Ambulance chasing.
Discussion
I'm at work today driving my bus, and behind me an ambulance with blues and twos on is approaching.
I pull over to let it pass, and about a foot away from the back of said ambulance is a transit van tailgating and following ambulance through traffic.
What, if any offence has the transit driver committed?
Apart from being a knob and a pr*ck!
I pull over to let it pass, and about a foot away from the back of said ambulance is a transit van tailgating and following ambulance through traffic.
What, if any offence has the transit driver committed?
Apart from being a knob and a pr*ck!
berlintaxi said:
How do you know the driver's child isn't in the ambulance?
And every other time that one sees an ambulance cutting its way through traffic, the driver who tries to tail it (as soon as it has gone past him) is also a loving parent desperate to get to the hospital?Isn't it pretty obvious that this shadow-the-ambulance tactic almost always is just another of the games that assholes play to try to jump traffic queues?
Regular occurance unfortunately. Very annoying.
Obviously the traffic moves over when they see us, and then pull back in, not expecting some twit following at speed and pushing through.
We always tell the family members to never follow the ambulance on blue lights to hospital and obey by all rules.
I have in the past had a relative who ignored all that and started following us through the red traffic lights, so we switched off all the lights, pulled over and told him stop it immediately or we will not be able rush his relative to hospital on blue lights because he's causing more danger, and that he will be reported to the police.
Another crew has also been rearended not long ago by some idiot following them. They had to brake sharply for a car not looking in his mirrors and the car behind that was trying to follow them through traffic (not a relative) crashed into the back of them.
Fortunately the vehicle behind that had a dashcam and handed the footage over to the police who prosecuted the driver.
Obviously the traffic moves over when they see us, and then pull back in, not expecting some twit following at speed and pushing through.
We always tell the family members to never follow the ambulance on blue lights to hospital and obey by all rules.
I have in the past had a relative who ignored all that and started following us through the red traffic lights, so we switched off all the lights, pulled over and told him stop it immediately or we will not be able rush his relative to hospital on blue lights because he's causing more danger, and that he will be reported to the police.
Another crew has also been rearended not long ago by some idiot following them. They had to brake sharply for a car not looking in his mirrors and the car behind that was trying to follow them through traffic (not a relative) crashed into the back of them.
Fortunately the vehicle behind that had a dashcam and handed the footage over to the police who prosecuted the driver.
Medic-one said:
Regular occurance unfortunately. Very annoying.
Fortunately in my experience, we don't seem to get it TOO regularly.Although we had one a couple of weeks ago, who was being so blatant and following us so closely that our driver feared a collision and so stopped the vehicle (thus delaying the patient's transfer) so that my colleague could open the rear door and shout to them to stop doing it.
The car had a pair of proper meat-head mouth breathers inside, who responded not by backing off, but by giving my colleague a barrage of insulting verbal and hand gestures...why would you do that???
So we just got on the radio and reported them, the car and the reg number. Control got back to us later in the day to say that Plod had nicked them, and that they were both getting stuck on for threatening and abusive behaviour, plus the driver copping a dangerous driving charge too.
Their Billy Big - b
ks moment will cost them dear! Mental 
rambo19 said:
berlintaxi said:
How do you know the driver's child isn't in the ambulance?
In that case, the driver should be in the ambulance with his child.
.Hint: climbing into one's own car and putting one's music on the stereo (ie being in a familiar place) - rather than explaining what's happened/making small conversation with a taxi driver - is a "comfortable place" to be when the solids are hitting the fan
. I acknowledge my approach appears mercenary, but one's child is in the care of professionals for the duration of the journey in the ambulance and the first few minutes of the hospital admission - and one MUST look after one's self as well as others if one is to survive the journey in the long term...Admittedly my personal story in this regard relates to my late - tetraplegic & bed-bound - wife (rather than a child), but she understood perfectly why I was following on behind (and booking her in at A&E, such were the vagaries of the system where she was already on "the corridor" waiting for an immediate destination [which usually turned out to be Resus] but not yet "booked in"
).Happy times
; but there is an argument for following behind in a safe manner - easier said than done, emotionally, I admit.PS I would much rather have driven away (with my own thoughts - in my own world) from the hospital after my wife passed away, rather than having a taxi driver keep repeating "You serious?" with depressing regularity for 30 minutes until I got to the end of my - sorry, our
- drive and paid him off...I'm fine now
*twitch* - but a bit to think about? It's not black & white, and there are no right or wrong answers .Nigel Worc's said:
You just need to ask the driver of a second vehicle on blues and twos how fraught with danger following the first vehicle is !
The traffic opens up for the first, then quite often closes back in on the second, as people just aren't expecting it.
Yep, using a different siren tone and cycling them in tandem with the first vehicle is useful, as is offsetting your position behind the first vehicle slightly to improve your own view and allow other drivers to see that there is more than one vehicle travelling on blues.The traffic opens up for the first, then quite often closes back in on the second, as people just aren't expecting it.
i can't seem this as being particularly common, i've never actually seen it, although that might be to do with how i drive, i'm not usually one for getting into conflict with other drivers these days, but someone would have to be pretty much pinned to the back of the ambulance for me to not just pull straight back out not giving anyone a chance to jump past me.
As a fellow bus driver I see it all the time, but mostly they just swerve around you and take it as an opportunity to get in front of you. Another favourite is when you pull over to let a blue light pass and they swerve round you thinking you've pulled over at a stop, causing the blue light vehicle to nearly go into the back of them.
ging84 said:
i can't seem this as being particularly common, i've never actually seen it, although that might be to do with how i drive, i'm not usually one for getting into conflict with other drivers these days, but someone would have to be pretty much pinned to the back of the ambulance for me to not just pull straight back out not giving anyone a chance to jump past me.
So you dont even check to see whats coming up behind before you pull straight back out? What prize do you get for not letting someone get a chance jump past you? You have a great attitude towards driving. Do you also speed up and close the gap when someone is attempting to over take you?Z4MCoupe said:
So you dont even check to see whats coming up behind before you pull straight back out? What prize do you get for not letting someone get a chance jump past you? You have a great attitude towards driving. Do you also speed up and close the gap when someone is attempting to over take you?
No i don't pull out without looking, that is not what i said, but normally if i was pulled in at the side of the road, and i was in my mirror a car a little way back already pulling out i would wait for them to pass, however when everyone has just pulled in for an ambulance things are a little different, most people appreciate this, and despite being back onto the road first because they were passed sooner, they'll hang back for the car infront as they will expect them to pull back out in the same order they pulled in it.But occasionally you get the odd bellend thinks they were back on the road first they can just go for it, there is no prize for not letting them jump ahead of me, but there is a strong chance of me being left stuck out of the stream of traffic because while i had to sit for an extra couple of seconds waiting for them to pass, everyone else behind him has now had plenty of time to get back up to speed, if next car doesn't see what has happened and choose to let me out, i could be stuck at the side of the road with dozens of cars squeezing past me before one actually decides to let me out.
This is why i say f
k them, unless it's going to obviously cause an accident, i'm still going to pull out. If they want to keep their foot on the gas and accelerate into the back of me they are the ones who are going to get firmly landed with the blame.rambo19 said:
berlintaxi said:
How do you know the driver's child isn't in the ambulance?
In that case, the driver should be in the ambulance with his child.I would say that the most likely scenario would be that the child and mother would be in the ambulance and the father would be following in the car behind!
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