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Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
hackbike 666 said:I was watching an episode of Police Camera Action when a police car was escorting something or other to a hospital in West London from East Anglia via the Mile End Road.The police car got held up at Aldgate due to a motorist stopping in the middle of the road.The cop was on a time limit and if it had got to the hospital later than the time limit then they were buggered.I think it was an organ of some sort.It turned out that the motorist was German and he was following the rules to how they drive in Germany.Anyway the cop car got to the hospital on time and saved a life.
I saw that or something like it, it was in real time wasn't it, they had a window of 30 minutes or something... Amazing, and good TV, I thought.
With regard to training for drivers, like Davy asked, I think the answer is 'no, not really'. You're told you must get out of the way, and do so safely, but unless you happen to encounter an emergency vehicle on a lesson, you'll get no proper advice.
One thing I've heard, adn I guess it applies more to drivers, but is worth knowing, is that if you pull over to let a vehicle through, it's good to indicate that you are doing so, and keep the indicator going. That way the driver of the emergency vehicle knows you've actually seen them, and aren't just pulling over randomly, and about to pull back out. My BF did it,and got thanked with a wave at least once... When I'm on the bike, I try (although I don't know if it ever works) to communicate with body language as soon as I've heard a siren, in the hope that a driver behind might twig (lots of looking round, very purposeful pulling over and so on). Proably useless a lot of the time, but if just once, it makes a difference...