potter along at about 23 mph (if it is a 30 limit) until they decide to turn into another side road!

I have to admit that I'm guilty of pulling out in front of other drivers but if, and only if, I'm able to pull out in front of them and am already at their speed or will reach it well before they have a chance to catch up. I consider this to be normal driving, but judging by the number of beeps and flashes I get, maybe some of them consider I'm cutting it a bit fine.
If I can be out of the junction and pulling away from them whilst maintaining a 3 car length gap and without them having to slow at all then I consider this OK. Am I wrong? I've been doing it for 35 years of driving.

[Hoofy]

You don't actually expect me to notice you while steering? I'm too busy posting up a selfie on Snapchat, you ignorant twerp.

[philmots]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

This IS happening more and more.......but what REALLY worries me the most, is that people are doing it in front of my company vehicle when I am working...

...Which looks like this:



now THAT is an Olympic standard lack of attention!

I've a question that I've always wanted answering and was saving it for when I bumped into (online or not) a paramedic!

I work nights and see maybe once or twice a week ambulances out driving about almost aimlessly, fine but theyre soo slow, 40mph on DC's, 30mph down a roads, 15/20 through 30 zones with no apparent care for anyone else on the road that they're holding up.

I realise stuff needs servicing and vehicle movements etc are necessary, and during the night is probably the best time when it's quiet etc but I do see it very frequently, and across a lot of counties.

So, not a dig at all I'm just curious, what is the reason? Maintenance, wasting fuel, waiting for something to happen, trip to the nearest 24hr Maccys??

[aka_kerrly]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

This IS happening more and more.......but what REALLY worries me the most, is that people are doing it in front of my company vehicle when I am working...

...Which looks like this:



now THAT is an Olympic standard lack of attention!

I have often wondered do emergency services vehicles have dash/rear mount cams which can provide evidence to prosecute numpties who obstruct you?

[*Al*]

I had a driving instructor do this to me on my motorbike, I stopped and he just argued saying I was speeding!! I'd only just turned into the road that he just pulled out on me from. I kept it polite and calm, he knew he was wrong you could tell.

[Jasandjules]

Happens most of the time here at a specific junction, which is in an NSL. You have a good view of the road so people see you are cruising along at 50-60mph then pull out when you are 50yards away. Then they usually potter up to 40mph.....

[LeoZwalf]

philmots said:

I've a question that I've always wanted answering and was saving it for when I bumped into (online or not) a paramedic!

I work nights and see maybe once or twice a week ambulances out driving about almost aimlessly, fine but theyre soo slow, 40mph on DC's, 30mph down a roads, 15/20 through 30 zones with no apparent care for anyone else on the road that they're holding up.

I realise stuff needs servicing and vehicle movements etc are necessary, and during the night is probably the best time when it's quiet etc but I do see it very frequently, and across a lot of counties.

So, not a dig at all I'm just curious, what is the reason? Maintenance, wasting fuel, waiting for something to happen, trip to the nearest 24hr Maccys??

Transporting a delicate patient?

[croyde]

I've noticed this more and more lately, with collision avoided only by severe braking from me.

I had put it down to moving out of London to the sticks. Obviously it's far more common than I thought.

It worries me that if they are willing to do it to 2 tones of metal coming at them at 30 mph, they'll think nothing of doing it when I'm out on my motorbike, which especially when it's cold and wet, doesn't stop so well.

[grumpyscot]

Young guy did that a few years ago - came up to the Give Way sign, turned left on to a 60mph section. Pity a truck was overtaking a broken down police car (honest!) and the youngster drove straight into the truck. He died. There's now a memorial plaque there, but still people just pull out when they see no traffic from the right. (The traffic on left is hidden by a house!)

[Ste1987]

Worst instance I've seen related to this is guy blasts his way out of side street, into wrong side of the road, nearly head-on collision with myself before narrowly avoiding me and continuing on his way. Oh, and he was on his phone

So wish I had a dash cam for that

[vikingaero]

There's a particular type of male driver 30-40's/Chav/Company Director/German car who will pull up at a give way sign. Look left, and see nothing coming and pull out into the road and expect the cars from his right to magically make room for him on a sixpence. Normally if he waits 5 seconds the road is completely clear behind the oncoming car yet he cannot fathom the inconvenience caused.

[Toltec]

brrapp said:

I have to admit that I'm guilty of pulling out in front of other drivers but if, and only if, I'm able to pull out in front of them and am already at their speed or will reach it well before they have a chance to catch up. I consider this to be normal driving, but judging by the number of beeps and flashes I get, maybe some of them consider I'm cutting it a bit fine.
If I can be out of the junction and pulling away from them whilst maintaining a 3 car length gap and without them having to slow at all then I consider this OK. Am I wrong? I've been doing it for 35 years of driving.

Depends on the distance and speed, they do not know you are going to get on with it, if the distance means they would need to brake for the normal dribbler then they probably will.

Pretty sure I have been guilty of this to an extent, you pull out and when you check behind they are much further back than you would expect.

It is like a car turning right across you, you have to allow that they might stall or suddenly see their path is not clear and stop.

[Rich_W]

Similar thing happened to me Saturday. Very slow moving Fiat, so when a space permitted went for the overtake. As I was alongside the Fiat. A Merc appears at the end of his drive. Stops. Looked. And went anyway. So I have to heave on the brakes and then cut up the Fiat (wasn't that close, but I'd rather not have!) to avoid smashing into him.

I know I'm probably in the wrong as much as Merc driver. Poor choice of spot. But surely he saw 2 cars coming towards him?

[xjay1337]

I was heading back from Milford on Sea today via some nice wide open B-roads and quaint villages after a lovely walk along the coast.

I st you not, within a 2 mile stretch at every single junction SOMEONE pulled out infront me.
In all situations the driver was completely oblivious.

There have been a few occasions where you can see when approaching a roundabout that someone will just drive out infront of you and does not look, as I make eye contact with people so you can see if they are actually looking - Their heads often don't even move.

Driving is becoming a shambles.

Regarding pulling out infront of someone, if you can pull out and get up to their speed (or faster) without them having to break or coming within the "2 second rule" - IMO that is fine. When people pull out and then take forever to accelerate up to the limit, meaning you have to actually scrub off 30% of your speed, that is fking annoying.

[caelite]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Thanks ever so much for those kind words, that really does mean a lot, and I hope my colleagues - wherever they are in the country - did their best for you and treated you well. It sounds like they did.

I have to say, actually MOST people are pretty good, it's fortunately a bit of a minority with the observation skills of a dead newt.....

Some of my colleagues get a bit angry and road ragey when they come up behind an oblivious one - I am perhaps a bit more charitable, I put it down to ordinary people doing ordinary things, driving on autopilot thinking about what they have to do in their day.....does that make sense? So despite the fact that they're not on their phone or anything, but simply miss us, despite our lights and sirens behind....I sort of understand in a way. We're all only human, after all.

I know its a bit offtopic and you have been bombarded with questions but something I have always wondered about: what is actually the most helpful thing to do if you have blues coming up behind or infront of you?

Ive always been in the mindset that if they are behind by ~100m or so I will pop my left signal on, move as far left as I can then, provided there is space to pass me come to a halt (if im in the shogun or work van I tend to get up onto the pavement too since its not doing my vehicle any harm and it gives yous more room for error). If they are infront of me ill do pretty much the same in case you want to filter down the middle.

Although ive heard people saying that you should continue your course in a predictable manner and allow the emergency driver to make provisions to pass you.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

caelite said:

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Thanks ever so much for those kind words, that really does mean a lot, and I hope my colleagues - wherever they are in the country - did their best for you and treated you well. It sounds like they did.

I have to say, actually MOST people are pretty good, it's fortunately a bit of a minority with the observation skills of a dead newt.....

Some of my colleagues get a bit angry and road ragey when they come up behind an oblivious one - I am perhaps a bit more charitable, I put it down to ordinary people doing ordinary things, driving on autopilot thinking about what they have to do in their day.....does that make sense? So despite the fact that they're not on their phone or anything, but simply miss us, despite our lights and sirens behind....I sort of understand in a way. We're all only human, after all.

I know its a bit offtopic and you have been bombarded with questions but something I have always wondered about: what is actually the most helpful thing to do if you have blues coming up behind or infront of you?

Ive always been in the mindset that if they are behind by ~100m or so I will pop my left signal on, move as far left as I can then, provided there is space to pass me come to a halt (if im in the shogun or work van I tend to get up onto the pavement too since its not doing my vehicle any harm and it gives yous more room for error). If they are infront of me ill do pretty much the same in case you want to filter down the middle.

Although ive heard people saying that you should continue your course in a predictable manner and allow the emergency driver to make provisions to pass you.

Mate it's fine, that's why I am on PH - to chat and maybe answer a few questions!

Ok, first question was about Ambo's being driven around during the night at slow speeds. It COULD be that the crew are transporting a patient at a slow / gentle speed due to the nature of their injuries, yes. Certainly if I have a patient with a broken hip or something, then although I have probably dosed them up on Morphine, I will still get my partner to drive like Miss Daisy. That's just a part of patient care really. It might frustrate other road users, but only until I might ask them, how would they feel if it was THEIR Mum in the back?!

Or could just be a crew that have booked clear after dropping a patient off at hospital and are heading off to a stand-by point or back to base. As you might imagine, driving batsh*t mental on Blues and Twos is probably exciting for, ooh, the first month or two after qualifying......and then like most jobs I guess, the novelty wears off and you start to become aware of the fact that A) it's dangerous, despite the audio / visual warnings, and B) it's quite tiring mentally, because you've gotta have your eyes out on stalks and be driving your A game. That starts to get harder to do, after say our first 12 hour night shift of the week, which has morphed into a 14 hour shift and well into the next morning. HENCE - when we're not driving on Blues / Twos, all we wanna do is cruise as gently and as stress-free as possible!

Lastly - could also be our 'make-ready' teams moving vehicles around. I work at quite a rural station for instance, and we have no permanent make ready staff there to look after, clean, sort and organise our vehicles regularly....so what they often do is drive one or more made-ready vehicles out to the rural stations during the night, and then collect vehicles already on site that are in a state and take them back.

So - these could be the reason why?


Next question - yes, the most modern Merc Sprinter vehicles have a network of five surveillance cameras, in our fleet anyway. We have a rear mounted camera which doubles as a reversing camera, then one on either side of the vehicle, one by the rear view mirror filming everything in front, and one inside. We have the option to press a button to mark and save the last 30 minutes of footage that won't be over-written, should something happen that we need evidence for, whether it's an external traffic event or something that happens inside, like an assault on one of our staff.

Many Trusts have successfully used our vehicle CCTV footage to prosecute people, and rightly so. Courts seem to take an incredibly dim view of anyone causing us an issue in the execution of our duties, and pretty much always come down on our side and deal out some swift and harsh punishments.

With regard to road traffic transgressions by numpties - as I said, I am pretty laid back 95% of the time, because I get that people are driving in their own bubble. However - on the few occasions when someone does something really maliciously dangerous, then I do not take that lying down. I immediately get on the radio to our control, report the driver's behaviour along with the car type and registration number, which gets passed on to the Police, and believe me, they love to follow it up for us, as they see it as looking after their own, so to speak. I have had feedback on every dhead driver that I have reported, and many have had some quite harsh penalties. The Police often come and download our camera footage to secure a conviction. Don't get me wrong, I don't drive around like some traffic vigilante, or as some extension of Traffic Police - but if someone blatantly threatens the safety of me, my patient and my vehicle by being a selfish dick, then they are fair game!

I think that my biggest piss-boiler, is when I am doing around 100mph on a fairly congested dual carriageway or motorway, all the traffic in front is pulling over for me, and I get some total dick following close behind me, using me as their own personal traffic clearance device to make better progress. I absolutely will not have that, and this kind of fkwittery is the main source of my reporting to the Police.

Last question - what would I like you to do, when I come up behind you on an emergency response on blues and twos? Quite simply, whatever the road conditions, I would like you to just stop please. Don't speed up, trying to be helpful and go looking for a better place to pull over or something...I know that they mean well, but because I don't have to stick to posted speed limits, after a while I am still gonna have to get past you, so might as well make that sooner rather than later. So for me at least, just stop, and don't even worry about smashing up onto a kerb or pavement, and buggering up your alloy wheels - just stop in the carriageway, and let getting past you be my problem. We all get 20 days of advanced driver training with 5 exams - so we're well able to cope with dynamic situations like that!

And if you're stopped at a red traffic light, despite the fact that I might stop behind you with all my lights going, I will turn the siren off and wait for the lights to change, because I am aware that if you do drive over the white line on a red light, then you are liable to get a 3 point/£100 ticket, even if you're doing it for an emergency vehicle. Mentally, the law does not allow for this! So don't worry about it, I can wait until the lights change if there's no other way for me to get past you.