A group on Facebook erupted with anger after a police vehicle was spotted parked in a disabled bay.
When seconds can mean the difference between life and death, emergency vehicles have the legal right to park wherever they need to when responding to emergency calls.
However, for one member of the ‘Runnymede Beat (Surrey Police) The Original Addlestone Chat’, the life-saving service provided by the emergency services should not take priority over parking restrictions.
In a post shared in the group, the angry resident said:
‘My recently registered disabled husband has just had to park up and walk a fair distance due to this police car parked in the disabled bay!!
‘So unless the officer just happened to forget to display his badge then SHAME ON YOU!!
‘If hubby was parked there without a blue badge, you would soon as heck moved him on!!.
‘And NO there was no sign of an officer in any of the takeaways along Addlestone high street!!
‘Disgusted Surrey Police!! Explanation please…and make it a good one (angry face emoji)’.
Seeming oblivious to the life-saving service provided by Surrey Police, other members of the group were quick to offer emotional support to the person who posted the rant.
One resident proclaimed:
‘They are the police…..They can park anywhere they want.’
Another added:
‘Good luck with that. It’s a case of do as I say and not as I do!’
The angry person who posted the rant replied by saying: “Oh, it’s ok…They were ‘responding to an emergency’!!!! (rolling eye emoji)’.
Comment
When a member of the emergency services is responding to an emergency call for help – where vital seconds can mean the difference between life or death – then they do not have the time to search for a parking spot.
Often, we hear about individuals who have complained about the time it has taken for the emergency services to get to an emergency.
In truth, the sort of people who complain about where emergency vehicles have been parked would also be the first to complain if they called 999 if, for example, an armed masked intruder broke into their home and, when explaining why there was a delay in arriving, a police officer said that they had to find a parking space before running into danger.
Emergency vehicles are, for a good reason, exempt from parking restrictions for the simple fact that their ability to save someone’s life is more important than your parking needs.
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