Ambulances

Trooper1854

Trooper1854

The Brit Pack
"I didn't see it officer!"

Crash.jpg


We walked away from this one, bit saggy in the pants, but we walked away!

Ambo.jpg
 
I had a woman run into the back of my bus, a double decker Routemaster while I was at a bus stop. She said, "I didn't see you." I blinked and said, "You didn't see a bloody great bus?"
 
The smashed front of ther alpha looked nasty. I hope none of the crew were injured, Trooper...

I like the cartoon part.

Some of the drivers here has a nasty habit of tail-gaiting any ambulance responding to a call, especially with the beacon lights activated, seems to think we are clearing the outermost lane for them.

Thats scares me quite a bit, as we are using Sprinters, too. If you are directly behind the vehicle, you can't see whats in front, and if the alpha were to apply any sudden braking, these clods will smash into our rear. It can be quite unnerving...
 
BritinAfrica said:
I had a woman run into the back of my bus, a double decker Routemaster while I was at a bus stop. She said, "I didn't see you." I blinked and said, "You didn't see a bloody great bus?"
Click to expand...

Remember taking an old retired judge into hospital because he had driven into
The back of a stationary bus. His injuries were minor so we wheeled him into A and E in
A wheel chair. As I pushed him through the doors I clipped the door with the chair
"You're not very good at driving this thing" he said as only an old judge could say it.
"At least I didn't hit a bus!" I replied.
 
viper2007 said:
Some of the drivers here has a nasty habit of tail-gaiting any ambulance responding to a call, especially with the beacon lights activated, seems to think we are clearing the outermost lane for them.
...
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Happens a lot here too. Very infuriating as it is extremely dangerous.
Drivers move out of the way for the ambulance and then want to pull back into traffic ASAP, not expecting another vehicle to be there.
If we are folllowing another ambulance, Police, or fire engine which is also on blues & twos, we are taught to leave a large space between us to allow for the suicidal way drivers throw themselves back into traffic once the first vehicle passes by.
These bumper huggers risk a hell of a lot to do it!
A guy in my area was caught doing it and was given six months for dangerous driving! As well as loosing his license and being made to re-test to get it back.
Also pedestrians dashing across the road infront of an ambulance on an emergencyy call is very annoying! Like they can't wait the few seconds it takes for us to go by, either that or they think it doesn't hurt to get hit by the ambulance!
 
I've come to the conclusion that most people drive with their heads firmly lodged in their arses, Trooper. In my city, I constantly see drivers who just can't be bothered to pull over to the curb to allow emergency vehicles to go by. I wish I had the authority to arrest every one of their inconsiderate butts!!!

I'm glad you and your colleagues weren't hurt by bonehead that hit your van.
 
jillyz12 said:
I'm glad you and your colleagues weren't hurt by bonehead that hit your van.
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Thank you, we were lucky as it was a truck that hit us.
The real sickner was when we found out we were going out to some ding a ling who didn't really need an Ambulance any way. He had a cold and wanted some thing for his head ache!
So, the first ambulance is involved in a crash, and two further ambulances are dispatched to that incident and another has to go to the initial call.
So out of six vehicles covering our area, one head ache has taken up four of them!
 
Trooper1854 said:
Happens a lot here too. Very infuriating as it is extremely dangerous.
Drivers move out of the way for the ambulance and then want to pull back into traffic ASAP, not expecting another vehicle to be there.
If we are folllowing another ambulance, Police, or fire engine which is also on blues & twos, we are taught to leave a large space between us to allow for the suicidal way drivers throw themselves back into traffic once the first vehicle passes by.
These bumper huggers risk a hell of a lot to do it!
A guy in my area was caught doing it and was given six months for dangerous driving! As well as loosing his license and being made to re-test to get it back.
Also pedestrians dashing across the road infront of an ambulance on an emergencyy call is very annoying! Like they can't wait the few seconds it takes for us to go by, either that or they think it doesn't hurt to get hit by the ambulance!
Click to expand...

I was once tailed by a motorist while conveying a casualty to a hospital- his reason? To see if this is a real genuine case and not because "I was on a thrill ride" (according to him). This clown even peered into the ambulance to mak sure. I told him that my ambulance is not for sale, very loudly, the attending nurse at the A&E was laughing her head off by that comment.

Yup, pedestrians dashing across the road at the last minute can be pretty annoying, too. Some of the cheek to tell you that they have the right of way! I always replied that they are right- it is the right of way to a grave!

Some road users can really be annoying...
 
viper2007 said:
Some of the drivers here has a nasty habit of tail-gaiting any ambulance responding to a call, especially with the beacon lights activated, seems to think we are clearing the outermost lane for them.
Click to expand...

This is not something to joke about and I hope everyone was okay from the picture crash above, but this comment paired with the cartoon ...omg, I am laughing my butt off over here!

I can't tell you how many times I've seen crazy things here in Houston involving ambulances!



***Side note: the traffic/drivers here are terrible. I almost got hit yesterday, instead the car avoided hitting me just to pull into the next lane and make the person behind him crash! I was the one that called 911 and I'm really hoping that the car that got hit also got a ticket and HIS insurance had to pay because he was driving recklessly and the driver that struck him was not at fault!***
 
pixiedustboo said:
This is not something to joke about and I hope everyone was okay from the picture crash above, but this comment paired with the cartoon ...omg, I am laughing my butt off over here!

I can't tell you how many times I've seen crazy things here in Houston involving ambulances!



***Side note: the traffic/drivers here are terrible. I almost got hit yesterday, instead the car avoided hitting me just to pull into the next lane and make the person behind him crash! I was the one that called 911 and I'm really hoping that the car that got hit also got a ticket and HIS insurance had to pay because he was driving recklessly and the driver that struck him was not at fault!***
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Well, Maam... you know how Texans are with automobiles, some just cannot get over the fact that they are not riding horses anymore- sounding the car horn is not the same as the sound coming from a Colt .45! and stomping on the brakes does not have the same effect as pulling the reins of horses...:p:p
 
viper2007 said:
Well, Maam... you know how Texans are with automobiles, some just cannot get over the fact that they are not riding horses anymore- sounding the car horn is not the same as the sound coming from a Colt .45! and stomping on the brakes does not have the same effect as pulling the reins of horses...:p:p
Click to expand...
LMBO!

............... :sarc: :D :lol:
 
I've had seven patrol cars shot out from under me (Armored Corps reference). Three were by drunks rear ending my patrol car while I was doing a DUI stop at night. The lights attract drunks like the bug zappers attract insects. One was on a round about. I had right of way, other driver didn't yield and T-boned me. One was during a chase on the Turnpike... one of the subjects tossed a 10lbs anchor (yup... as in a boat anchor) and of course my car ate it and destroyed an axle. One was me responding to a call with lights and sirens and someone decided that "What the hell.... I'm just gonna merge into the lane that the cop car is in." Well; they merged with my car instead of the lane pushing me off the road. The last one was my fault.... I thought I put it in park, step out of the car, and the car goes creeping along backwards with my driver's door open past a telephone pole. The pole caught the door and the door peeled off like the top from a SPAM can.
 
viper2007 said:
Well, Maam... you know how Texans are with automobiles, some just cannot get over the fact that they are not riding horses anymore- sounding the car horn is not the same as the sound coming from a Colt .45! and stomping on the brakes does not have the same effect as pulling the reins of horses...:p:p
Click to expand...

That's why I'm a Floridian and I have a truck.... my horn is louder then my Colt .45 (also doesn't help that one of my Colt .45s is a 1911 with a AAC Suppressor) and if I pull on my steering wheel hard enough I'll mash the brake pedal harder. :cowb:
 
The first ever serious trauma incident I attended was to a Traffic Officer.
She was dealing with a minor shunt on a local motorway, and was within the coned off "safety area" when a driver ploughed into he at 70mph.
He wasn't even rubber necking, just trying to get pass the rubber neckers.
She had both legs so badly broken that when we arrived on scene, they were folded up under her body so it looked like she had no legs.
Her right arm was nearly amputated and she had both lungs punctured by rib fractures.
She was conscious, and actually appologised to me fo being a nuisance!
She survived, but her injuries ended her Police career.
The driver was twice over the legal drink drive limit. He had to be sent to another county's lock up for his own safety. He got 18months for nearly killing her!
The driver who caused the initial shunt was on his mobile phone, not hands free, at the time.
I have always hated working on motorways/dual carrigeways since and have had so many near misses its frightening.
Another Traffic Officer I know says that if the concept of the automobile was invented now, in the 20th/21st century, it wouldn't be allowed as the authorities would not trust people to use it as it is so dangerous!
 
In the RAF we had all manner of Ambulance types, but were divided into crash and domestic types.

One crash ambulance we had was an Austin K9 at Wattisham along with a Land Rover 109 type, also we had the Land Rover at Tengah.

The Domestic we had at Tengah in Singapore was the little Bedford CA with sliding doors, while we had the Bedford J Type at Wattisham.

The K9 had an annoying whine from the transmission and the Land Rover rolled like a drunken sailor. The Bedford CA was under powered, but the Bedford J type went like a bat out of hell. I got over 80 MPH out of the one at Wattisham when on a "red" taking a patient to the civi hospital in Ipswich.

In the RAF ambulance drivers were taken from the MT pool of drivers, usually the most experienced, while the medics took care of the patients, sometimes the M.O. accompanied the crew.

What annoyed me the most were motorists tucking in behind the ambulance to get through traffic.

Left to right Austin K9 Bedford CA Bedford J Type Land Rover ambulance
 
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Trooper1854 said:
The first ever serious trauma incident I attended was to a Traffic Officer.
She was dealing with a minor shunt on a local motorway, and was within the coned off "safety area" when a driver ploughed into he at 70mph.
He wasn't even rubber necking, just trying to get pass the rubber neckers.
She had both legs so badly broken that when we arrived on scene, they were folded up under her body so it looked like she had no legs.
Her right arm was nearly amputated and she had both lungs punctured by rib fractures.
She was conscious, and actually appologised to me fo being a nuisance!
She survived, but her injuries ended her Police career.
The driver was twice over the legal drink drive limit. He had to be sent to another county's lock up for his own safety. He got 18months for nearly killing her!
The driver who caused the initial shunt was on his mobile phone, not hands free, at the time.
I have always hated working on motorways/dual carrigeways since and have had so many near misses its frightening.
Another Traffic Officer I know says that if the concept of the automobile was invented now, in the 20th/21st century, it wouldn't be allowed as the authorities would not trust people to use it as it is so dangerous!
Click to expand...

You know the most dangerous part of a car?

The nut behind the wheel...

Some people actually believe that having a bigger car makes them better drivers, seriously...
 
RTC.jpg


I was first on scene here. It happened on the M1 motorway.
The lorry driver fell asleep at the wheel.
He rear ended the lorry you can just see on the hard shoulder.
That woke him up, and as he tried to regain control, he swerved across three lanes, scooping the BMW up an dropping it off on the central crash barrier.
There were four people in the BMW, no serious injuries, the drivers of both trucks were uninjured, as was the 11 year old daughter of the sleepy driver.
When I first arrived at scene, I couldn't see the BMW, it was completely hidden by the lorry.
When everything came to a stop, the engine stopped, and the doors and windows were all jamed.
The four people in it managed to get out by climbing out if the rear passenger window that they had thankfully left open.
I took this picture so I could show the staff at the hospital as it would be easier than trying to explain, and they probably wouldn't have believed me!
Once checked over, everybody went home, except for sleepy joe, who went to the Police station!
 
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