revtothelimit - motorbike forum

And fancy some feedback! It's car based btw.
So, coming along a single carriageway road where I come to a traffic light controlled contraflow. I stop at the lights, so I'm at the front of the queue.
Lights go amber so off we go. I get through the contraflow and rejoin my carriageway. I hear a siren and around the corner comes an ambulance on my side of the toad trying to force his way through.
Now bear in mind I have a queue of traffic behind me blocking the road.
Ambo just sits there remonstrating at me, I tell him he won't get through as there are (well signed) roadworks now full of cars.
I get called some interesting names but he eventually backs up a few feet that allows me through and allows me to continue and clear the blockage.
WWYD?

From what you've described - exactly what you did.

What ChrisW said

As above, but given them the finger too.

Some of these pricks need a slap. OK its an emergency but FFS if the traffic cant move dont take your frustration out on the first obstacle when you most probably made it yourself.

Do ambulance drivers ger any form of driver training for emergency situations???

If the road ain't wide enough to let him through, what's he /she expect you to do.

I get that they're out on a emergency but sometimes they're there own worst enemies..
A few years back when I was trucking one of our drivers had a 'incident' with a ambulance.Two lanes of traffic slowly going down a one way street in Lancaster,ambulance tries to squeeze between the two lanes of traffic,when he get's to our driver there isn't quite enough room & he breaks the mirror on the lorry.They have a discussion & the co pilot in the ambulance says 'Don't report him,he's had 2 bumps & he'll probably lose his job'.The fact that he had the time to stop & swap details tells you how urgent his task was.
Another much more serious occasion in the south Lakes the daughter of someone we knew was seriously injured when waiting to turn right a ambulance hit her car head on,carnage.

If you can't go back, the only way is forward... so right call by the sound of it.

I've never had a problem with an ambulance or fire appliance, but I've had a few incidents with police vehicles over the years.

I was sat watching a police driver attempt to intimidate a driver in the outside of three lanes to pull through a red light - which is of course, exactly what you're NOT supposed to do with an emergency vehicle behind you. The driver had the blues and twos going full blast and added the horn to the mix.

When the lights did change, the driver pulled away then promptly stopped... trapping the police car again! It wasn't the brightest move but if the police driver hadn't acted like a complete twat, she might have just accelerated away then pulled left into the space ahead of me that I'd left her.

The Spin Doctor wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 6:41 pm I was sat watching a police driver attempt to intimidate a driver in the outside of three lanes to pull through a red light - which is of course, exactly what you're NOT supposed to do with an emergency vehicle behind you. The driver had the blues and twos going full blast and added the horn to the mix.

Emergency driver training changed a few years so that, if their way forward is temporarily obstructed at lights, they should turn the noise off, then back on again when the lights go green.

Horse wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 8:07 pm

The Spin Doctor wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 6:41 pm I was sat watching a police driver attempt to intimidate a driver in the outside of three lanes to pull through a red light - which is of course, exactly what you're NOT supposed to do with an emergency vehicle behind you. The driver had the blues and twos going full blast and added the horn to the mix.

Emergency driver training changed a few years so that, if their way forward is temporarily obstructed at lights, they should turn the noise off, then back on again when the lights go green.

Exactly... and I note that ambulances do that... this incident with the police driver was back in the spring.

My only question would be how long was the queue, because if v short - say 3-4 cars - maybe you could all have backed up. But from the way you described it it didn't sound as if that was the case.

Scootabout wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 10:40 pm My only question would be how long was the queue, because if v short - say 3-4 cars - maybe you could all have backed up. But from the way you described it it didn't sound as if that was the case.

The contraflow was about 2-300m, which was full of cars,especially when the ambo blocked the road!