Ambulances impersonating police officers

[CB-Dave]

loaf said:

Exactly how do you know what's the best place for them to sit for rapid response? Do you have access to the 999/112 call history for the area? Have you seen the forecast call plan? Have you ever sat in on a shift in Central Ambulance Control? Have you ever ridden along on a response unit? Unless the answer to most of these questions is yes then you're the one who should not be so quick to judge.

Mmm, so a speedbumped, 30mph limited road with a school is a *really* good place to sit for rapid response? please... use your 'loaf' and refrain from comments such as the one above until you have local knowledge hey?

And maybe the 2ft was a little short, not that it's on a downward incline and thus the rear of the car is hence lower than the front.

As far as I'm aware, vascar can be used as long as the cop car sees the target pass over the first marking, he hits the "go" button, then waits till he goes over the second, hits the "stop" button and voila - time taken to go a set distance = speed.

The only problem I have with these lot is that they purposely hide, if they sat in full view people would have more of a chance of seeing them, but for them to hide a'la police officers with speed measuring equipment seems to me that they want to create their own accidents instead of going to ones they are dispatched to...

[loaf]

CB-Dave said:

loaf said: Exactly how do you know what's the best place for them to sit for rapid response? Do you have access to the 999/112 call history for the area? Have you seen the forecast call plan? Have you ever sat in on a shift in Central Ambulance Control? Have you ever ridden along on a response unit? Unless the answer to most of these questions is yes then you're the one who should not be so quick to judge. Mmm, so a speedbumped, 30mph limited road with a school is a *really* good place to sit for rapid response? please... use your 'loaf' and refrain from comments such as the one above until you have local knowledge hey? And maybe the 2ft was a little short, not that it's on a downward incline and thus the rear of the car is hence lower than the front. As far as I'm aware, vascar can be used as long as the cop car sees the target pass over the first marking, he hits the "go" button, then waits till he goes over the second, hits the "stop" button and voila - time taken to go a set distance = speed. The only problem I have with these lot is that they purposely hide, if they sat in full view people would have more of a chance of seeing them, but for them to hide a'la police officers with speed measuring equipment seems to me that they want to create their own accidents instead of going to ones they are dispatched to...

HOW DO YOU KNOW they are 'PURPOSELY' hiding??? Do you seriously think paramedics have nothing better to do than play 'let's see how many accidents we can cause today' ??? YOU have formed an opinion based on your interpretation of facts. A 30mph speedbumped road may well be the best place to park IF the 999/112 call history indicates that there is a high percentage of calls within the locality. Rapid response units don't only do motorways and trunk roads, they serve the whole community.

Why don't you go up and ask the next one you see why he parks there (politely, natch). You may well be surprised and just maybe you might learn something.

[CB-Dave]

I 'KNOW' they are 'PURPOSELY' hiding as to get into 'SUCH A POSITION' means spending 'QUITE A WHILE' maneuvering the car 'TO' park it up 'WHERE THEY DO'

The fact it is the *same* driver, and the other ambulances park where I said (on the silverlink trading estate) says to me that 'HE' is playing 'WOO WOO POLICE MAN'...

(humourous emphasis added a'la your last post)

[Rushjob]

But unless you have actually spoken to said driver, aren't you still making an assumption as to his motivation to use said parking space?

[CB-Dave]

Yes, it is total assumption... you are correct - he seems to have found somewhere else to play now as I haven't seen him sitting there for about four days now...

[tigerbear]

as an ambulance worker I disagree with this post. fair enough from behind a wall we may look like the plod, but we park were we can get to a shout from the fastest and safest. as for the comment on the ariels, what are we ment to do use unreliable mobile's as for the comments on the blues, well, maybe we should take them off and only use flashing head lights while shouting nee naa nee naa out of the window.
we do'not intend to look like the plod but if jo public can't tell the difference thays their problem

tiger(now getting off his soapbox)bear

[DJFish]

Feel compelled to comment on this one,

If there's an emergency vehicle of any kind parked behind a wall, in a 30 zone, with speed bumps, that you see at the last minute (Have I got this right? I kinda skimmed through the posts) why/how is this going to cause an accident?

These vehicles are a common sight on public roads, and if 'one' needs to panic break then one is obviously going too fast for the prevailing circumstances and conditions and could do with slowing down anyway!

I'm quite happy to see trafpol/paramedic cars dotted about, would rather see them then Gatsos everywhere, and if anything should be banned, it should be white van men taking a sarnie break on a motorway bridge.

[nick heppinstall]

My mate drives one of these fast response vehicles in South Yorkshire. An Audi A3. They are using some king of predictive emergency system. He will get a call from control telling him to go and park in a certain spot at a certain time because the system 'predicts' that there may be a call at thet time. Spooky. He says that it works. He will go and park up and more often than not a few minutes later he will get a job in the local vicinity.

[Mr2Mike]

There's often a battenburg flavous ambulance parked over one of the bridges on the A38 near Plymouth. It's had the adrenalin pumping in me a few times now. Thee's absolutely no reason to park bang in the middle of the dual carriageway bridge, response times aren't going to be significantly different at either end of the bridge. I am 100% sure they do it for fun, I can see no other rational explanation.

[streaky]

silverback mike said:

Buy a 'retired' T5, cut 2 holes in the grille, and put 5 small aerials in the roof. Make sure there are no blue lights anywhere near it, not even those blue squirter LED'S (An offence itself!) and hey presto, a twitch mobile!! Got to be worth a laugh.

Many moons ago (when Z-cars was on the Beeb), a mate had a white Ford Zeypher. He used to zoom up behind people, then back off. Almost without exception, they slowed down to under the speed limit and stuck there. Worked best with two up in the Zeypher - Streaky