You hear sirens and see blue flashing lights behind you, and an ambulance (for example) is about 400 yards behind you. It's national speed limit 60mph and that's the speed you're doing. The ambulance is also doing 60mph and as such remains 400 yards behind you.

What do you do?

1. Slow down, pull off the road on a corner where there's a side road junction, or

2. Continue on at NSL until you come to a long straight (half a mile or so) where you indicate left and slow down so that he can pass (there's no other traffic either coming towards you or following the ambulance), then continue on at 60mph behind him matching his speed?

Either way you're going to end up behind him doing the same speed as you were before, so what's your own preferred choice in this (or any other) scenario?

 

Dumbing it down, do you pull over as soon as you know you're being followed or do you continue until the ambulance has actually caught up with you?

If it was me, my first port of call would be try to look for a suitable place to stop.

 

Davy

Just now, Skodaboy1983 said:

If it was me, my first port of call would be try to look for a suitable place to stop.

 

Davy

 

But when, bear in mind he's quarter of a mile back and not catching you.

Happened to me on a single carriageway on the A77, I pulled over let it pass,  then got behind at a safe distance and just stayed behind at a safe distance then when we got to the dual carriageway the road captains were clearing the outside lane and it was a nice quick 15 miles or so.  All within the speed limits for me.

Option 2, if he starts closing in. Ive been caught up by them and had no where to go, in which case my protocol is -

Triple hazard flash so they know im awake and see them.

Give it socks as far as possible for road conditions etc so that im not obstructing them.

At a spot where they can bus it past, i indicate left, pull as far as i can over and back off safely for them to go around me. 

Ive done this with cops too, and had no issues, a thank you hazards flash when they are away usually.

 

If they arent closing in, your not obstructing them, so is a manouvre  necessary? Whose to say the spot you pull in isnt where they are going? (Side turning) in which case end up doing more harm good, possible collision..

Honestly, i view this as one of those judgement call for the scenario/location/circumstances. Is, to your knowledge, your car in danger of a mechanical failure which could cause you to obstruct them should you break down? If yes then get out of the way, and get your car to a garage

Allow him past and then ‘draft’ him through all the traffic. Beats waiting at the lights.

 

 

 

(sorry, couldn’t help it)

I won't pull over unless the emergency vehicle is moving up to a "contact position". In that event I still won't pull over until/unless I can see that I can make a gap for them to overtake without being forced to slow by my braking.

If they're coming up behind me and it's safe to do so I'll pull off to the left and leave on the left indicator until they're past. Speaking as someone who occasionally drives an ambulance for a voluntary organisation, and knowing several fire/police/ambulance service personnel, the driver who's on lights and sirens generally knows what they're doing and won't take unnecessary risks. The best thing to do as a driver in front of them is stay calm and drive normally unless there's an obvious and safe opportunity to get out of their way.

If an Emergency Vehicle is that far behind and not closing, you aren't hindering their progress and they will continue to drive normally, but if they come closer to a point where they clearly could pass, slow down (stop if safe to do so) indicate left, and let them pass - usually they will change their road position to indicate they want to pass you.

 

I find the only emergency vehicles that ever get close enough to pass me when I'm on a National Limit is a Police car or Paramedic Response car.  Fire trucks are still limited to 56mph and many Ambulance drivers don't take risks due to the size and weight of the vehicle... They aren't very stable!

 

Its a difficult situation as 400m is quite a distance...well done for paying attention that far back though, most drivers wouldn't !!

Seems like I took the preferred course of action then. I chose option 2 whereas my wife said I should've pulled in as soon as possible. What prompted this post was the paramedic in the passenger side of the ambulance with his hand out of the window tapping his mirror to (presumably) indicate I should be more aware of what was going on behind. Conversely, my wife thought he was tapping his mirror to say thankyou for pulling over. So what's the thoughts behind that?

 

Was he saying thankyou, or was he annoyed at my percieved inaction when he was following me?

19 minutes ago, Rustynuts said:

Was he saying thankyou, or was he annoyed at my percieved inaction when he was following me?

I don't think you'll ever know for sure - both are plausible explanations of his actions.

 

The bottom line is that you didn't hold him up, so I don't think you have any reason to feel that you didn't act correctly.

3rd option was...he had his window down and his arm was hanging out of it, his hand was absentmindedly tapping the mirror for something to do?

 

If he was gesticulating at you...I'd have thought he'd make eye contact also...

Edited 27 April, 20188 yr by hwr1983

I was told/taught on a police driving course that whatever you do, the last thing the emergency vehicle wants to do is grind to a halt.

 

In the scenario above, I'd signal (probably with a flash of my hazards) that I knew they were there, maintain speed until I saw a spot I could safely pull into to allow them to go past me (without them having to slow down/stop) or if there was a section of road that would allow them to overtake me safely, flash my hazards, indicate left and move as far left as possible, reduce speed slightly and allow them to go around me.

4 hours ago, hwr1983 said:

3rd option was...he had his window down and his arm was hanging out of it, his hand was absentmindedly tapping the mirror for something to do?

 

If he was gesticulating at you...I'd have thought he'd make eye contact also...

 

No, this was a definite roll down the window, knock on the mirror glass with his knuckle half a dozen times, then roll the window back up. Besides, if I were driving and he was absent mindedly obscuring my nearside mirror just after an overtake I'd be telling him to "Stop The F*** Doing That!".

 

Edit: This is a pic of the type of ambulance. It's highly unlikely that he was doing anything absent mindedly, as the mirrors are well out from the side of the cab to allow for the wide body.

 

Edited 27 April, 20188 yr by Rustynuts

If it's 1/4 of a mile back and not catching me then I'll just keep going but keep an eye on it.

If it starts to catch up or I know I'm going to be slowing to stop for a junction etc then I'll look for somewhere to pull over and let it past.

had this the other night, saw the blues in background, I just floored it and got to my destination before it caught me, hope it wasn't the police trying to pull me lol

as mac11irl and others have said, I would either keep at speed (and probably position my car closer to the side of the road so if they do decide to catch and pass they have a clear line of sight) or speed up to a clear spot to let them through.


Although, I did have a paramedic response car come up behind me on the A12 near Woodbridge/Ipswich a few months ago. LEt them past...then got stuck behind them as they pootled at 50mph on NSL lanes braking heavily for each corner, same on the dual carriageway with the roundabouts, could have been a mile down the road compared. Reckon I'd have got to the patient a good 5 mins before they did if I hadn't pulled over Though it makes you wonder how well they are trained for driving sometimes if that is the speed they do when its clear. (for comparison, both of us were in mid-2000's octavia estates with a load of equipment in the boot, just he got to have some lights and sirens!)

I move over when they are close enough to overtake and slow a little, I never stop or pull off the main road unless of course it's the only way they can get past. I do of course keep an eye out for oncoming traffic and slow down act accordingly. The times I've seen motorists go into panic mode and make things worse by doing emergency stops or go off roading, absolutely rediculous.

It's horses for courses. On an NSL road, with a lot of bends ,etc., I doubt if an Ambulance or fire engine could keep up with me. Police car on a road where it was putting Police in danger to overtake, I'd give it beans ,till I saw somewhere to get past fast, indicate/ hold up an arm ,and wave them on, slowing down as fast as possible to let them have speed differential. I've done this before, and always with the police get a "thank you "wave and a toot.

The Golden Rule, of course, is:

NEVER let the vehicle behind the ESV 'bounce' you !

I have had this a few in the town of myopic drivers. On one occasion. police got their own back. I'd spotted a police car coming from opposite direction in a place where space might be tight and pulled onto the pavement to give him max space to overtake cars in front of him. Idiot behind didn't see police car ( even though I was flagging him down) and it nearly caused a nasty. I took idiot's number . Bit later I met a traffic car on patrol and gave him the lowdown and VRN. Driver had heard about the incident and last I heard idiot was due a visit /stop. ( This was in my part time Taxi days-we had a great relationship with police -on weekends, we spotted the dangerous boyracers and if we needed the police to attend with nasty passengers, they attended)

Option 2 for me too. I tend to do whatever I can to hold them up as little as possible, while using a bit of common sense. Most cases there's somewhere to pull over and stop quickly but if its a twisty road or if I'm in a large vehicle on a residential road with traffic furniture everywhere then putting my foot down to get out the way is the better plan.

 

Plus, as someone else said, at that distance behind you, there's nothing to say they wont want to go down the turning you'r going to block by trying to move out the way.

 

 

You can't do much worse than the plonka I saw the other night. Clear 70mph dual carriageway, I'm cruising along steadily and an Ambulance catches me up with it's blues on. He passes me and pulls into the nearside lane, I drop back a bit as he's not actually going much quicker than me. We get a bit further up the road a car joins from the slip road a decent distance ahead then just brakes really hard. I couldn't believe it  Luckily the guy in the Ambulance was on the ball (and probably used to it) and switched lanes to avoid ploughing into the back of the car but it does make me wonder what goes through some peoples heads sometimes. 

Edited 29 April, 20188 yr by XLBaconDoubleCheese

I would have pulled in at the first possible safe & sensible position & let the Ambulance pass then id continue on my way,id rather have 10 seconds of inconvenience to myself than hold up any emergency vehicle thats on its way to a emergency,im not saying what you did was wrong,this is what i would personally do,ive seen people panic when a emergency vehicle comes up behind them & in some cases stop totally causing the emergency vehicle to slow down or even stop...

I used to drive fire engines for a living and to be honest if I could keep moving I was happy but was always aware that some drivers, for whatever reason just couldn't get out of the way. As long as they could speed up a bit and keep moving until they could pull over I didn't have an issue. Obviously red traffic lights and queues were a different kettle of fish and we just had to do our best.

 

The last thing I wanted to do was have an accident or cause others to have an accident, apart from the obvious the paperwork was a nightmare.

 

One of the most annoying things that some drivers do is to slow down to about 15 or 20mph while traffic was coming toward me forcing me to stop.  A fire engine isn't exactly a racing car, especially the old Dennis appliances with petrol engine, they were embarrasingly slow and wouldnt pull you out of bed. They took an age to get up to speed. The more modern Scanias I was driving when I retired were much better.

 

To answer your question Andy I think you did the right thing. In fact I was in the exact same position as you recently. I was in the Consett/Allensford area on a 3 lane road I didn't know when an ambulance pulled on to the road from a roundabout behind me. I was on the single lane and the two other lanes in the opposite direction were heavy with traffic. I couldn't pull over as I would have blocked the road forcing the ambulance to cross double white lines and into the two lanes of traffic coming in the opposite direction, obviously not ideal. I therefore decided to do what you did Andy and speed up until I  could pull over safely, luckily enough after about a mile my side of the road widened to 2 lanes so I could slow down to let him pass, without a tap on his wing mirror, which, I  have to say, was out of order in your case Andy.

 

Basically, there's no easy answer,  conditions at the time dictate what is the best course of action

Actually question here (clearly applies to Ambulance and Fire, maybe less so to Police) - Is the "nearsider" in the vehicle necessarily response trained?