Post by Dave on Nov 3, 2012 8:03:19 GMT
There has been a lot of talk recently about changing the law so drivers of emergency vehicles no longer face prosecution, if they knocked down and killed anyone while responding to an emergency call.
I suppose if we had dialed 999 because our house was on fire, someone in the house had had a heart attack, or we found ourselves in a life threatening situation, we would want help to get to us as fast as possible. Today’s roads are packed with cars and pedestrians and it can’t be an easy job for any emergency driver trying to negotiate around them all safely.
Spending my whole working week out driving on our roads, I get to see so many emergency vehicles speeding along with their blue lights on and sirens blazing. No one gets any form of training as to what is the best thing to do if you know an emergency vehicle is behind you trying to get past. Some motorists do panic and in their efforts to try and take some action, often hold up the emergency vehicle even longer.
Most drivers will do their best to move over as far as possible to give the emergency vehicle the room to get past, but some just slow down and all that does is so down the emergency vehicle as well. It’s at road junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights where there are greater chances the emergency vehicle could itself be involved in an accident. We have all been stuck at traffic lights waiting for them to change and have witnessed an emergency vehicle go past us on the wrong side of the road and out on to the junction, still on the wrong side.
Due to the sirens and the flashing lights, most drivers are aware of what is going on and stop to let the emergency vehicle across to carry on its journey to the emergency he has been called too. Sadly that is not always the case and sometimes an accident does happen and people lose their lives.
I can understand why an emergency driver would feel under such circumstances while trying to possibly save lives in the first place, he or she should not find themselves being charged, if they unfortunately killed someone on the way to the incident.
While no emergency driver is ever going to face charges for speeding, they do have a duty of care to try and ensure they drive as safely as possible to reduce the risks of killing innocent people who are just going about their daily business. I’m sure every emergency driver does take as much care as is humanly possible, but could there be a risk if they knew they could never face any charges, that they might take greater risks?
I’m not suggesting for one moment that they would, but I do feel if a life is lost due to someone being hit by an emergency vehicle, then a full and proper investigation should take place and charges be brought, if there is a case to be answered. The life of the person that was lost has to be worth as much as the life of the person the emergency services were trying to save.
One way to reduce the risk of serious accidents in my opinion is not to send so many vehicles to any one incident in the first instance. Only the other early morning In Okehampton, a police car drove through some traffic lights in the town centre and could have easily ended up hitting another car. I was traveling in the same direction and soon found out why the police car had his blues and twos going. One car had crashed, but there was already three other police cars already there, two fire engines and an ambulance.
I also think anyone calling 999 has a duty and responsibility to give proper and correct information to the person taking the call. By doing so the correct response hopefully can then happen as the incident can we graded correctly and emergency vehicles won’t then be send under blues and twos, unless it is really necessary.
There will always be people who make hoax calls and as a result people could get killed as an emergency vehicle races to the reported incident, It shows the sheer thoughtless these people have as it could be the case a house burns down while a fire engine is somewhere else responding to such a hoax call.
I know we have one or two on here who like to attack the police at every opportunity; I’m kindly asking this thread is not used to do that as this subject is about all the emergency services and the people who drive the vehicles. So if we could just stick to the subject of the question being asked, this thread should not get out of hand
I suppose if we had dialed 999 because our house was on fire, someone in the house had had a heart attack, or we found ourselves in a life threatening situation, we would want help to get to us as fast as possible. Today’s roads are packed with cars and pedestrians and it can’t be an easy job for any emergency driver trying to negotiate around them all safely.
Spending my whole working week out driving on our roads, I get to see so many emergency vehicles speeding along with their blue lights on and sirens blazing. No one gets any form of training as to what is the best thing to do if you know an emergency vehicle is behind you trying to get past. Some motorists do panic and in their efforts to try and take some action, often hold up the emergency vehicle even longer.
Most drivers will do their best to move over as far as possible to give the emergency vehicle the room to get past, but some just slow down and all that does is so down the emergency vehicle as well. It’s at road junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights where there are greater chances the emergency vehicle could itself be involved in an accident. We have all been stuck at traffic lights waiting for them to change and have witnessed an emergency vehicle go past us on the wrong side of the road and out on to the junction, still on the wrong side.
Due to the sirens and the flashing lights, most drivers are aware of what is going on and stop to let the emergency vehicle across to carry on its journey to the emergency he has been called too. Sadly that is not always the case and sometimes an accident does happen and people lose their lives.
I can understand why an emergency driver would feel under such circumstances while trying to possibly save lives in the first place, he or she should not find themselves being charged, if they unfortunately killed someone on the way to the incident.
While no emergency driver is ever going to face charges for speeding, they do have a duty of care to try and ensure they drive as safely as possible to reduce the risks of killing innocent people who are just going about their daily business. I’m sure every emergency driver does take as much care as is humanly possible, but could there be a risk if they knew they could never face any charges, that they might take greater risks?
I’m not suggesting for one moment that they would, but I do feel if a life is lost due to someone being hit by an emergency vehicle, then a full and proper investigation should take place and charges be brought, if there is a case to be answered. The life of the person that was lost has to be worth as much as the life of the person the emergency services were trying to save.
One way to reduce the risk of serious accidents in my opinion is not to send so many vehicles to any one incident in the first instance. Only the other early morning In Okehampton, a police car drove through some traffic lights in the town centre and could have easily ended up hitting another car. I was traveling in the same direction and soon found out why the police car had his blues and twos going. One car had crashed, but there was already three other police cars already there, two fire engines and an ambulance.
I also think anyone calling 999 has a duty and responsibility to give proper and correct information to the person taking the call. By doing so the correct response hopefully can then happen as the incident can we graded correctly and emergency vehicles won’t then be send under blues and twos, unless it is really necessary.
There will always be people who make hoax calls and as a result people could get killed as an emergency vehicle races to the reported incident, It shows the sheer thoughtless these people have as it could be the case a house burns down while a fire engine is somewhere else responding to such a hoax call.
I know we have one or two on here who like to attack the police at every opportunity; I’m kindly asking this thread is not used to do that as this subject is about all the emergency services and the people who drive the vehicles. So if we could just stick to the subject of the question being asked, this thread should not get out of hand
