Double solid white lines and emergency services
Discussion
I was wondering: are emergency vehicles, responding to a call with lights and sirens, permitted to cross double solid white lines in order to overtake regular traffic travelling at faster than 10mph?
Is there any specific advice to motorists who may find an emergency vehicle behind them on a (potentially long) section of road with solid double white lines? Do we slow right down on a straight bit to help the emergency response vehicle pass or do we just continue at a safe and legal speed?
This situation nearly arose for me recently; luckily, I got to a village and pulled into a layby just as an ambulance caught up behind me. I realised that had it caught up sooner I wouldn't have known what to do.
Is there any specific advice to motorists who may find an emergency vehicle behind them on a (potentially long) section of road with solid double white lines? Do we slow right down on a straight bit to help the emergency response vehicle pass or do we just continue at a safe and legal speed?
This situation nearly arose for me recently; luckily, I got to a village and pulled into a layby just as an ambulance caught up behind me. I realised that had it caught up sooner I wouldn't have known what to do.
I don't think they are.
Quote from this thread: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
"Finally, ambulances & Fire Appliances cannot claim an exemption to cross solid white lines, even when on emergency drives. They can only cross solid white lines in the same way as every other road user, as per the highway code."
As to the advice, I think it depends in the circumstances, if it's safe to slow right down and let them pass then go with that, but if the solid white line has actually been put in because of a genuine hazard, then continue on within the speed limit and pull over as soon as it's safe.
Quote from this thread: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
"Finally, ambulances & Fire Appliances cannot claim an exemption to cross solid white lines, even when on emergency drives. They can only cross solid white lines in the same way as every other road user, as per the highway code."
As to the advice, I think it depends in the circumstances, if it's safe to slow right down and let them pass then go with that, but if the solid white line has actually been put in because of a genuine hazard, then continue on within the speed limit and pull over as soon as it's safe.
Edited by Burrito on Monday 11th August 20:01
Burrito said:
I don't think they are.
Quote from this thread: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
"Finally, ambulances & Fire Appliances cannot claim an exemption to cross solid white lines, even when on emergency drives. They can only cross solid white lines in the same way as every other road user, as per the highway code."
As to the advice, I think it depends in the circumstances, if it's safe to slow right down and let them pass then go with that, but if the solid white line has actually been put in because of a genuine hazard, then continue on within the speed limit and pull over as soon as it's safe.
Thanks - that's an interesting thread.Quote from this thread: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
"Finally, ambulances & Fire Appliances cannot claim an exemption to cross solid white lines, even when on emergency drives. They can only cross solid white lines in the same way as every other road user, as per the highway code."
As to the advice, I think it depends in the circumstances, if it's safe to slow right down and let them pass then go with that, but if the solid white line has actually been put in because of a genuine hazard, then continue on within the speed limit and pull over as soon as it's safe.
Edited by Burrito on Monday 11th August 20:01
I had this issue once on a road with double solid white lines, has a fully marked police behind with lights and siren on. Even if I had stopped or slowed down it still wasn't really safe for them to overtake (In fact I did slow to start with but he stayed behind). So I actually did about 70mph on a 50mph road as I knew there was a pull in about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile ahead, I looked in the mirror and I didn't seem to be getting any funny looks or hand gestures so pushed on.
I got to the turn in, they went past and never heard anything after.
This may of been the wrong course of action but at the time it seemed to work.
I got to the turn in, they went past and never heard anything after.
This may of been the wrong course of action but at the time it seemed to work.
As stated there is no exemption for solid whites. They are there for good reason.
Dealing with them as a hazard is one of the finer points of response driving. The choices available are,
- Approach the car you wish to overtake with lights and maybe sirens, wait for them to slow to less than 10mph and overtake when safe.
- follow the traffic at a distance so as to reduce the pressure placed on the followed car then close up when appropriate to hopefully slow the followed car and overtake - perhaps when the view is greater.
- turn everything off and wait for a break in the solid whites before continuing.
Dealing with them as a hazard is one of the finer points of response driving. The choices available are,
- Approach the car you wish to overtake with lights and maybe sirens, wait for them to slow to less than 10mph and overtake when safe.
- follow the traffic at a distance so as to reduce the pressure placed on the followed car then close up when appropriate to hopefully slow the followed car and overtake - perhaps when the view is greater.
- turn everything off and wait for a break in the solid whites before continuing.
MajorBeef said:
- Approach the car you wish to overtake with lights and maybe sirens, wait for them to slow to less than 10mph and overtake when safe.
How does that help? If there's no exemption then it's not legal to cross the line to overtake a car just because it's slowed to less than 10mph.SK425 said:
MajorBeef said:
- Approach the car you wish to overtake with lights and maybe sirens, wait for them to slow to less than 10mph and overtake when safe.
How does that help? If there's no exemption then it's not legal to cross the line to overtake a car just because it's slowed to less than 10mph.civicduty said:
SK425 said:
MajorBeef said:
- Approach the car you wish to overtake with lights and maybe sirens, wait for them to slow to less than 10mph and overtake when safe.
How does that help? If there's no exemption then it's not legal to cross the line to overtake a car just because it's slowed to less than 10mph.
(129 btw)Which, if we are going to be pedants, why not just stop if there is enough space ahead for the emergency vehicle to pass; then they won't have to break the law.
7mike said:
civicduty said:
SK425 said:
MajorBeef said:
- Approach the car you wish to overtake with lights and maybe sirens, wait for them to slow to less than 10mph and overtake when safe.
How does that help? If there's no exemption then it's not legal to cross the line to overtake a car just because it's slowed to less than 10mph. (129 btw)Which, if we are going to be pedants, why not just stop if there is enough space ahead for the emergency vehicle to pass; then they won't have to break the law.
SK425 said:
MajorBeef said:
- Approach the car you wish to overtake with lights and maybe sirens, wait for them to slow to less than 10mph and overtake when safe.
How does that help? If there's no exemption then it's not legal to cross the line to overtake a car just because it's slowed to less than 10mph.mph1977 said:
pop back to your copy of the HC SK425 ...
Whilst I was confident I was correct before checking, I did actually check what the rules are before posting my reply to MajorBeef. I didn't check the HC - even better I checked the actual law.Funnily enough though, the HC says the same thing. Certainly doesn't seem legal to me to cross a solid white line to pass a (moving) car just because it's doing less than 10mph. What have I missed?
Being a driver of an emergency vehicle…. people are correct in saying that there is no exemption for us (ambulance in my case) to cross solid white lines. Personally I will hang back with lights on but sirens OFF and wait for the lines to break. People do slow down and eventually move over or stop. The problem is when people slow to 20 - 30mph and move over waiting for us to cross - in this case I hang back further.
Occasionally some drivers will cross solid lines when traffic has slowed sufficiently to effect a safe overtake. If we continue behind drivers in a solid white line system it will sometimes leave other road users guessing at what we want so sometimes better to get past them. But there are obviously drivers of emergency vehicles that will overtake on solid lines irregardless.
Occasionally some drivers will cross solid lines when traffic has slowed sufficiently to effect a safe overtake. If we continue behind drivers in a solid white line system it will sometimes leave other road users guessing at what we want so sometimes better to get past them. But there are obviously drivers of emergency vehicles that will overtake on solid lines irregardless.
p1esk said:
MajorBeef said:
As stated there is no exemption for solid whites. They are there for good reason.
Not always.You appear to have more faith than I do in the people who decide where to apply them.
Gary
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