Incident with an ambulance...

PieEater · 7 Sep 2006 at 22:43

Did you take up legal expenses insurance with your car cover? If so I'd give them a ring. Do you have comprehensive cover? If so you're only recourse is to go through your insurance company and let them fight it out as a no fault claim. The NHS / Ambulance service will probably have public liability insurance which you could claim against but you're probably best leaving this to the professionals if you have legal expenses / fully comp.

Malachy · 7 Sep 2006 at 22:43

chipperhead said:
I can't really agree with that, just because you're driving an emergency vehicle, you still need to drive in a safe manner and also expect people to do the unenexpected as some people panic when they see and here them.

yeah wellits just a removal of blame as tbh imo how can you ntosee a car/truck/van with flashing blu lights and lotsofnoise comming rom it if your paying attention tothe road? in general i can hear an ambulance at least 30secs to 1min before its anywhere near me when driving. dont see why anyone else cant.

Fishman · 7 Sep 2006 at 22:53

Malachy said:
yeah well its just a removal of blame as to be honest in my opinion how can you not see a car/truck/van with flashing blue lights and lots of noise coming from it if you are paying attention to the road? in general I can hear an ambulance at least 30 seconds to 1 minute before its anywhere near me when driving. I don't see why anyone else cant.

1) They are closing down on each other at 120 mph and there is things like corners, trees and HGVs blocking the line of sight. You really think you can hear an ambulance 4 miles away...... Yeah right.....
2) They dont always have the lights and/or sirens on, the driver of the ambulance was obviously an idiot and got lucky not to have a head on collision.
3) OP _should_ not have to pay for this (in terms of repair) but he will have to I imagine just because the system is flawed.

[Edit] Made your post legible[/Edit]

agw_01 · 7 Sep 2006 at 23:43

L0rdMike said:
I would rather they got there in one piece then do silly overtakes on blind bends and not get there at all.

Was just going to say... what would most people do if they were faced with NathanE's situation?

Continue straight on and hit the ambulance head on, or knowing that there was no way the ambulance could stop in time, brake hard and try and get out of its way?

Yeah sure, it was NathanE's fault that he fit the curb, but he didn't cause the accident. The dangerous overtaking by the ambulance driver caused the accident.

gc123 · 8 Sep 2006 at 02:38

agw_01 said:
Was just going to say... what would most people do if they were faced with NathanE's situation?

Continue straight on and hit the ambulance head on, or knowing that there was no way the ambulance could stop in time, brake hard and try and get out of its way?

Yeah sure, it was NathanE's fault that he fit the curb, but he didn't cause the accident. The dangerous overtaking by the ambulance driver caused the accident.

thats down to the individual,at the time to make the judgement. all i can say is i made the call to avoid a vehicle in a similar situation, years back, and ended up with a write off, and yes , you are classed as not being fully in control of your vehicle.

Entai · 8 Sep 2006 at 06:09

agw_01 said:
Was just going to say... what would most people do if they were faced with NathanE's situation?

Continue straight on and hit the ambulance head on, or knowing that there was no way the ambulance could stop in time, brake hard and try and get out of its way?

Yeah sure, it was NathanE's fault that he fit the curb, but he didn't cause the accident. The dangerous overtaking by the ambulance driver caused the accident.

I agree to totally, if I was in that situation I would obviously try to get out of the way, as I am sure that most people would.
I also agree that the ambulance does appear to causing the problem by driving dangerously, however the system is such that should this be taken further, NathanE would be found as the guilty party in any claim for damages against his vehicle.
Yes, the sytem in these kind of cases suck, see the other thread here , the system sucks there to.

NathanE · 8 Sep 2006 at 07:52

I had my window open and there were no sirens, just the flashy lights. As it went past me I also didn't hear any sirens.

I won't be making any claims. I'll get the car booked in for a check over. If it's bad I'll bung it on company expenses

I'll call up the local ambulance service today and see what happens.

Fr0dders · 8 Sep 2006 at 10:31

gc123 said:
thats down to the individual,at the time to make the judgement. all i can say is i made the call to avoid a vehicle in a similar situation, years back, and ended up with a write off, and yes , you are classed as not being fully in control of your vehicle.

you can argue over the technicalities all you want

but the fact of the matter is the ambulance driver was pulling dangerous manoevres that could have resulted in an accident. Better to have the ambulance arrive late than not at all. All emergency drivers are taught the same, theres no point taking stupid risks.

yes legally he can't claim. And its not legally the ambulance drivers fault.

Doesnt change the fact that this wouldnt have happened if he hadnt pulled that overtake.

Altered Corpse · 8 Sep 2006 at 14:25

If you want to report it report it to the police. Emergency vehicle drivers have to obey the highway code and just because they have their lights on does not excuse or give them the right to drive dangerously. I certainly wouldn't be happy if i was in the back of the ambulance with the driver taking such risks with my life.

FireBIade · 8 Sep 2006 at 16:00

It sounds like a flawed system but without a video/reliable witnesses it's impossible to prove who caused what to happen (innocent till proven otherwise) and hence any claim would probably fail. Unless... the ambulance driver remembers the incident and admits he was being reckless. Do Ambulances have a black box these days i.e. speed and position could be usefull as evidence if they review the complaint??

Hopefully anyway your car will be fine.