Police driving

[peterws1957]

So I was in the right hand lane of a 70mph a-road yesterday. Nearside lane was full. Police car comes up behind me with blue lights on. I indicated to the nearside but no-one would yield so I pulled to the right of the right hand lane (indicating) onto the rumble strips (still going 60ish) for him to pass through the middle (huge space). He wouldn’t. So he then had to wait for someone to make space, me to signal and then for me to come across. He then goes past me shaking his head.

This annoyed me as I pride myself as a decent driver and he could easily have passed down the middle (I maintained my right indicator to signal I wasn’t coming across).

I guess I do have a question, which is, are the police not allowed to pass down the middle at speed even if a driver is safely letting them do so? I do get that, but I had nowhere to go and him coming through the middle would have got him past a lot quicker.

Of course there was some responsibility on the part of the drivers in the left hand lane for failing to let you in when seeing you were trying to get out of the way of a Police car which was in a hurry for whatever reason. Personally nowadays I simply do what I can to get out of the way of emergency vehicles , without putting me or other road users at risk, but in doing so I don't worry at all if I hold them up for a few seconds.

 

[peterws1957]

In the emergency services arrival time is now everything , you need to make the computers happy to meet government target/stats . Having said this I never witnessed colleagues driving faster/dangerously in order to meet these targets .

And that of course is the problem. I feel sorry for the drivers and the unnecessary stress they are under to satisfy some government official. There is no excuse however for the horrendously bad driving I have witnessed over the past 12 months or so in particular- and I have been around on the roads for decades.

 

[jarvis]

Interesting responses. On reflection I should have probably bullied my way into the other lane rather than trying to be helpful in the wrong way. I do think it was a bit rich the copper giving me the eyes; it's not as if I slammed on the brakes, but as said above, I'm sure they get criticism if they are 30 seconds late to an incident.

 

[peterws1957]

Interesting responses. On reflection I should have probably bullied my way into the other lane rather than trying to be helpful in the wrong way. I do think it was a bit rich the copper giving me the eyes; it's not as if I slammed on the brakes, but as said above, I'm sure they get criticism if they are 30 seconds late to an incident.

I wouldn't worry about it. The copper should have also noticed that the left lane was full and you had moved to the right to let him through - no reason to give you the eyes that's for sure. I've had this twice from Police officers recently when slowing down through a main road protest site nearby (temporary 20 limit anyway). The boys in blue in attendance on a massive scale appear not to like me avoiding mowing down the protesters in the road.

 

[bembo449]

im ex fire service and thus trained in the same road craft competency as a police officer ( not traffic officer ) I would have taken the gap with blues and twos going but its personal choice to the officer involved , any incident has to be explained so he probably didn't fancy the paperwork if you had suddenly darted to the left and closed said gap ! why he shook his head surprises me , he will have been full aware that you had nowhere to go but anyhoo , id put it down to experience pal

 

[Frontstep]

An officer with adrenalin racing rushing through traffic is entitled to the odd grimace or two, I wouldn't take it to heart.
If he's going to pull a knife wielding crack head off someone he can eff and blind all his way there at me.
Then I'll get him or her a drink.

 

[PINBALL]

Recently had a police car scream up behind me toodling along at 35 mph on a long windy back road, and immediately put my foot down as he could not pass without danger of oncoming traffic around blind bends and knew road would straighten out 2-3 miles ahead.

I was approaching 60 mph when we hit the straight and flashed my left indicator to let him by safely, whereby he waved a thank you to me - made me feel all the better for doing it.

Have jumped traffic lights before to let other emergency traffic through sooner and usually get a thank you wave for doing it.

Remembering my dad needing ambulance some years ago when every waiting minute for them to arrive seemed like an hour after he fell and broke his hip at 86 in the nursing home.

Worse thing for any driver to do is slow down or stop - these are exceptional circumstances and would be seen that way if any prosecution were brought, which I've never heard of in all my 48 years of driving.

 

[Frosty149]

Some police, like the rest of society, just have the unfortunate few who are 'odd' looking or ugly or can't express themselves well! They can't help it, don't victimise the unfortunate few...