When you are driving around London on blue lights, then the majority of your time will be spent trying to carve out a route in gridlock traffic.
It requires an enormous amount of concentration in order to avoid hitting motorists who either do not see you or who simply cannot be bothered to move out of the way.
And if you are in the police, then you will probably also have to endure people actually walking out in front of you in order to hinder your progress!
The last thing blue-light drivers need, is for motorists to take it upon themselves to follow them as they make progress through the heavy London traffic.
The problem is so bad for one London Ambulance station based in north west London, that they have taken to Twitter in order to try and convince people to stop following them whilst they are on blue light runs.
The tweet said:
“Hi! This is the frequent request for people NOT to tailgate us when we’re driving on blue lights!
“We know you’re there and we will pull over & stop if you’re a risk.
“Also, we can see hazards ahead of us you can’t.
“You’re at risk of hitting us if we have to brake suddenly! SA”
As another Twitter user also pointed out, you just never know who might be in the back of the ambulance should the ambulance be required to stop owing to tailgaters:
Motorists who tailgate emergency vehicles perhaps do not realise (or don’t care) that emergency vehciles are now fitted with CCTV and will record vehicles which recklessly follow them through traffic.
Cars moving out of the way for emergency vehicles will not be expecting civilian cars to be following the first responders and so will pull back into their lanes once the ambulance has passed.
This could mean that the tailgating motorist will quickly find that their pride-and-joy ends up getting sandwiched between other cars.
And when you explain to your insurance company how and why you managed to write your car off, they will probably explain to you that owing to your careless driving, contrary to the Road Traffic Act, then you will not be successful in your insurance claim (without affecting the rights of any third party of course).
Tailgaters should also keep in mind that if the vehicle they are following suddenly has to brake, then they will end up slamming straight into the rear of the emergency vehicle.
If this happens then the very least you can expect is to be reported for driving without due care and attention, careless driving or dangerous driving.
When you weigh up all of the above, then you really have to ask yourself if gaining a few minutes by tailgating an emergency vehicle that is on a blue light call is really worth the risk?
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