Ambulance driver called me a w****r

Ambulance driver called me a w****r

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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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I don't have a problem with an ambulance driver calling me 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 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?

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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There are good and bad drivers in all vehicles, even 'professional' drivers. He's probably used to dealing with numpties and expects everyone to be to the same low standards.

CAPP0

19,530 posts

202 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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I don't generally like popcorn for breakfast.

cat with a hat

1,484 posts

117 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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I would probably do the same..

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.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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CAPP0 said:
I don't generally like popcorn for breakfast.
I'm afraid that's all there is available today Sir.

bitchstewie

50,767 posts

209 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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I've done similar before now.

I guess you have to see both sides which is that probably 99% of the time when the car in front appears to do nothing it's because the driver hasn't noticed the emergency vehicle, so their default instinct is probably that you're simply blind ignorant rather than trying to keep out their way by giving them a clear run.

Like you I've also seen people simply panic and almost do emergency stops in both directions meaning the emergency vehicle has to actively manoeuvre through when simply not panicking would open a natural gap.

CrutyRammers

13,735 posts

197 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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cat with a hat said:
I would probably do the same..

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.
Me too, and probably this ^^^^. But you tried to do the best thing so just put it down to a misunderstanding.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
CrutyRammers said:
Me too, and probably this ^^^^. But you tried to do the best thing so just put it down to a misunderstanding.
I think that's best.

I was hoping some of the blue light drivers on here could offer an opinion on what is helpful and what isn't.

Bright Halo

2,950 posts

234 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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I had a similar situation with a police car behind me whilst travelling down a very twisty country lane with few overtaking places. Very busy in op direction.
I knew I could not just stop as that would hold him up, so proceeded at and just over the 60mph speed limit.
After about 2 miles I came to a place where as I rounded a bend I could see it was clear in op direction. Dropped my drivers window and pointed to the right. I didn't want to indicate as he may have thought I was stopping.
Anyway he blasted past and gave me a thumbs up which was good.

I do have to say though that there are so many variables in these situations that it can be difficult to know what is best so as not to hinder emergency services progress.

Bill

52,472 posts

254 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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CrutyRammers said:
Me too, and probably this ^^^^. But you tried to do the best thing so just put it down to a misunderstanding.
This. But could you really not find a lay-by or junction to pull into? It could well have looked like you hadn't seen him until the last minute. (And we all know you're an advanced driving god, but he may have felt your speed wasn't appropriate...)

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
Bill said:
This. But could you really not find a lay-by or junction to pull into? It could well have looked like you hadn't seen him until the last minute. (And we all know you're an advanced driving god, but he may have felt your speed wasn't appropriate...)
There are no lay-bys on this road, and the junctions are just small country land road ends.

I have not suggested that I am any kind of a driving god.

StottyEvo

6,860 posts

162 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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A couple years ago, late at night I was travelling on a two lane 40mph road with central reservation. I'd moved to the right hand lane as I was turning right a couple hundred yards, blue lights came off the roundabout behind me in the left lane so I immediately indicated to the right, slowed and moved to the kerb.

The ambulance responder vehicle almost rear ended me confused flashing his lights and gesticulating to move over. I moved to the left lane and he drove past on the right, still gesticulating.

BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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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

Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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My guess is that when you "make progress" it looks to the ambulance driver like you've not seen him whereas at least slowing down allows him to attempt an overtake when clear to do so. I tend to make a clear "swerve" to the kerb to show him I know he is there as well in case he wants to go for an overtake.


RogueTrooper

882 posts

170 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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NinjaPower said:
I'm only doing around 60-65.

As he gets a bit closer with no cars between him and me myself and the car in front both decide that the best way to allow him to progress quickly is to boot it .. we do this as the road is clear in front of us

...

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 ..
It reads as though you had opportunity to slow (without stopping) and let him past, but chose not to, then later on when he did pass, it was at a point where you all had to stop - meaning he was delayed more than perhaps was best possible.


NinjaPower said:
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?
Sometimes people do stop at inappropriate points. Next to traffic islands with a queue of oncoming traffic or just before blind bends seem to be favoured where I work! wink

Sometimes people carry on unaware, or slow slightly but not enough to make an overtake safe or easy. Emergency service fleet managers don't buy the biggest, fastest engines they can, they buy the smallest, cheapest they can get away with and still have the vehicles perform their role.

There are other factors to consider with emergency response driving. For example, on a single carriageway, I might sit out to the offside in the face of oncoming traffic, showing my intent to overtake you. I might get a response (moving to nearside/slowing) from you and you might wonder why I don't commit and overtake. I meanwhile might still be waiting for a similar response from oncoming traffic before I can safely commit.

Relevance of the above? If you've only lifted off and slowed by 10mph (for example) then my window of opportunity is more limited than if you had slowed by 20mph. It seems as though you (the OP) realise emergency vehicles don't have warp-drives, but they may need more assistance than you think because they may have all sorts of other considerations.

I generally wouldn't speed up ahead of the emergency services because they don't need me between them and their objective. What if they're going to a RTC a mile ahead?

Every situation is different though.


Edited by RogueTrooper on Saturday 1st October 10:32

MitchT

15,788 posts

208 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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Some people can't see beyond the end of their own nose and put themselves in the other person's position. I got the coffee beans about a week ago in the following scenario ...

Driving along a long, straight residential street when I'm greeted with parked cars on both sides of the road. Once I'm committed to driving through the 'tunnel' between the parked cars there's no going back. No issue as no one's coming the other way. About half way along what must be 300m of parked cars someone appears round the corner at the far end of the road, about 100m from the end of the tunnel of parked cars. I have about 150m to go. Guy coming other way obviously has to stop and wait, but inexplicably gives me the coffee beans as I emerge from the tunnel and leave the road clear for him to proceed. Not sure what else I could have done. I wasn't going to reverse all the way back up the road when he only had to wait a few seconds and stopping would have simply blocked the road entirely. On numerous occasions when the scenario has been reversed on this piece of road I've always simply stopped, waited and accepted that this was the only practical solution.

Like I said, some people can't see beyond the end of their own nose and put themselves in the other person's position.

TTommy

158 posts

124 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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Perhaps the ambulance driver was simply signalling to himself in the mirror?

I also do this all the time. I see them from way back and keep up ahead until a nice area to pull in.

RogueTrooper

882 posts

170 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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NinjaPower said:
There are no lay-bys on this road, and the junctions are just small country land road ends.
If you can safely indicate and turn into one of those, why not? You'd certainly get a mental thumbs up from me.

Riley Blue

20,914 posts

225 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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RogueTrooper said:
NinjaPower said:
There are no lay-bys on this road, and the junctions are just small country land road ends.
If you can safely indicate and turn into one of those, why not? You'd certainly get a mental thumbs up from me.
That's what I'd have done but equally, others may not. Either way, I don't think it's worth losing any sleep over.

TheBear

1,940 posts

245 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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It's a difficult one. If there is going to be a genuine delay from pulling over (the road is too narrow or inappropriate place) then I would rather you found the nearest place to safely move over to minimise that. However that should really be as soon as possible.

The thing to consider is that you don't know how far ahead the emergency is, whether it is on the same stretch of road or whether by being able to stay ahead of an emergency vehicle you are creating a distraction for both parties or are you making yourself an unwanted hazard.

Are you fully aware of what is ahead of you whilst you are constantly glancing in your mirror at the distance behind the vehicle on blue lights is and judging whether you can stay ahead? It's going to take your concentration away from what's in front of you.

Personally, in my own car I will pull over as soon as possible even if the vehicle is way in the distance behind as I don't know what is ahead or whether it's on the same road, I don't know if the road is blocked and I don't want to be responsible for adding to an emergency crews delay just because I will have to slow for a few seconds. It could be just around the corner and if I continue on then I could adding to it.