pslewis

They were having a 'play' with the camera .... they don't care if its got film or not - the person viewing the film 'dumps' the emergency services photos in the bin.

Pete

corradoboy

We're led to believe that any emergency service vehicle has to fill out a report if caught on camera, which includes details of the emergency to which they were responding, as if there wasn't an emergency then they are bound by the same laws as us. In reality, as Pete says

hedgehog

This is not the case for many ambulance services who now have to employ admin staff to deal with the paperwork generated by the speed cameras. They have to justify/document each incident where an ambulance is caught on camera. I think the money might be better spent on additional medical staff but that's not how it works any more, accountability to the control systems of the administration is more important than saving lives. Perhaps the best recent example of this is the ambulance driver who was delivering a transplant organ and who was flashed several times on his route. The camera partnership didn't deem this an "emergency" and so took him to court for his "crimes." Some fire services have also issued guidelines to their drivers concerning the speed at which they are allowed to travel to avoid the risk of conviction for speeding.

In theory the police are bound by the same rules as you and I except when they are responding to an emergency and in theory, as per the ambulance service, these emergency calls should have something approximating to an audit trail associated with them so it would be known at any given time which vehicles were involved in responding to an emergency.

As to what you saw happeneing, I really can only guess. Perhaps they were on an emergency call and had just been stood down and so thought to "test" the camera knowing that they would have enough wiggle room to get away with it? In the end they are just human like the rest of us and I might be tempted to do the same myself. Apart from that guess I've no idea.

GC8

With the greatest of respect Pete, this is bollocks as well you know. Remember the blood transfusion driver who was summonsed after exceeding the posted limit delivering human organs? A form has to be completed for every emergency vehicle that is recorded.

Simon

Lum

They could have turned the sirens off because there was no-one in front of them who they needed to move out of the way.

They probably slowed down for the tunnel as some tunnels are a bit more dangerous than an open road with hard shoulders and grass verges.

fast bloke

Yep - That is what happens in Great Blair country. (or GB) One rule for the rozzers and a different on for the criminal tax contributer motorist

4X4BOB

But wasn't that driver using his own vehicle for that trip, not a marked up services vehicle at the time?


Bob

GC8

I honestly dont know Bob; I was under the impression that it was a fully liveried vehicle and that the correct forms were filled in by the NHS trust, but disregarded by a Chief Constable with his own agenda.

Simon

BuRR

They do get done.... a guy in my office got 3 points and £60 for a mobile camera van activation the other week.

apjames

Having sirens on in a tunnel holds traffic up more than with them off.

Response driving/riding isn't about flat out everywhere with the sirens on, its about using the equipment to help passage through and slowing down allowing traffic to open up before you get there. Its about maintaining safe pace rather than speed.

Leslie

GCB,

Yes he has been noticed for posting a load of bollocks before

Les