police joy riders out and about again on the a30

M

mad4slalom

Senior member
just came off the caen to portsmouth ferry this morning, got to where the a303 ends and you take the slip for the M5 when 3 of the unmarked silver special police cars, sped through the two sets of red lights , blues and twos going and dissapeared. dont know if they are transporting royals or politicians or on an " exercise ", didnt think any more of it apart from mild annoyance at the waste of my taxes, till I got to cardinham area of the a30 near bodmin when three of them coming from bodmin this time blues and twos , not SIX feet between them at high speed overtaking on the hatched area , (there to protect cars turning right ) barging their way through two lanes of traffic.. FFS if three of us went out for a play in the zeds and drove like that we would have had fines and points and if they wanted to make an example, a short ban too. i dont care who is being taken where but there is just no need to do it in that manner.feel like putting in a freedom of information request for an explanation. disgusting waste of resources, reckless and irrisponsible to the extreme and really just no need to do it whatsoever.what if one of them got it wrong and wiped out a family ? seen it lot mor often in the last year, i want to know who dictates that they have to drive everywhere in that manner .and then ok's it to book motorists for a misdemeanour of 3 or4 mph above the limit. :x
 
That's very infuriating for all the reasons that you say. There can't be any justification for endangering the safety of the general public.

I would feel like putting in some sort complaint, but who knows what sort of backlash that would lead to, you could find yourself pulled over regularly for all sorts of non-existent misdemeanours! :(
 
I have never understood how the fact they are transporting VIPs means they need to break the law while doing it.
Not seen it in a while but while working in Glasgow I regularly used to see cops putting on their blue lights just to jump a set of lights then switch them back off again only to stop at the next set. Obviously in no hurry but not wanting to wait at certain lights.
 
Don't personally see what the issue is. A mate of mine used to be a dog handler and often had police escorts at warp speeds to get places they needed a specially trained nose.

I expect they all have the relevant training to minimise risk to the public :thumbsup:
 
I don't see an issue with it. We pay our police to protect society and to do so they use best judgement, be that for moving VIP's, training purposes or real emergency.

In any other country of the world I doubt such questions of the police would ever be asked.

I exaggerate for a point, but do we want every police car, ambulance or fire engine to complete a risk assessment before going to a scene?
 
Don't see a problem either. These guys are generally trained to the highest standards on our roads, far beyond the capabilities of the average driver. Getting to advanced standard of driving doesn't come lightly in the police service.
 
yes, I know one who had no qualms about taking his and my daughter at 140 mph with blues and twos on apublic road , just saying, :wink: that they, like us are probably petrol heads and any excuse to exercise the right foot . I know it seems policy to speed politicians, young royals and other dubious vip's around at excessive speed all over the world, my beef is bullying other road users out of the way whilst overtaking on the hatched areas, a clearly dangerous manouvre , and yes I am sure they are trained to the highest standards , however, the dodery elderly driver or in fact, any other driver isnt trained for, or expecting a train of three cars to suddenly appear from nowhere and cut them up !,if a police traffic patrol saw three privately owned cars in convoy doing the same , I am pretty sure they would have an issue with it too, of course, I may have been jumping the gun and they were legitamately in a hurry on urgent business to get to the latest young filly that prince Andrew had shagged before the Press did :rofl:
 
actually, if they are so highly trained....then wtf happened to the two second rule ? cause by my reckoning they were driving by the half a second rule !! :o
 
AndyBeech said:
Don't see a problem either. These guys are generally trained to the highest standards on our roads, far beyond the capabilities of the average driver. Getting to advanced standard of driving doesn't come lightly in the police service.
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Seems the driver of a police car that demolished Jo Publics Jaguar just down from the road I live needs to go back to school then. Happened earlier in the week and was bound to happen sometime soon. It will be interesting to se who gets blamed for this one. Jo Public going about his business or plod going through red lights.........
 
Sometimes a cops best judgement is the wrong one after all they are just normal people not superhuman.
They are there to uphold the law and should not use their badge to abuse it.
If involved in an accident where they have jumped a red light they are to blame. This goes for fire brigade and ambulances also.
If its an emergency by all means travel as fast as is safe to get there but that shouldnt include breaking the law needlessly and endangering other road users.
As for them being professionally trained to drive fast safely in 2009 and 2010 there were on average 10 accidents per DAY involving police vehicles.
Granted some of these would not have been the cops fault but how many of them were caused by the drivers excessive speed in built up areas and inconsideration for other road users.
 
BRC said:
AndyBeech said:
Don't see a problem either. These guys are generally trained to the highest standards on our roads, far beyond the capabilities of the average driver. Getting to advanced standard of driving doesn't come lightly in the police service.
Click to expand...
Seems the driver of a police car that demolished Jo Publics Jaguar just down from the road I live needs to go back to school then. Happened earlier in the week and was bound to happen sometime soon. It will be interesting to se who gets blamed for this one. Jo Public going about his business or plod going through red lights.........
Click to expand...

Everyone makes mistakes, even highly trained drivers. As for the OP, I can understand the frustration and anger. However it's all about circumstance and purpose and nobody on here knows what they were doing or why. I'm pretty sure they don't do that sort of thing for fun, as opposed to three privately driven cars that more than likely would have been being driven like that for kicks. Very little happens that you cannot see/anticipate if you're looking correctly, but there will always be an element of considered risk necessary in what they do. Even if they were simply training I'd be reassured that they know a lot more about what they're doing than I do.
 
Without going into details the silver cars witnessed in the area you mentioned are likely to be linked to the incident in PARIS.

Similar plans are in place for all ferry ports & travel terminals.
 
Stepping aside this incidents that as Bing says we have no idea of the purpose or importance and understanding that from outside such driving may seem wrong.

Sure a few motorists may be 'bullied' out of the way and on the odd occasion police drive a bit too fast for conditions, or aggressively and invariably the odd accident and even fatality, but on balance I'll take that as a cost of the 000's of 'runs' that pass without incident of catching criminals, protecting people, saving lives getting patients to hospital and preventing houses burning down.

Will be a sad day when our emergency forces constantly say 'sorry we were delayed by traffic or stuck on a red light', etc.
 
Put it this way. If your loved ones need urgent assistance im sure you wouldn't mind them bullying people out of the way to get to you quicker and potentially saving a loved ones life :thumbsup:
 
The problem isnt really when they NEED to speed/jump lights etc. Its when they dont need to do it but do it anyway thats a problem.
 
Our local speed van used to mis-understand the point of his job and do 85mph constantly in a 60 limit (dual carriageway in a 3 tonne van)
 
halifaxbantam said:
Without going into details the silver cars witnessed in the area you mentioned are likely to be linked to the incident in PARIS.

Similar plans are in place for all ferry ports & travel terminals.
Click to expand...

Worrying incident that - reassuring response.


Like an ambulance - get out the way. . . .
 
Interesting debate. Seems likely that three Cars in convoy would be on a shout or training. In either case I would say they have a ligament reason for driving as described.

It's the roser or ambulance driver, not on a shout, abusing their blues and two's at roadworks to jump the que that annoy me. You naturally give them the benefit of the doubt and then realise their just abusing their privilege, when the you notice the ambulance is empty or they carry on at bang on the speed limit for the next 10 miles. :headbang: To##ers.
 
paulgs1000 said:
halifaxbantam said:
Without going into details the silver cars witnessed in the area you mentioned are likely to be linked to the incident in PARIS.

Similar plans are in place for all ferry ports & travel terminals.
Click to expand...

Worrying incident that - reassuring response.


Like an ambulance - get out the way. . . .
Click to expand...

True BUT the OP post was written at 11:30 pm on Tuesaday evening , the 6th and the incident in Paris took place on the morning of the 7th so I don't think they were linked to that incident in regards to what the OP witnessed but I fully get that they need to immobilise as quickly as they can for whatever reason.
 
buzyg said:
It's the roser or ambulance driver, not on a shout, abusing their blues and two's at roadworks to jump the que that annoy me. You naturally give them the benefit of the doubt and then realise their just abusing their privilege, when the you notice the ambulance is empty or they carry on at bang on the speed limit for the next 10 miles. :headbang: To##ers.
Click to expand...

How do you tell when an ambulance is empty? :?
 
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