Ambulances impersonating police officers

[CB-Dave]

Where I live, there is a fairly large industrial estate and I've lost count of the amount of ambulance drivers pretending to be coppers, sitting where the police sit - in liveried vehicles (Smarts - I kid you not!, and big estate cars) with blue lights on, causing much panic braking by more uninformed members of the public.

I've also noticed the self same ones parked on hatchings over dual carriageway bridges - again, acting like coppers.

Is there anything that can be done about this? if anything they're impersonating police officers - at the very least they could be named as the root cause of an accident...

Any BiB care to comment?

[CB-Dave]

lol, not with their lights on - as in active, I mean with a blue light bar on top of the vehicle...

The ambulances (well - paramedic rapid response which is what I think they are) have battenberg livery which is *very* similar to the local const's T5s etc...

>> Edited by CB-Dave on Wednesday 30th July 19:28

[CB-Dave]

So basically there's nowt that can be done?

I feel like battenberging up a car and parking outside the ambulance station to give the drivers who come off shift a shock... no "police" writing or anything, just parked (slightly) out of sight - just like they do...

gurrr!

[CB-Dave]

TheExcession said:

Sorry CB-Dave but wtf are you going on about - ambulance car or police car so what??? Either you're breaking the speed limit or you're not, either you see em or you don't, either you get caught or errrrm... you don't - I can't see what you're on about.... best Ex

Um ok, seems you jump to conclusions before you read? Are you usually premature? - where did I say in my post that *I* was the one panic braking...

I said "more uninformed members of the public" ie NOT MYSELF... and it is this panic braking that *THEY* do, that could lead to an accident...

The places these people park are most definatley not in the best interests of rapid response, if they were, they'd be parked on either the A1058 Coast Road (major arterial route to Newcastle and Whitley Bay) the A19 (major arterial route to Scotland and the Tyne Tunnel) or the Silverlink industrial estate (smack bang in the middle of both), instead - they park behind a 2ft or so high wall in a 30 zone (justified, there is a high school there although most people don't do 30 because the road is about a mile long and straight), with just the light bar protruding over the top, giving the impression to any driver erring on the side of no caution that they are a police car, and leading to the slamming on, causing accident scenario.

Don't be so bloody quick to judge in future...

Oh - edited to say, they park directly in the middle of two sets of vascar squares too, further compounding this impersonation...

>> Edited by CB-Dave on Thursday 31st July 00:27

[CB-Dave]

Funny, but alas - untrue

This guy parks behind a wall, you can't see him till you pass him - the only thing you see is a blue light bar and half a dozen aerials.

Since the majority of drivers associate blue lights on anything not a fire engine or a box on wheels to be police, this is a definate hazard...

It's hard to put into words but parking where this bloke does, being that:

a: there's fcukloads of speed bumps on every other road
b: he hides behind a wall
c: in the middle of some VASCAR markings
d: with a blue light bar on

says to me he wishes he had chosen the other blue-light career path...

[CB-Dave]

[rimmer] A plan... with no drawbacks [/rimmer]

[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...

[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)

[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...