A Quick Rant - Moving over for emergency services

GarethDW

GarethDW

GarethDW

Soldato
Joined
22 Jun 2006
Posts
2,971
Location
Swindon
Just feel that I've gotta get this off my chest... it's like therapy or something :p

I was queuing in traffic on a fairly busy road here in Swindon (coming down Kings Hill from Old Town towards the Esso petrol station by Bathwick Tyres for anyone that knows it) when I heard the siren of a police car that was making its way down the same hill.

Bearing in mind the road was fairly busy on both sides without enough space for the police car to get through the middle, I pulled over on to the pavement slightly, as did the people in front of me and the people behind - except for the very ugly and very overweight woman in a battered old 3 series immediately behind me.

Now, due to the amount of traffic we were all crawling along slowly. But she took the opportunity of me and the cars in front pulling over to overtake us all before the police car arrived. I was so amazed by this... I've seen ambulance chasers in the past, but never seen someone do this before the emergency services had gone past.

As she went past me I gestured as if to say, 'what the **** are you doing?' at which point she gave me the bird and carried on regardless. :rolleyes:

<breathe out> There, I feel better now. Thanks for reading.
 
I had a black taxi the other day driving past me on the pavement for about 100 yards because an ambulance was holding traffic up. For a second i thought i was on the outer lane till i realised he was just chugging along on the pavement.
 
I have had this happen and it winds me up as well. Very inconsiderate/selfish driving. Seems to happen quite a lot unfortunately.
 
A similar thing happened to me a while back, standard of driving in this country has gone downhill over the last few years IMO.

On the ranting front, I had a van driver last night drive through a red light & nearly hit me whilst on my bike (cycle)
Missed me by a few inches, never slowed down at all, or showed any concern that he could have killed me.

Rant also over :D
 
Last edited:
While we are here, we have some very narrow roads here in Bodmin that require you or the oncoming vehicle to stop and give way. I have pulled over a couple of times (Indicated to turn back out once my way is clear) on the same road and had cars overtake me and nearly hit the oncoming cars. One day there's going to be a smash, not that I want to see people hurt but I wouldn't mind getting out and pointing the error of their ways out should this happen. People just don't think, glad you're good mate and didn't get hit.

Impatience is what it boils down to. Everyone in a rush to get to somewhere :(

I would rather be late to my destination, than early to my funeral!!
 
What's better is when you dutifully tuck in for the ambulance and he takes your wing mirror off as he goes past :p
 
Had the same thing happen to me. Don't think they knew what was coming, rather being a ****. Car in front and myself pulled over, the women behind over takes us both. We both face palm as they finally realise when the police car was on its arse and she finally pulled over :rolleyes: We both went past as well as we were going again by then :)
 
Same thing happens here, all the time. My house is opposite the local Police, Ambulance and Fire stations so I see this every other day :(
There is a round about at the top of my street and the exit that serves my street has a filter for the local Tesco, the amount of ***** that try and use the filter to get ahead of the queue for the normal lane by cutting people up is ridiculous. I apologise to the decent drivers who have to wait when I perform the worlds slowest parallel parking on the non-rush hour occaisions that one of these little scroats cuts in behind me.
 
The other irritating thing seems to be people who for what ever reason don't hear or look in their rear view mirrors when an emergency vehicle is coming, it's probably these same people that overtake you as you pull over to let the vehicle through.
 
Happened to me the other day. Pleb failed to look in his mirrors as i indicated and slowed down to the left. Pulled out just as the ambulance was commiting to overtake which nearly resulted in a crash. 10 year retests for over 50's please.
 
I know what you mean, some people are idiots. Similar-ish situation as people have described, except I had turned into a narrow street with cars parked on both sides. A car was already coming down the street, so I pulled in as much as I could. The car behind me doesn't look and just pulls around me and then 2 sec later has to brake and reverse. When the car came back I just shook my head in disbelief. The other driver gave me a thumbs up. LOL.
 
LOL. I did this accidently didn't see the police car for coming and the car in front pulled over, i just overtook it thinking nothing of it until i checked my mirror and saw the flashing lights...i felt very stupid.

On a side note on the same road a police car was bombing it down, i pulled over to give it more space. It was a road with a hatched line central reservation with those safe havens for pedestrians. Cue a Octavia Vrs police car doing about 50 overtaking a group of cars just before one of these raised curb bits, just about squeezes through but clips his back wheel on the kurb...big plume of smoke. About an hour later i come back and there is just a glum looking copper sitting in this car with either brake fluid or shock fluid all over the road. It was funny.
 
richard104 said:
LOL. I did this accidently didn't see the police car for coming and the car in front pulled over, i just overtook it thinking nothing of it until i checked my mirror and saw the flashing lights...i felt very stupid.
Click to expand...
You're not a very ugly and very overweight woman who drives a tatty old 3 series, are you?

:D
 
Muppet... There are usually loads of cars parked up on the right aswell, must have been rather narrow!

My girlfriend took 40mins to find Rodbourne the other day with her mum and sister! :p
 
I had one a while ago with an ambulance.
I saw him coming well behind me and judged that by the time he had caught up to me I would be right next to an island in the middle of the road so I indicated and pulled over so the ambulance could slide past easy on the painted chevrons in the middle of the road.

A muppet between me and the ambulance didn't notice/register as human so went to overtake me just as the ambulance was ontop of us both forcing the ambulane not just onto the painted chevrons but onto incoming traffic. Muppet! Luckily nothing was coming the other way but otherwise there would have been a crash as this ambulance was moving fast even for the blue light brigade (but not dangerously as the traffic was light, just me and Kermit)

Fluffy
 
I'll always get out the way for emergency services but I've actually been "tooted" by following drivers for doing so. One day it might be them laid dying somewhere and the ambulance getting through or not making a difference in survival chances.

Off at a slight tangent, see a couple of Swindonians posting on here. One of the worst examples of inappropriate overtaking round here is the single track road going up to Barbury Castle. Most people use it considerately and get into the passing places in good time for oncoming traffic. However there's always one muppet (boy racer) behind you who thinks it's cool to just overtake you and then force the oncoming vehicle you were waiting for up on the grass verge.

Driving standards generally seem to have lapsed terribly over the last 5 or 6 years or so and while I would personally dread not passing, I do begin to wonder whether "refresher" tests every 5 or 10 years is the way to go. Even just a day in the classroom to remind motorists of their responsibilities.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom