Post by jennyb on Dec 26, 2013 19:21:09 GMT 1
Had a rather interesting drive home from Notts last night. We were driving my fiance's car, which has covert blue lights fitted as he volunteers for the Ambulance Service as a doctor and is also on call one week in six for major incidents across the East Mids. I stayed sober and drove us home, and as we got into the 50mph limit leaving Notts I was being very badly tailgated by another driver, so I slowed and indicated to pull in, to let him past. I was on a straight stretch of road, perfectly safe for him to pass, but he didn't, he stopped level with us and glared at us in a really aggressive way. OH and I seriously thought we were about to be victim to a road rage incident, so OH flashed the blues and we drove off, other car turned off left but just before he did, he flashed blue lights in his grill.
We were even more worried, as on most standard emergency vehicles it's not possible to flash the grill lights alone, you would normally flash 360s, just fronts (which would include windscreen lights and headlights), or just rears. There are stories around of nasty people getting such "non-standard" lights fitted and using them to stop motorists and then commit assaults. So we were increasingly concerned, OH tried to call the ambulance desk but no answer. We removed the memory card from the dash camera as we didn't get a shot of the car, it never came in front of us, but it will have recorded our audio within the car. OH was planning on phoning his contact who is ex-Notts traffic in the morning to discuss.
A little further on, another car came along and was tailgating - unbelievable. So I thought I'll just pull down a side road, let it past (twisty road so not safe for it to overtake - I was doing the speed limit!). I indicated, the car behind me indicated. Oh good, he's pulling off, I thought, so cancelled my indicator and carried straight on. So did the car behind. Holy sh!t, we thought. It might be the same idiot as before, and he looked really aggressive. I said to OH that I wanted to go to the nearest police station, so he told me to take the next turn off, I was getting really frightened at this point, and of course the car followed. OH got out his ambulance radio and was getting ready to press the emergency button, which would broadcast our conversations to ambulance control, ambulance managers, and send immediate police assistance, when the car behind us turned on it's blue lights - it was an unmarked car!!!
The officer was perfectly reasonable once he realised who OH was, but we were actually being followed by an unmarked car, a marked car, and a dog van!!! Notts Police in their wisdom have apparently sold some cars exactly the same as OH's from their force but some genius forgot to strip out the blue lights first, so they thought we were one of the rogue cars. OH quite firmly pointed out that the first police car (we assume it was one, with hindsight), was very aggressive and made us fear for our safety, I think they were a little sheepish when they realised we were about to call for emergency assistance as we thought we were being followed by a lunatic! They were especially sheepish when OH pointed out that the very same dog van that had been chasing us was the one to escort him to QMC trauma centre not even a week ago with a critically injured patient from the scene of a triple fatality car accident... Talk about egg on your face...
So here's hoping that all of Notts Police have been told that our car is a legitimate emergency vehicle and we won't be chased and stopped again!! I can't remember the last time I was so scared, I was shaking and could hardly sleep last night. I assume they think that their old vehicles have fallen into the wrong hands, with that kind of response. So if you are pulled over by an unmarked Skoda Octavia VRS, about 4-5 years old, ask to see ID!!
We were even more worried, as on most standard emergency vehicles it's not possible to flash the grill lights alone, you would normally flash 360s, just fronts (which would include windscreen lights and headlights), or just rears. There are stories around of nasty people getting such "non-standard" lights fitted and using them to stop motorists and then commit assaults. So we were increasingly concerned, OH tried to call the ambulance desk but no answer. We removed the memory card from the dash camera as we didn't get a shot of the car, it never came in front of us, but it will have recorded our audio within the car. OH was planning on phoning his contact who is ex-Notts traffic in the morning to discuss.
A little further on, another car came along and was tailgating - unbelievable. So I thought I'll just pull down a side road, let it past (twisty road so not safe for it to overtake - I was doing the speed limit!). I indicated, the car behind me indicated. Oh good, he's pulling off, I thought, so cancelled my indicator and carried straight on. So did the car behind. Holy sh!t, we thought. It might be the same idiot as before, and he looked really aggressive. I said to OH that I wanted to go to the nearest police station, so he told me to take the next turn off, I was getting really frightened at this point, and of course the car followed. OH got out his ambulance radio and was getting ready to press the emergency button, which would broadcast our conversations to ambulance control, ambulance managers, and send immediate police assistance, when the car behind us turned on it's blue lights - it was an unmarked car!!!
The officer was perfectly reasonable once he realised who OH was, but we were actually being followed by an unmarked car, a marked car, and a dog van!!! Notts Police in their wisdom have apparently sold some cars exactly the same as OH's from their force but some genius forgot to strip out the blue lights first, so they thought we were one of the rogue cars. OH quite firmly pointed out that the first police car (we assume it was one, with hindsight), was very aggressive and made us fear for our safety, I think they were a little sheepish when they realised we were about to call for emergency assistance as we thought we were being followed by a lunatic! They were especially sheepish when OH pointed out that the very same dog van that had been chasing us was the one to escort him to QMC trauma centre not even a week ago with a critically injured patient from the scene of a triple fatality car accident... Talk about egg on your face...
So here's hoping that all of Notts Police have been told that our car is a legitimate emergency vehicle and we won't be chased and stopped again!! I can't remember the last time I was so scared, I was shaking and could hardly sleep last night. I assume they think that their old vehicles have fallen into the wrong hands, with that kind of response. So if you are pulled over by an unmarked Skoda Octavia VRS, about 4-5 years old, ask to see ID!!
