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My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!


Sledge

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Rule 219 of the highway code states:

 

Emergency and Incident Support vehicles. You should look and listen for ambulances, fire engines, police, doctors or other emergency vehicles using flashing blue, red or green lights and sirens or flashing headlights, or Highways Agency Traffic Officer and Incident Support vehicles using flashing amber lights. When one approaches do not panic. Consider the route of such a vehicle and take appropriate action to let it pass, while complying with all traffic signs. If necessary, pull to the side of the road and stop, but try to avoid stopping before the brow of a hill, a bend or narrow section of road. Do not endanger yourself, other road users or pedestrians and avoid mounting the kerb. Do not brake harshly on approach to a junction or roundabout, as a following vehicle may not have the same view as you.

It's not legal under current law to pass a red light in order to let an emergency vehicle past, nor to mount the kerb.

 

You're not actually legally required to give way to emergency vehicles at all - although it's obviously stupid not to.

 

My uncle - now retired from the fire service - often said the best thing for cars to do was just keep doing what they were doing and let the emergency vehicle go around them. Emergency vehicles are driven by highly trained professionals, they know how to get past you safely as long as you're not being stupid.

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Yeah, it was better before they put twenty million strobes on every emergency vehicle....

Bring back rotating beacons!

I meant that it's easier to see vehicles now, from further away due to said strobes, but people still are oblivious...

 

It's the ones that see them waiting to pass them but won't mount the kerb as they are worried about damaging their cars! Ambulance drivers should be able to dish out fines to drivers that hinder them :busted_blue:

Special hatred for people who don't move out of the way for emergency vehicles. Dashcams on all of them and very heavy fines for those that don't move!

Some do have dash cams, so do fire engines, and people have been prosecuted for this :)

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I meant that it's easier to see vehicles now, from further away due to said strobes, but people still are oblivious...

The thing with strobes is that yes, they're bright but the pulse duration is too short. The first vehicles to use strobes found them less effective, but they compensated by using *more* strobes. Also, they're not as directional because they're basically *too* bright.

 

The longer time the light from a rotating beacon passes across the eye is actually better as it gives the brain more time to recognise it.

 

Not to mention the short, intense bursts of strobe light can effect people with epilepsy - although they've done research to minimise the risk of seizures, not everyone is the same and other effects such as migraines, dizziness, etc can still be induced by strobes.

 

 

Some do have dash cams, so do fire engines, and people have been prosecuted for this :)

How can you be prosecuted for something that's not actually a crime? I can find no law which actually requires a driver to allow an emergency vehicle to pass them nor to give way.

 

Obviously, one *should* always allow emergency vehicles past, but it does not seem to be legally required.

 

Personally, I'd like to see laws which give emergency vehicles under blue lights more powers. I'm told that under German law, emergency vehicles can pretty much do *anything* up to and including driving on the wrong side of motorways and going around roundabouts the wrong way. Any vehicle which collides with an emergency vehicle with it's blue lights on is automatically at fault.

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The thing with strobes is that yes, they're bright but the pulse duration is too short. The first vehicles to use strobes found them less effective, but they compensated by using *more* strobes. Also, they're not as directional because they're basically *too* bright.

 

The longer time the light from a rotating beacon passes across the eye is actually better as it gives the brain more time to recognise it.

 

Not to mention the short, intense bursts of strobe light can effect people with epilepsy - although they've done research to minimise the risk of seizures, not everyone is the same and other effects such as migraines, dizziness, etc can still be induced by strobes.

I appreciate spinning beacons may be better, but with strobes, as they bounce off everything within approximately 1 million mile radius, you can get a far earlier warning that a noisy, fast-moving vehicle is in your proximity and react accordingly. Folk still fail to grasp this. I've seen it first hand, countless times.

 

How can you be prosecuted for something that's not actually a crime? I can find no law which actually requires a driver to allow an emergency vehicle to pass them nor to give way.

 

Obviously, one *should* always allow emergency vehicles past, but it does not seem to be legally required.

 

Personally, I'd like to see laws which give emergency vehicles under blue lights more powers. I'm told that under German law, emergency vehicles can pretty much do *anything* up to and including driving on the wrong side of motorways and going around roundabouts the wrong way. Any vehicle which collides with an emergency vehicle with it's blue lights on is automatically at fault.

I can't find the story as I'm on my phone. And also .

 

But there was a chap holding up an appliance deliberately who got prosecuted iirc. I'll keep looking :)

 

Edit, Man, 67, stopped 999 call fire engine overtaking on A85 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-30134677

 

Also, emergency services obstruction act can cover a good portion of it.

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Deliberate obstruction is a whole different issue - why the *fruitcage* would you do that anyway? - also Scottish law, so who the hell knows what is what? I was looking at UK law (which should apply to ALL of the UK, but that's another issue)

 

I see what you're saying with the reflection, but it's a double edged sword as it makes the lights less directional.

 

Yes, you know there's an emergency vehicle *somewhere* but you can't tell *where* - which is sometimes a problem.

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Deliberate obstruction is a whole different issue - why the *fruitcage* would you do that anyway? - also Scottish law, so who the hell knows what is what? I was looking at UK law (which should apply to ALL of the UK, but that's another issue)

 

I see what you're saying with the reflection, but it's a double edged sword as it makes the lights less directional.

 

Yes, you know there's an emergency vehicle *somewhere* but you can't tell *where* - which is sometimes a problem.

I was alluding to deliberate obstruction from the off, apologies if I did not make that clear.

 

Someone bumbling along and maybe panicking shouldn't be prosecuted, and drivers are trained to deal with that anyway to an extent.

 

Also appreciate strobes are not as directional, but when I see them off duty for example, my head is on a swivel, window down too usually to locate the source as quickly as possible and get the *fruitcage* out of the way.

 

Other drivers should be doing the same.

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I heard that's a common fault with the newer ones - they made them too thin for the material they're made from...

Yup, I had heard it was mainly the iPhone 6 Plus but it seems the iPhone 6 also has the issue! Still they replace under warranty so isn't that bad. Gets me some new shiney too which you can never complain about.

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Yup, I had heard it was mainly the iPhone 6 Plus but it seems the iPhone 6 also has the issue! Still they replace under warranty so isn't that bad. Gets me some new shiney too which you can never complain about.

Still a ball-ache having to go and get it sorted though!

 

Edit, didnt want to mention apple vs android, but as hedge brought it up...

 

Defo bin it and join the android master race :P

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The iPhone is on contract so will stick with that! I do plan of eventually going android with my next contract though, probably a LG G4 after such praise on here! Saying that though, I do like the cross compatibility to my Mac, iPad and Apple TV keeps everything easy and synchronised!

 

Brighton is the closest Apple Store to where I live (Currently Burgess Hill so really it's only 15 miles ish).. There is an iStore in Crawley but they are a concession and so aren't classed as an Apple Store so don't have a genius department and so can't do warranty stuff. Load of *badger*s but that's how it is..

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My uncle - now retired from the fire service - often said the best thing for cars to do was just keep doing what they were doing and let the emergency vehicle go around them. Emergency vehicles are driven by highly trained professionals, they know how to get past you safely as long as you're not being stupid.

 

I've seen on loads of occasions where there isn't enough space for the emergency vehicles to pass unless people mount the curb on both sides of the road! :busted_blue:

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I don't know if it's just the roads around me, but I think I've had to mount the kerb once to let an emergency vehicle through in around 10 years of driving.  Really isn't the need most of the time.  Maybe it's just because I have decent situational awareness so have pulled into a junction or maybe because I've never had to do it at rush hour where each side of the road is chocka.

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