ADUK Archive

I wondered what thoughts where on this use of blue lights.

Witnessed a unmarked bmw 5 series touring on 50mph limit dual track. I was in the right hand lane approaching trafficlight when I observed the vehicle approaching from behind. I was the only person who reacted to it b4 he was on my tail typical lack of observation. Anyway I moved over to the inside lane and allowed him to pass without reducing speed or direction. So he approaches the light and there is a seperate right hand turn lane with a ghost island as a buffer between the two traffic flows.

So the bmw drives straight onto the ghost island giving no indication of whether he needs to turn right or proceed straight on. He sat suprisingly in on the ghost island no indication given with lights and siren while both drivers must of been waiting for a cule which way he may want to go. Then he moves right up the tail of the car in the right hand trun lane and begins honking his horn which in turn switched the siren tone several times. Still know signal he then forces the car to jump a red light and then swerved rather back into the dual track to continue straight on.

Just strick me as badly planned and an indication would of helped. Also we have already discussed that jumping red light for blue light vehicles and general advice was don't the driver should switch some equipment of and hang back.

What, they still havent fitted those BMW's with a "Turbo Boost" button yet?


Jay

jbsportstech wrote:I wondered what thoughts where on this use of blue lights.

Witnessed a unmarked bmw 5 series touring on 50mph limit dual track. I was in the right hand lane approaching trafficlight when I observed the vehicle approaching from behind. I was the only person who reacted to it b4 he was on my tail typical lack of observation. Anyway I moved over to the inside lane and allowed him to pass without reducing speed or direction. So he approaches the light and there is a seperate right hand turn lane with a ghost island as a buffer between the two traffic flows.

So the bmw drives straight onto the ghost island giving no indication of whether he needs to turn right or proceed straight on. He sat suprisingly in on the ghost island no indication given with lights and siren while both drivers must of been waiting for a cule which way he may want to go. Then he moves right up the tail of the car in the right hand trun lane and begins honking his horn which in turn switched the siren tone several times. Still know signal he then forces the car to jump a red light and then swerved rather back into the dual track to continue straight on.

Just strick me as badly planned and an indication would of helped. Also we have already discussed that jumping red light for blue light vehicles and general advice was don't the driver should switch some equipment of and hang back.

Sound like he wanted to go straight on ,hence no signal.
Also the rotation through the various sounds (Wail, yelp, two tone etc) is done on the horn & the horn will also sound as you cycle through them to the off position.

Wail, yelp, two tone? I'd sort of forgotten there were three options.

Presumably they are:

1. The 'wail' is the one that slides up and down the frequency scale on a slow cycle.

2. The 'yelp' is the one that slides up and down the same frequency scale on a quick cycle.

3. The 'two tone' presumably use two horn notes of different fixed frequencies, and alternates between the two.

....but I don't want a demonstration when you are behind me with ticket book in hand.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

vonhosen wrote:

jbsportstech wrote:I wondered what thoughts where on this use of blue lights.

Witnessed a unmarked bmw 5 series touring on 50mph limit dual track. I was in the right hand lane approaching trafficlight when I observed the vehicle approaching from behind. I was the only person who reacted to it b4 he was on my tail typical lack of observation. Anyway I moved over to the inside lane and allowed him to pass without reducing speed or direction. So he approaches the light and there is a seperate right hand turn lane with a ghost island as a buffer between the two traffic flows.

So the bmw drives straight onto the ghost island giving no indication of whether he needs to turn right or proceed straight on. He sat suprisingly in on the ghost island no indication given with lights and siren while both drivers must of been waiting for a cule which way he may want to go. Then he moves right up the tail of the car in the right hand trun lane and begins honking his horn which in turn switched the siren tone several times. Still know signal he then forces the car to jump a red light and then swerved rather back into the dual track to continue straight on.

Just strick me as badly planned and an indication would of helped. Also we have already discussed that jumping red light for blue light vehicles and general advice was don't the driver should switch some equipment of and hang back.

Sound like he wanted to go straight on ,hence no signal.
Also the rotation through the various sounds (Wail, yelp, two tone etc) is done on the horn & the horn will also sound as you cycle through them to the off position.

Yes but why drive straight between onto the ghost island and then stop at the pavent gives to indication no where you want when your positioning is bang slap in the middle do you not think a left hand signal would of adviced traffic his course was straught on so they could clear up.

As he sat there in the middle neither vehicle new where he wanted to go. Then when he shot up behind the car in the right hand turn lane and forced him to jump a red, agajin I thought this was a no-no and I wouldnt of budged quoting the met and devon and cornwall policeas advising the blue light vehicles should not force vehicles to controvene a red light of mount a kerb.

jbsportstech wrote:

vonhosen wrote:

jbsportstech wrote:I wondered what thoughts where on this use of blue lights.

Witnessed a unmarked bmw 5 series touring on 50mph limit dual track. I was in the right hand lane approaching trafficlight when I observed the vehicle approaching from behind. I was the only person who reacted to it b4 he was on my tail typical lack of observation. Anyway I moved over to the inside lane and allowed him to pass without reducing speed or direction. So he approaches the light and there is a seperate right hand turn lane with a ghost island as a buffer between the two traffic flows.

So the bmw drives straight onto the ghost island giving no indication of whether he needs to turn right or proceed straight on. He sat suprisingly in on the ghost island no indication given with lights and siren while both drivers must of been waiting for a cule which way he may want to go. Then he moves right up the tail of the car in the right hand trun lane and begins honking his horn which in turn switched the siren tone several times. Still know signal he then forces the car to jump a red light and then swerved rather back into the dual track to continue straight on.

Just strick me as badly planned and an indication would of helped. Also we have already discussed that jumping red light for blue light vehicles and general advice was don't the driver should switch some equipment of and hang back.

Sound like he wanted to go straight on ,hence no signal.
Also the rotation through the various sounds (Wail, yelp, two tone etc) is done on the horn & the horn will also sound as you cycle through them to the off position.

Yes but why drive straight between onto the ghost island and then stop at the pavent gives to indication to where you want when your positioning is bang slap in teh middle.

Because he wanted to go straight on, hence he would have taken the left or the right to facilitate that, depending on which opened up for him ?

jbsportstech wrote: As he sat there in the middle neither vehicle new where he wanted to go. Then when he shot up behind the car in the right hand turn lane and forced him to jump a red, agajin I thought this was a no-no and I wouldnt of budged quoting the met and devon and cornwall policeas advising the blue light vehicles should not force vehicles to controvene a red light of mount a kerb.

He can't force you to jump a red light. The only way he can actually force it, is if he makes physical contact & pushes you out. The choice is the drivers, some choose to ease into the junction because they can see it's safe to, some don't. If it's only one vehicle at the head of the queue goong over the stop line there is generally room for them to reposition themselves & let him through without placing themselves in danger.

Although people can be intimidated into doing things without physical contact.

And what happened to the dee daa sirens? I guess they weren't as effective as the American-style ones.

I have thought that by offering himself up to the gap between the two vehicles he is asking for the course of least resistance, if both vehicles move slightly then there would probably be room for him to pass. By going directly behind someone they can be confused as to which way they should be moving. It's the same when trying to make progress through congested traffic, you always see the police car straddling the white line between the lines of cars.

Its just seems he was unecessasrily delayed by his lack of any clues as to his intended course.

The guidelines I have read about not be forced through a red light state the blue light vehicle should turn off its equipment like siren. Although there was no physical force by moving to someones tail and cyclling through the siren tones by pressing the horn I would view that as intimdating someone to contorvene the red ligh, he has the excemption not the car driver plus its a cameraed set of lights.

jbsportstech wrote:Its just seems he was unecessasrily delayed by his lack of any clues as to his intended course.

The guidelines I have read about not be forced through a red light state the blue light vehicle should turn off its equipment like siren. Although there was no physical force by moving to someones tail and cyclling through the siren tones by pressing the horn I would view that as intimdating someone to contorvene the red ligh, he has the excemption not the car driver plus its a cameraed set of lights.

Yes if I think the driver is aware of my presence I will turn the tones off, but from your description I wouldn't have been given either a left or right indicator.

jbsportstech wrote:I wouldnt of budged quoting the met and devon and cornwall policeas advising the blue light vehicles should not force vehicles to controvene a red light of mount a kerb.

Let's hope it isn't your family's call they're responding to then

Chris

Sounds pretty simple to me. The driver did not know where he was going until the point at which he proceeded?

There are a million and one reasons for a police car on a call to have to suddenly change directions / course and it may have been a very serious incident like a colleaugue having their head kicked in.

Or even a very very serious incident like a member of the public getting their head kicked in....

It could be that the driver was listening to an incident on the radio and was trying to anticipate a direction of travel or work out the quickest route, and that is why,there was a delay resulting in no signal,I dont know.
Stephen

/\

Yes and yes.

And so the list could go on.