ended up almost blocking an ambulance

stratos

I was driving along in a two lane road. Buslane to my left and a line of about 5 cars . I thought I heard something, looked in my rear view mirror and saw an ambulance coming up flashing lights siren etc approaching the cars behind me. I checked my left mirror and pulled into the bus lane. expecting the cars behind me to do the same.

They didn't.

The car behind me just sped up and began to overtake me and the cars behind him followed. The ambulance faced by a line of cars pulled into the buslane I am now in the buslane with a line of cars on my right and an ambulance behind me.

Did I look like a muppet, but I don't think it was my fault I am sure I did the right thing. I spotted the ambulance and pulled over.

I had to speed up undertake the cars on my right and let the ambulance out. I swear to god none of them ever saw the ambulance, but still I felt aweful I held it up.

Big Wave

They're the idiots - they should have moved aside like you did.

Bluefoam

If the bus lane was clear, I would have stayed in the lane I was in & let the ambulance undertake - safer than expecting 6 cars to file into another lane & the confusion that would come of it...

Delta Kilo

Its hard to know what to do in that instance OP. You were very unlucky that you got caught like that.
Not to hijack your thread, but I had a similar experience the other day. I was driving home at 4 O Clock and there was an MPV in front of me. Typical nappy-wagon, 45-50 mph on main road, woman behind the wheel and a few kids in the back. I overtook on a straight road, broken white line, and sped up to 60mph and continued on. A few mins later, while looking in my mirror I could see the MPV and an ambulance approaching from behind with lights flashing but no siren. I moved into the hard shoulder in front of her. The MPV did not pull over but hogged the white line with the ambulance right up her rear end. She obviously wasn't looking in the rear view mirror. The ambulance had to turn on his siren to get her to move and she did.

A few miles later I pulled in to a filling station and she pulled in after me and proceded to ridicule me for dangerous overtaking and that people like me are the reason why there are loads of people being killed on the roads! I said at least i use my mirrors to which she lost the plot and started shouting at me saying that she has 15 years driving experience and who am I to be telling her how to drive. Everyone at the filling station was looking at me so I just ignored her, paid for my diesel and left. Is this woman mad? What should I do? Should I report her (I have the reg no.) or just let it go. It was really embarrassing.

Random

Delta Kilo wrote: »

Its hard to know what to do in that instance OP. You were very unlucky that you got caught like that.
Not to hijack your thread, but I had a similar experience the other day. I was driving home at 4 O Clock and there was an MPV in front of me. Typical nappy-wagon, 45-50 mph on main road, woman behind the wheel and a few kids in the back. I overtook on a straight road, broken white line, and sped up to 60mph and continued on. A few mins later, while looking in my mirror I could see the MPV and an ambulance approaching from behind with lights flashing but no siren. I moved into the hard shoulder in front of her. The MPV did not pull over but hogged the white line with the ambulance right up her rear end. She obviously wasn't looking in the rear view mirror. The ambulance had to turn on his siren to get her to move and she did.

A few miles later I pulled in to a filling station and she pulled in after me and proceded to ridicule me for dangerous overtaking and that people like me are the reason why there are loads of people being killed on the roads! I said at least i use my mirrors to which she lost the plot and started shouting at me saying that she has 15 years driving experience and who am I to be telling her how to drive. Everyone at the filling station was looking at me so I just ignored her, paid for my diesel and left. Is this woman mad? What should I do? Should I report her (I have the reg no.) or just let it go. It was really embarrassing.

What are you going to report her for? Just let it go.

Yakult

Bluefoam wrote: »

If the bus lane was clear, I would have stayed in the lane I was in & let the ambulance undertake - safer than expecting 6 cars to file into another lane & the confusion that would come of it...

+1 to that.

OP - It happens mate. Dont feel awful about it.

timmywex

The ambulance/any other emergency vehicle, will always use the bus lane, moving in and out of it to get around buses and the likes.

You shoulda stayed where you were but as long as the mistake was realised and you got out of the way its not bad at all, alot of drivers wouldnt realise theyre in the wrong and just continue on being in the way

timmywex

Delta Kilo wrote: »

Its hard to know what to do in that instance OP. You were very unlucky that you got caught like that.
Not to hijack your thread, but I had a similar experience the other day. I was driving home at 4 O Clock and there was an MPV in front of me. Typical nappy-wagon, 45-50 mph on main road, woman behind the wheel and a few kids in the back. I overtook on a straight road, broken white line, and sped up to 60mph and continued on. A few mins later, while looking in my mirror I could see the MPV and an ambulance approaching from behind with lights flashing but no siren. I moved into the hard shoulder in front of her. The MPV did not pull over but hogged the white line with the ambulance right up her rear end. She obviously wasn't looking in the rear view mirror. The ambulance had to turn on his siren to get her to move and she did.

A few miles later I pulled in to a filling station and she pulled in after me and proceded to ridicule me for dangerous overtaking and that people like me are the reason why there are loads of people being killed on the roads! I said at least i use my mirrors to which she lost the plot and started shouting at me saying that she has 15 years driving experience and who am I to be telling her how to drive. Everyone at the filling station was looking at me so I just ignored her, paid for my diesel and left. Is this woman mad? What should I do? Should I report her (I have the reg no.) or just let it go. It was really embarrassing.

That kinda driver really annoys me, always knows best, and just because they have expirience, suddenly makes them a better driver! Itll be them who crashes or something eventually anyway because they think theyre an excellent driver

Just let it go tbh, theres not much to report about her.

horseydevine

dont worry about it pal it can happen to anyone..

sure i was coming down the m1, just passed the donabate turnoff going town bound and behind me in the fast lane i could see a ambulance with motorcycle escorrt full lights and sirens, everyone moves into slow lane except a northie reg transit, the motorcycle goes onto the median and has to punch the side of the van to get it to move over... some people shouldnt have licences..

Elessar

You did the right thing. The other drivers were just muppets. It's best, when driving, to always assume everyone else is blind, stupid and deaf.

There is no law that says you must get out of the way of emergency vehicles. So even if you stayed in front of an ambulance going slowly on a one way street for the entire journey you could not be done for it. Which I think is ridiculous. It should be a requirement to give way.

mikemac

horseydevine wrote: »

dont worry about it pal it can happen to anyone..

sure i was coming down the m1, just passed the donabate turnoff going town bound and behind me in the fast lane i could see a ambulance with motorcycle escorrt full lights and sirens, everyone moves into slow lane except a northie reg transit, the motorcycle goes onto the median and has to punch the side of the van to get it to move over... some people shouldnt have licences..

You're telling us a motorcyclist punched a van while traveling at high speed.
Do you know how dangerous that is and how easily you could lose control of the bike

Sorry, just doubting your story!

AugustusMaximus

Delta Kilo wrote: »

Its hard to know what to do in that instance OP. You were very unlucky that you got caught like that.
Not to hijack your thread, but I had a similar experience the other day. I was driving home at 4 O Clock and there was an MPV in front of me. Typical nappy-wagon, 45-50 mph on main road, woman behind the wheel and a few kids in the back. I overtook on a straight road, broken white line, and sped up to 60mph and continued on. A few mins later, while looking in my mirror I could see the MPV and an ambulance approaching from behind with lights flashing but no siren. I moved into the hard shoulder in front of her. The MPV did not pull over but hogged the white line with the ambulance right up her rear end. She obviously wasn't looking in the rear view mirror. The ambulance had to turn on his siren to get her to move and she did.

A few miles later I pulled in to a filling station and she pulled in after me and proceded to ridicule me for dangerous overtaking and that people like me are the reason why there are loads of people being killed on the roads! I said at least i use my mirrors to which she lost the plot and started shouting at me saying that she has 15 years driving experience and who am I to be telling her how to drive. Everyone at the filling station was looking at me so I just ignored her, paid for my diesel and left. Is this woman mad? What should I do? Should I report her (I have the reg no.) or just let it go. It was really embarrassing.

I would have said

1. You were not driving at a reasonable speed considering the road conditions.
2. You held up an Ambulance due to your inatention.
3. That's 15 years expierience of bad driving.

I would then go on to completely ignore her as if she didn't even exist.


I find I'm wanting a more and more powerful engine every day due to having to overtake more due to idiots driving far below the speed limit and then speeding up in an attempt to stop you from overtaking them.

Rowley Birkin QC

To be honest OP it sounds as though you caused the confusion.

You shouldn't automatically pull over for the ambulance but rather assess the situation and anticipate that the ambulance driver will find the gap (in this case the empty bus lane) himself. Yes, the other drivers should have followed your lead if they had read the situation but if you hadn't of pulled over into the bus lane the ambulance had a clear run.

aoibhebree

That woman with "15 years driving experience" is probably the type of driver who may never actually be in an accident, but god knows how many she's caused by her bad driving, without even realising it!!

uberwolf

timmywex wrote: »

Just let it go tbh, theres not much to report about her.

eh, road rage?

ZYX

Delta Kilo wrote: »

. I was driving home at 4 O Clock and there was an MPV in front of me. Typical nappy-wagon, 45-50 mph on main road, woman behind the wheel and a few kids in the back. I overtook on a straight road, broken white line, and sped up to 60mph and continued on. A few mins later, while looking in my mirror I could see the MPV and an ambulance approaching from behind with lights flashing but no siren. I moved into the hard shoulder in front of her. The MPV did not pull over but hogged the white line with the ambulance right up her rear end. She obviously wasn't looking in the rear view mirror. The ambulance had to turn on his siren to get her to move and she did.

A few miles later I pulled in to a filling station and she pulled in after me and proceded to ridicule me for dangerous overtaking and that people like me are the reason why there are loads of people being killed on the roads! I said at least i use my mirrors to which she lost the plot and started shouting at me saying that she has 15 years driving experience and who am I to be telling her how to drive. Everyone at the filling station was looking at me so I just ignored her, paid for my diesel and left. Is this woman mad? What should I do? Should I report her (I have the reg no.) or just let it go. It was really embarrassing.

In fairness I suspect there is a lot more to this story than you are telling (or perhaps even realise). If she regularly drives her "nappy wagon" at 45-50mph then thousands of cars must overtake her every day. Why was she so incensed with you that she went to the trouble of chasing you into a petrol station to give out to you?

McSpud

In other countries there is a law which means you have to pull for Emergency Vehicles. There definitely should be one here.

I think I would generally move into the bus lane to let an ambulance pass. At very minimum all cars should slow down to let ambulance pass be that in the bus lane or not.

Paulzx

timmywex wrote: »

The ambulance/any other emergency vehicle, will always use the bus lane, moving in and out of it to get around buses and the likes.

Wouldn't agree with that statement. In Dublin city if you use bus lanes whilst on blues you can find yourself boxed in when you get to a red light at the end of the bus lane. You find yourself boxed in the bus lane with stationary vehicles in front of you and outside of you in the normal traffic lane.

There is no hard and fast rules about what we will do. Decisions are made in a split second depending on what the traffic ahead is doing.

If an emergency vehicle drives up behind you and makes no attempt to undertake you in the bus lane you can be fairly sure he's trying to force you into the bus lane.

The worst thing you can do is brake or make an erratic manouvre. A bit of cop on and a cool head is all that is required

timmywex

Paulzx wrote: »

Wouldn't agree with that statement. In Dublin city if you use bus lanes whilst on blues you can find yourself boxed in when you get to a red light at the end of the bus lane. You find yourself boxed in the bus lane with stationary vehicles in front of you and outside of you in the normal traffic lane.

There is no hard and fast rules about what we will do. Decisions are made in a split second depending on what the traffic ahead is doing.

If an emergency vehicle drives up behind you and makes no attempt to undertake you in the bus lane you can be fairly sure he's trying to force you into the bus lane.

The worst thing you can do is brake or make an erratic manouvre. A bit of cop on and a cool head is all that is required

Good point actually, my understanding was wrong :P

Id reckon the use of indicators is vital aswell, let everyone know what your doing!

rebel.ranter

It's sod's law really if you stayed where you were then the exact opposite could have happened.

Top Dog

aoibhebree wrote: »

That woman with "15 years driving experience" is probably the type of driver who may never actually be in an accident, but god knows how many she's caused by her bad driving, without even realising it!!

Ignorance is bliss? I suppose if you never use your mirrors then you're completly oblivious to the carnage you've left in your wake :pac:

dade

personally I'd stay where i am and let the EMTs decide where they want to drive, if they drive up everyones ass and get them to move to the bus lane that I'd follow suit to give them passage. like wise I'd stay put if they skipped into the bus lane.

jordainius

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

I find I'm wanting a more and more powerful engine every day due to having to overtake more due to idiots driving far below the speed limit and then speeding up in an attempt to stop you from overtaking them.

This suggests that you might drive behind them in an intimidating manner which is why they speed up when you try to overtake?

Rowley Birkin QC

jordainius wrote: »

This suggests that you might drive behind them in an intimidating manner which is why they speed up when you try to overtake?

No it doesn't, it suggests that he wants to be able to overtake as quickly and as safely as possible, spending as little time as possible over the white line.

Anyway, why would anyone speed up as they were being overtaken??

jordainius

bigkev49 wrote: »

No it doesn't, it suggests that he wants to be able to overtake as quickly and as safely as possible, spending as little time as possible over the white line.

Anyway, why would anyone speed up as they were being overtaken??

Because people are idiots who succumb to road rage way too easily!

Rowley Birkin QC

jordainius wrote: »

Because people are idiots who succumb to road rage way too easily!

But wheres the connection between driving a powerful car and driving in a manner to cause road rage?

Top Dog

bigkev49 wrote: »

Anyway, why would anyone speed up as they were being overtaken??

Some people just can't stand being overtaken no matter how slowly/stupidly they're driving themselves. This is especially true where you're in a smaller car trying to overtake the BMW/Merc/Audi thats trundling along at 48mph.

jordainius

bigkev49 wrote: »

But wheres the connection between driving a powerful car and driving in a manner to cause road rage?

Don't know? You'd have to ask the person who said that because it wasn't me.

But I do very regularly see unnecessary overtaking, and some driverscan show great impatience when trying to overtake i.e. they tailgate in a manner that places them predominantly in the right wing mirror in an intimidating manner waiting for any gap.

People often react to intimidating driving and make it difficult for intimidating drivers to overtake. They shouldn't but it happens.

Quazzie

Nothing to see here, Move along folks!!

trellheim

{ in fairness you should probably take that comment back }

Omcd

rebel.ranter wrote: »

It's sod's law really if you stayed where you were then the exact opposite could have happened.

Yup, it did happen to me. Ambulance had a clear run up the bus lane, and I stayed put and slowed, expecting it to pass on the left, only to see the entire line of traffic in front of me do a sychronised move into the buslane, I tryed to follow, but it all more or less stopped suddenly as I tryed, leaving me having to hit the brakes half way with the ambulance right behind me to avoid rear ending the car that had been in front, there was two lanes of solid stationary oncoming traffic so the ambulance was totally blocked, I couldnt get enough into the buslane to let it by, so I had no choice but to tear off down the road in front of it and I had to go almost the whole length of the road before there was a gap in the buslane I could go into to let the ambulance by. I looked like a right muppet:o, but I had seriously been expecting the ambulance would have come by in the buslane - until everyone else decided otherwise.

IMO in this situation the ambulance should use the buslane as ordinary motorists dont have legal access to this lane, as pointed out by a TC poster on another thread if an emergency vehicles passes on the left under blues in a buslane its not illegal undertaking for this very reason. But I bear in mind what Paulzx has said, when it comes to it I'll do my best to allow the ambulance to do whatever it looks like it wants to do.

Bluefoam

You shoulda moved into the bus lane...:rolleyes:

Nephew

Delta Kilo wrote: »

Its hard to know what to do in that instance OP. You were very unlucky that you got caught like that.
Not to hijack your thread, but I had a similar experience the other day. I was driving home at 4 O Clock and there was an MPV in front of me. Typical nappy-wagon, 45-50 mph on main road, woman behind the wheel and a few kids in the back. I overtook on a straight road, broken white line, and sped up to 60mph and continued on. A few mins later, while looking in my mirror I could see the MPV and an ambulance approaching from behind with lights flashing but no siren. I moved into the hard shoulder in front of her. The MPV did not pull over but hogged the white line with the ambulance right up her rear end. She obviously wasn't looking in the rear view mirror. The ambulance had to turn on his siren to get her to move and she did.

A few miles later I pulled in to a filling station and she pulled in after me and proceded to ridicule me for dangerous overtaking and that people like me are the reason why there are loads of people being killed on the roads! I said at least i use my mirrors to which she lost the plot and started shouting at me saying that she has 15 years driving experience and who am I to be telling her how to drive. Everyone at the filling station was looking at me so I just ignored her, paid for my diesel and left. Is this woman mad? What should I do? Should I report her (I have the reg no.) or just let it go. It was really embarrassing.

Tbh bragging about 15 years experience is a bit pointless. She might only drive 100km a week compared to someone who might be driving 5 years doing 500km a week, the latter would have more mileage under their belt.

horseydevine

Sorry, just doubting your story![/quote]


Well the aul garda motorcyclists are fairly well trained and it did happen....

GreeBo

horseydevine wrote: »

Well the aul garda motorcyclists are fairly well trained and it did happen....

Well trained in the art of punching fast moving traffic whilst driving on the verge outside the "fast-lane" on a motorbike?

I see.
:rolleyes:

Tango Alpha 51

GreeBo wrote: »

Well trained in the art of punching fast moving traffic whilst driving on the verge outside the "fast-lane" on a motorbike?

I see.
:rolleyes:

I too have seen it happen on transfers up to Dublin. Wouldn't have believed it myself untill I saw it !!

gerardk55

What is the law re emergency vehicles using flashing lights only vs flashing lights and siren.

I was heading out to Rush one evening before Christmas, and just as you turn off the old N1, I spotted an ambulance tearing up behind me, so I pulled in and let them past just after the turn off. There had been a small car in front of me with what I reckon were too young women chatting away, and they proceeded the whole way from the turn off to Rush with a large yellow ambulance behind them with it's lights flashing, never made an effort to pull in. Tipping along at 60km/h. Oblivious!

I'm assuming they were just clueless, but it got me thinking.

The question is, are you required to make way for any emergency vehicle with flashing lights or only ones who are also using there siren as well?