Speed limited ambulance!

[bol...@cylonhq.com]

I was sat behind an ambulance in traffic today in surrey and it had a sticker
on the back saying this vehicle limited to 62mph! I'm sure emergency patients
being driven on the motorway to hospital will be thrilled to know they'll get
there at the same speed as a bus!

I know there are no speed limits on emergency vehicles when on a call so I can
only assume some fuckwitted ambulance service controller or pen pusher in an
NHS trust has forced this on them. Anyone else seen anything something like
this before?

[JNugent]

As odd as it may seem, that looks like an EU rule.

62mph = 100kph.

No UK-imposed speed limit, whether for a specific vehicle type or for a
particular stretch of public road, ends in anything other than "0".

[soup]

On 25/03/2018 17:21, bol...@cylonHQ.com wrote:

AIUI top speed isn't very important for an (in town) ambulance, it is
more everyone(FSVOeveryone) gets out of their way, they can go through
lights etc that bumps up the average speed rather than top speed .

I assume there is some sort of over ride for motorways/clearways/dual
carriageways etc.

[Mark Goodge]

It only applies when not on an emergency call:

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/11605967.62mph_speed_limit_set_for_ambulances/

Mark

[NY]

"soup" <cheeses...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:0WQtC.318318$K43.2...@fx31.am4...

I can imagine that patient-transport ambulances will have this restriction,
and maybe emergency ambulances returning empty from an incident (or with a
non-urgent patient). But surely not ambulances rushing to/from an incident
where lives are at stake.

I am surprised how slowly fire engines travel on motorways. I overtook one
with blues and twos on on the M25, trundling along at about 50 mph to a car
fire which I passed a few minutes later; i wonder how long after I passed it
was before the fire engine got there. I know that a fire engine with full
water tanks handles like a quivering jelly if a sideways jolt starts the
water sloshing, but even so I'd expect them to get up to 70 or 80 where it's
safe to do so.

[Nightjar]

On 25-Mar-18 5:21 PM, bol...@cylonHQ.com wrote:
> I was sat behind an ambulance in traffic today in surrey and it had a sticker
> on the back saying this vehicle limited to 62mph! I'm sure emergency patients
> being driven on the motorway to hospital will be thrilled to know they'll get
> there at the same speed as a bus!

The main job of an ambulance is to carry the equipment needed to
stabilise a patient before, if necessary, they are carted off to
hospital. Normally, once that has been done speed is not that critical
but, if it is, transfer is more likely to be done by helicopter.

There was a high speed ambulance developed in the 1960s, primarily for
motorway use. In practice, it was found not to be significantly quicker
at getting patients to hospital than the standard ambulances, but it
cost twice as much to build.

> I know there are no speed limits on emergency vehicles when on a call so I can
> only assume some fuckwitted ambulance service controller or pen pusher in an
> NHS trust has forced this on them. Anyone else seen anything something like
> this before?

As others have said, this is for non-emergency travel only.



--
--

Colin Bignell

[NY]

"soup" <cheeses...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:0WQtC.318318$K43.2...@fx31.am4...

> On 25/03/2018 17:21, bol...@cylonHQ.com wrote:
>> I was sat behind an ambulance in traffic today in surrey and it had a
>> sticker
>> on the back saying this vehicle limited to 62mph! I'm sure emergency
>> patients
>> being driven on the motorway to hospital will be thrilled to know they'll
>> get
>> there at the same speed as a bus!
>>
>> I know there are no speed limits on emergency vehicles when on a call so
>> I can
>> only assume some fuckwitted ambulance service controller or pen pusher in
>> an
>> NHS trust has forced this on them. Anyone else seen anything something
>> like
>> this before?
>
> AIUI top speed isn't very important for an (in town) ambulance, it is
> more everyone(FSVOeveryone) gets out of their way, they can go through
> lights etc that bumps up the average speed rather than top speed .

"FSVOeveryone" - very true. Not everyone gets out of the way of an
ambulance, and some motorists actively block them.

I was travelling on a single-carriageway trunk road with enough width on the
straights for an ambulance to get by easily if people move a foot or so
towards the kerbs. I've seen it done many times and there's no problem.

On one occasion I heard an ambulance behind me and saw its lights in my
mirror. Like *almost* everyone else, I moved closer to the kerb. The
ambulance passed safely between the two streams of cars. However one car
ahead of me did not move; on the contrary he actually moved into the middle
of the road, straddling the white line, to block the ambulance. You know how
emergency vehicles have several levels of "urgency" in their sirens, from a
slow wail to a fast warble. Well this ambulance switched from the rapid
warble to an audible equivalent of "get out of my f-ing way - right now"
which involved a very loud blare and lights that lit up the whole of the
back end of the car, even in daylight. Even the car didn't move; the
ambulance only got past because several oncoming cars had gone right onto
the verge to give him room on the wrong side of the road.

I hope ambulances carry dashcams and captured the incident, because it was
obvious that this wasn't just a case of driver who was oblivious, but one
who was fully aware and was deliberately impeding the ambulance. Maybe it's
part of this culture of people leaving rude notes on ambulances telling them
to move their vehicle because it's blocking their drive.

The awkward sod who lives opposite me got back home and found an ambulance
with flashing lights parked on one side of our road. There were no other
cars parked along that road, but he chose to park directly opposite the
ambulance (not even outside his house) so as to block the road to all
traffic in both directions, and then blamed it on the ambulance who
"shouldn't have been there". A few minutes later a fire engine turned up (I
think the incident was a walker who had collapsed in the wood half a mile
away at the end of the footpath leading our our road, and they needed help
carrying the patient) and a fire engine full of firefighters descended on
this guy and told him to move. According to my neighbour they said if he
didn't, their fire engine would move his car for him...

(This is the same neighbour who normally parks directly opposite our drive,
rather than a few yards either side, between the drives, and I'm sure he
does it out of spite because we've got drives on our side of the road but
all the houses on the other side have to use a communal car park a hundred
yards away, and most of the houses are owned whereas his is housing
association - he's got a chip on his shoulder.

[Nightjar]

On 25-Mar-18 8:07 PM, NY wrote:
...

> Maybe it's part of this culture of people leaving rude notes on
> ambulances telling them to move their vehicle because it's blocking

> their drive....

Not a particularly good decision, as it turns out:

http://metro.co.uk/2018/03/23/nightmare-neighbour-who-left-abusive-note-on-ambulance-evicted-from-her-street-7410722/


--
--

Colin Bignell

[bol...@cylonhq.com]

Presumably the speed limiter cuts in when the blue lights are switched off
which could potentially be an issue if the driver switches them off when
there is no traffic in the way. THe saving fuel argument in that article
sounds like BS to me. I very much doubt ambulances get above 62 in daily
use anyway and on the motorway when not on call I doubt they'd do much more
anyway since they're basically converted vans and so not exactly nice to
drive at speed.

[bol...@cylonhq.com]

On Sun, 25 Mar 2018 20:07:19 +0100
"NY" <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>"soup" <cheeses...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:0WQtC.318318$K43.2...@fx31.am4...
>> On 25/03/2018 17:21, bol...@cylonHQ.com wrote:
>>> I was sat behind an ambulance in traffic today in surrey and it had a
>>> sticker
>>> on the back saying this vehicle limited to 62mph! I'm sure emergency
>>> patients
>>> being driven on the motorway to hospital will be thrilled to know they'll
>>> get
>>> there at the same speed as a bus!
>>>
>>> I know there are no speed limits on emergency vehicles when on a call so
>>> I can
>>> only assume some fuckwitted ambulance service controller or pen pusher in
>>> an
>>> NHS trust has forced this on them. Anyone else seen anything something
>>> like
>>> this before?
>>
>> AIUI top speed isn't very important for an (in town) ambulance, it is
>> more everyone(FSVOeveryone) gets out of their way, they can go through
>> lights etc that bumps up the average speed rather than top speed .
>
>"FSVOeveryone" - very true. Not everyone gets out of the way of an
>ambulance, and some motorists actively block them.

This is probably occuring because of fuckwits in the DoT, TfL and local councils
who decided it would be a great idea to fine people who moved a short distance
across a red light or into a bus lane to let an emergency vehicle go past.
Its an unfortunate symptom of the private sector attracting all the talent
these days with the public sector being left with the braindead window lickers
who are probably too dumb to forsee the knock-on effects their moronic money
grabbing jobsworth decisions would have.

>ambulance (not even outside his house) so as to block the road to all
>traffic in both directions, and then blamed it on the ambulance who

Someone kept parking in my allocated space in a block of flats. Polite notes
followed by warning notes had no effect. So in the end I smashed in the driver
and passenger side windows. That worked. Some people need to learn the hard
way. I couldn't park there for a while after in case he decided to get his own
back but then I couldn't anyway when he was there.

[Mark Goodge]

I would expect that it's under the control of the driver, but
overriding it when not on a callout would be a potential disciplinary
offence, just like using blues and twos when not on a callout is now.

Ultimately, you have to trust the drivers, but you also need
enforceable sanctions if they do take the piss.

Mark

[NY]

<bol...@cylonHQ.com> wrote in message news:p9abga$qlj$1...@gioia.aioe.org...

> I very much doubt ambulances get above 62 in daily
> use anyway and on the motorway when not on call I doubt they'd do much
> more
> anyway since they're basically converted vans and so not exactly nice to
> drive at speed.

Yes, it's said that you get a much nicer ride in a hearse (when you can't
appreciate it cos you're in your coffin) than in an ambulance.

I was taken by ambulance from one hospital to another (as patient-transport,
rather than as an emergency) and I can vouch for the fact that ambulances,
even emergency ones (*), are noisy and bumpy and throw you around if you are
sitting side-on to the direction of travel.

(*) I was taken in an emergency-type ambulance, with stretchers and
resuscitation equipment, rather than a patient-transport minibus type. I had
to tell the driver where to go after he got lost in a residential estate
near the hospital, which is difficult to do at night through very dark
privacy windows. We got all the way up to the ward and found it was closed
for refurbishment and patients were redirected to another ward, when meant
going right back down to the ground floor to move sideways into a different
tower block. The poor ambulance crew were knackered after pushing my trolley
in and out of lifts and along corridors.

[bol...@cylonhq.com]

When my daughter was ill recently we spent 6.5 hours waiting in A&E for her to
be seen. I got to watch amulance crews wheeling in drunks and other assorted
cunts who had no appreciation for their services. I wouldn't want their job
for any money.

[NY]

<bol...@cylonHQ.com> wrote in message news:p9aupf$1umm$1...@gioia.aioe.org...

> When my daughter was ill recently we spent 6.5 hours waiting in A&E for
> her to
> be seen. I got to watch amulance crews wheeling in drunks and other
> assorted
> cunts who had no appreciation for their services. I wouldn't want their
> job
> for any money.

Nor me. I'm very happy to help people who want to be helped and want to try
to help themselves, but I'd be no good with people who were ungrateful and
threw my kindness back in my face - together with throwing "used beer" in my
face when the puked up.

The crew who took me from Leeds to York said it was luck of the draw that
they'd been given the job of transporting me, late one night, from one
hospital to another closer to home (so my wife didn't have to travel so far
to visit me) and that it made a welcome change from having to deal with "the
ungratefuls".

I was surprised that the driver missed the turning off the ring road to the
hospital, because it's well signposted and I'd expect hospitals to be marked
on their satnav.

It all seems a long time ago now. I still have the occasional nightmare
about how very very close I came to not making it after my heart attack...

Given that I owe my life to an ambulance getting to me quickly, and staying
and persisting with me for a lot longer than most would have done without
giving me up as a lost cause, I tend to be a bit sensitive to people who
criticise or obstruct ambulance crews...

[Colonel Edmund J. Burke]

Can't you limeys write a proper sentence?
God Damn It!

[bol...@cylonhq.com]

Not our fault if you colonials can only understand your own dialect properly.
Its called "English" not "American" for a reason.

[Colonel Edmund J. Burke]

Nice rationalization, me bucko.
Over here we call it Engrish.