One for the BiB's....midwives
Discussion
My wife is a midwife and as far as I know she has no exemption from parking regulations etc. She does have a sticker on the car which says something like "Midwife on duty, please leave room for me to drive away quickly".
I also know that she has had a couple of colleagues who have been stopped for speeding on their way to a home birth, and they have been let off by the police officers that stopped them.
With her old health authority she had a company car, and if they got parking tickets the health authority would pay them as long as there was a good excuse for the ticket, and they were on-duty at the time. I also understand that the Health Authority would support them if them were cameraed again assuming they were on duty and on their way to a home birth. However I do not believe there is any exemtion for midwives.
I also know that she has had a couple of colleagues who have been stopped for speeding on their way to a home birth, and they have been let off by the police officers that stopped them.
With her old health authority she had a company car, and if they got parking tickets the health authority would pay them as long as there was a good excuse for the ticket, and they were on-duty at the time. I also understand that the Health Authority would support them if them were cameraed again assuming they were on duty and on their way to a home birth. However I do not believe there is any exemtion for midwives.
ca092003 said:
chrisg31
Thanks for that. Any thoughts on whether midwives should be able to use a green flashing light?
Personally I have never seen the point in a green flashing light, but then I live in a rural area, so traffic is not a big problem!
I can see that in big cities it could be useful, although on most occasions where a midwife is called they have sufficient time to get to the mother before the birth.
falcemob said:
My wife is a manager in a maternity department (Womens services it's now known as). The midwives there are constantly getting parking tickets and no they are not exempt
Do the midwives pay them personally, or does the department pay them?
Whose bright idea was it to replace Maternity with Womens services? What possible offence can the word maternity cause?
chrisgr31 said:
chrisg31
Thanks for that. Any thoughts on whether midwives should be able to use a green flashing light?
Personally I have never seen the point in a green flashing light, but then I live in a rural area, so traffic is not a big problem!
I can see that in big cities it could be useful, although on most occasions where a midwife is called they have sufficient time to get to the mother before the birth.
This would almost never be the case in Stockport as the town has had congestion "designed in". It would be quite normal for a midwife leaving the maternaty hospital to travel say 2 miles to take as long as 2 hours to get there due to 20 years of Liberal Democrat traffic management. A green light might help a bit but jailing the council would be more effective.
My sister got stopped for speeding while on her way to a home delivery and she had to cough for the £60 and 3 points!
Don't know how she gets on for parking i'll have to ask her. You'd think they'd have some form of emergency medical permit. After all a healthy mother and child is more important than a poorly parked car!
Don't know how she gets on for parking i'll have to ask her. You'd think they'd have some form of emergency medical permit. After all a healthy mother and child is more important than a poorly parked car!
Streetcop said:
Roy,
Whilst I agree...the poorly parked vehicle..means the midwife is still gets to the location...
However, if the midwife has a collision en-route; he/she is no help to anyone..
just another way of looking at it.
That was the attitude of the BiB who issued the ticket and to be fair my sister agreed (as did i). You just don't think in those terms when you feel your journey is that important. It could have been dealt with a lot more seriously. She was giving it some stick in a 40mph zone at ~5am when the white volvo with its nose peeping out of a side road turned out to contain a BiB
. Roy..
Your sister ended up with a ticket based on what the officer thought was the correct course of action at that time...
I'm not going to comment on whether that was right or wrong, as I wasn't there..
However, I've given fixed penalties in exactly the same sort of circumstances. By the same token, I recenlty stopped a driver at 85 on a 70mph dual carriageway...and gave him a verbal warning only...as he was on the way to visit his elderly mother who had been rushed to hospital.
I made my decision at the time, based on my gut instincts. There are those who may think I was wrong to not ticket him, as I had ticketted people in the past in similar circumstances.
That's the problem with BiB discretion...it's very indiscriminate...
Your sister ended up with a ticket based on what the officer thought was the correct course of action at that time...
I'm not going to comment on whether that was right or wrong, as I wasn't there..
However, I've given fixed penalties in exactly the same sort of circumstances. By the same token, I recenlty stopped a driver at 85 on a 70mph dual carriageway...and gave him a verbal warning only...as he was on the way to visit his elderly mother who had been rushed to hospital.
I made my decision at the time, based on my gut instincts. There are those who may think I was wrong to not ticket him, as I had ticketted people in the past in similar circumstances.
That's the problem with BiB discretion...it's very indiscriminate...
Gary, (first name terms with a copper.... never thought i'd see the day )
That's what being a copper is all about, using your experience to apply the law. If my sister had been caught by a camera it would have been a lot worse but the copper looked at the situation and decided on the fairest course of action. She agreed with the ticket, even though she did her best to talk her way out if it. She sticks to the limit everywhere now and i don't think there's been a massive rise in infant mortality
) That's what being a copper is all about, using your experience to apply the law. If my sister had been caught by a camera it would have been a lot worse but the copper looked at the situation and decided on the fairest course of action. She agreed with the ticket, even though she did her best to talk her way out if it. She sticks to the limit everywhere now and i don't think there's been a massive rise in infant mortality
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