Ambulance driver called me a w****r
Discussion
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?
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 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?
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.
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