Livid with police tonight

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haras

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Words cannot express how angry I am tonight.

Earlier on, two teenagers were leading a two year old filly (big tb x cob) up the road from her field where she is kept, to our yard to use a stable, as the horse had injured itself and they were waiting for the vet.

As they were leading it up the road, one each side, a car had slowed down and was sitting behind them as the visibility can be quite poor. Meanwhile, we heard sirens and a police car wizzed past both the car and the horse at about 90mph sirens blaring. He could not have failed to see the horse!

Absolutely un believeable, how he didn't cause an accident I will never know. Thankfully at least one of the teenagers is extremely competant.

An official complaint will be going in tomorrow morning. Just not good enough. Thank goodness it wasn't my mare, as I'd never have held her and we have to lead down this road to get to the fields!
 
i was with my mum toeing the trailer ones and a police man waved us down for some reason and then had a go at my mum for not stopping fast enough! wouldnt listen to any reason about emergency stops with the pony balancing in the back! i was furious! :mad:

they can be really ignorant sometimes! or maybe just rude!
 
I once asked and ambulance driver what directive they had if they were attending an emergency and were passing a horse & rider on the road? His answer was their is no directive but I would switch the sirens off!!! The reason I had asked was a fire engine came flying up the road all sirens blazing when my friend and I were riding up the road. A car pulled out of a pub and he added his horn both horses reared (we luckily stayed on) they tried bolting up the road in the same direction (the fire engine went on the wrong side of the road still sirens going. I considered reporting it but who to?? This was about 10 years ago.:mad:
 
haras said:
As they were leading it up the road, one each side, a car had slowed down and was sitting behind them as the visibility can be quite poor. Meanwhile, we heard sirens and a police car wizzed past both the car and the horse at about 90mph sirens blaring. He could not have failed to see the horse!
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You cant be sure they had seen the horse, you have said yourself there was a car waiting behind the horse as visibility can be quite poor yet you say they couldnt have failed to see them??? So if visibilty is poor enough to see a horse on its own how would the police see the horse with the added car behind them??:confused:
 
I will switch ambulance lights off if I have a chance and it is safe to do so but a horse is just one road user to consider and it may actually be more dangerous to switch lights off, confusing any drivers around, then switch them on again creating another hazard for the horse to be frightened by.

An ditto whoever said they may not have seen you - how much high viz was worn???
 
I'm sorry, but I disagree with that Stinkbomb, as why the hell would the car be going so slow on a road where it is well known there are horses. Also tha car was small and the horse big... you would easily have been able to see it, as they were on a straighter part of the road. Two other police cars had already been past and had managed to slow down and turn their sirens off.
 
Well, even if they didn't see the horses initially, you'd think the second they spotted them, they would have at least turned off sirens immediately. but it doesn't surprise me at all, late for tea break is right!!!
 
Two went past my horse with full sirens lights when he was out on the road with my sharer the other week, couldnt have been missed him as they go out in full reflective gear, thank god he doesnt spook at them.
Postmen have been the worst ... not slowing down at all, overtaking my horse with 2 parked cars on either side of the road at about 40mph.....
 
JoG said:
I will switch ambulance lights off if I have a chance and it is safe to do so but a horse is just one road user to consider and it may actually be more dangerous to switch lights off, confusing any drivers around, then switch them on again creating another hazard for the horse to be frightened by.

An ditto whoever said they may not have seen you - how much high viz was worn???
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I don't think it would be more dangerous!!! You may end up having to stop your ambulance and put one of the riders in it if the horse goes barmy??
 
They have no reason what so ever to slow down or turn anything off, people complain when police are dithering and now you lot are moaning when they are efficeintly doing their job. why could the vet not see the horse in its field or it be loaded into a trailor or lorry? Far more sensible!
 
I'd report it to the local station, but at least everyone is ok. The likelyhood is that not much will happen around it. They'll know for next time, hopefully.
Leading a horse with a car behind, on a road with poor visibility? They may well not have seen you! It's easier to see a horse with a rider on top, they may have assumed the car was going slow due to a cyclist or runners? It's hard to know without being there.
The "if"s and "but"s come out, but it could have ended worse, and just be thankful you are all safe.
 
No point arguing about it really, the police should have turned the siren and lights off and passed slowly, same with the fire engine, turn all lights off and pass slow and wide, then resume the high speed and lights etc. Perhaps the police were bombing along and by the time they saw the horse was too late and were concentrating.

I was once riding down a lane and saw a fireengine along the main road no sirens going, then a car was on the road so they alerted them with a quick whirl of the siren, I was lucky my horse was so stunned he froze, but the appliance didn't see me anyway.

My husband is a firefighter and a driver and if they pass a horse on the way to an emergency they turn the siren off and pass slow and wide, thats their policy!
 
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe they were going somewhere really important?? Like a serious accident or assault?? Or someone in danger of their life??

But of course, us people who work for the emergency services only ever put effort in because "we're going home for our tea"...it is VERY stressful driving under blue lights, and suprisingly - WE'RE ONLY HUMAN TOO!!! :rolleyes: :mad:
 
JoG said:
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe they were going somewhere really important?? Like a serious accident or assault?? Or someone in danger of their life??

But of course, us people who work for the emergency services only ever put effort in because "we're going home for our tea"...it is VERY stressful driving under blue lights, and suprisingly - WE'RE ONLY HUMAN TOO!!! :rolleyes: :mad:
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Luckily our firefighters don't think like that, they drive safely to the scene and get there when they can without causing more injuries on the way.
 
JoG said:
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe they were going somewhere really important?? Like a serious accident or assault?? Or someone in danger of their life??

But of course, us people who work for the emergency services only ever put effort in because "we're going home for our tea"...it is VERY stressful driving under blue lights, and suprisingly - WE'RE ONLY HUMAN TOO!!! :rolleyes: :mad:
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I Agree. Whilst i agree that maybe they should have at least tried to prevent the horse from Spooking, but you don't know what situation they were on their way to
 
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flowerlady said:
I don't think it would be more dangerous!!! You may end up having to stop your ambulance and put one of the riders in it if the horse goes barmy??
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Yes it would - it takes about 15seconds for the lights to cycle to off, I would have to take a hand off the steering wheel to turn them off, vehicles who may ahve pulled over would then pull out again, I may be in a road position that is dangerous to not have lights on, when the lights come back on the road users who had stopped, then started, then stopped again will not have their full attention on the road and other road users...

And to be perfectly blunt, if you can't control your horse when there is a flashy light get off the road and stop putting yourself, your horse and other road users at risk of injury!!!
 
flowerlady said:
Really!!
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Yes really! We are a rural area and come across horses alot.

They would be in deep trouble if they spooked a horse, infact a firefighter in somerset was prosecuted for causing some cows to spook and killing a farmer, lost his job and was personally done for death by dangerous driving.
 
haras said:
I'm sorry, but I disagree with that Stinkbomb, as why the hell would the car be going so slow on a road where it is well known there are horses. Also tha car was small and the horse big... you would easily have been able to see it, as they were on a straighter part of the road. Two other police cars had already been past and had managed to slow down and turn their sirens off.
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You have no idea that these police officers were from that area. You also said yourself that the car was going slow behind the horses because the visibility was poor. Now your saying they couldnt have failed to see them???

The car could have been going slow for a number of reasons, as someone else has suggested.. cylists, runners etc...

The other police cars may have had different visibility thasn the third one, but that i cant comment on and was not in your original post.

And to then poster that said if they didnt see them at first they should have turned everything off once they did. If they didnt see them till the last minute you have no idea how hard it can be switching lights and sirens off whilst you are responding to an emergency call. You have to take one hand off the steering wheel to do this and with reaction times they may have not been able to do this safelty.

Until you have driven a liveried car with sirens and lights, responding to what for all intense of purposes could have been a life and death situation you cant comment on what they saw, and should have/didnt do.
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
Luckily our firefighters don't think like that, they drive safely to the scene and get there when they can without causing more injuries on the way.
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I'm sorry - i must have missed the bit where all these injuries were caused, perhaps you could point them out? And how exactly, are you in a position to comment on whether I do or don't drive safely? Are you trained in blue light driving? Have you personally witnessed my driving??


THOUGHT NOT :rolleyes:
 
JoG said:
Yes it would - it takes about 15seconds for the lights to cycle to off, I would have to take a hand off the steering wheel to turn them off, vehicles who may ahve pulled over would then pull out again, I may be in a road position that is dangerous to not have lights on, when the lights come back on the road users who had stopped, then started, then stopped again will not have their full attention on the road and other road users...

And to be perfectly blunt, if you can't control your horse when there is a flashy light get off the road and stop putting yourself, your horse and other road users at risk of injury!!!
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cross posted but that was the point i was trying to make!!
 
JoG said:
I'm sorry - i must have missed the bit where all these injuries were caused, perhaps you could point them out? And how exactly, are you in a position to comment on whether I do or don't drive safely? Are you trained in blue light driving? Have you personally witnessed my driving??


THOUGHT NOT :rolleyes:
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I wasn't accusing you of causing injury I was quoting what our local firebrigade do!!!!!!! Their policy is to turn all lights and sirens off so they don't cause injury, when they have passed said animal they switch it all back on, they also have a co driver with his foot on the siren button! So is turned off immediately, I am sorry but you sound a right arrogant person, horses are animals and if they are on the road they well may spook and as I stated my husband is an efad driver
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
I wasn't accusing you of causing injury I was quoting what our local firebrigade do!!!!!!! Their policy is to turn all lights and sirens off so they don't cause injury, when they have passed said animal they switch it all back on, they also have a co driver with his foot on the siren button! So is turned off immediately, I am sorry but you sound a right arrogant person, horses are animals and if they are on the road they well may spook and as I stated my husband is an efad driver
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I dont think JoG sounds arrogant she is just trying to explain it from the other side!! I also dont think we are disputing that in certain circumstances there is ample time to see an animal on the road and switch off the emergency equipment. However in these circumstances the OP has already stated the visibilty was poor, there was another car behind the horse and JoG and myself have also explained how long it takes to switch this equipment off. We are just trying to get acorss that its not as easy and simple as everyone thinks.

Im not sure about Ambulance but not all police officers have co drivers and the sirens etc are not operated by foot!
 
I'm arrogant because I'm sticking up for my colleagues in the emergency services???

Our jobs are pretty thankless at the best of times, it is SO easy for people to see blame with an emergency service and it is always in the press. There is little real thanks for what we do. I have in no way indicated that I would do anything BUT drive safely, i have scraped enough people - or parts of people - of the roads to know full well what the risks are.

I have tried to point out that there are instances when ONE ROAD USER - a horse - can not be given 100% right of way, for the safety of everyone. An emergency driver will turn lights off WHEN SAFE TO DO SO which may not be instantly, especially on a poor visibility road. Likewise speed can be adjusted if it's safe, if people don't wear HI-Viz they don't get seen in time and so these things happen.

Not all sirens are pedal controlled - police and ambulances are horn controlled, you hit the horn once to switch them on or change the tone of the siren and twice for off. Sometimes you are out on the timing and the siren will change instead of go off.

But the main thing i want to say is - people who work for the Emergency Services are human, they make mistakes, they're not perfect, why do they have to be given such a hard time?????
 
Stinkbomb said:
I dont think JoG sounds arrogant she is just trying to explain it from the other side!! I also dont think we are disputing that in certain circumstances there is ample time to see an animal on the road and switch off the emergency equipment. However in these circumstances the OP has already stated the visibilty was poor, there was another car behind the horse and JoG and myself have also explained how long it takes to switch this equipment off. We are just trying to get acorss that its not as easy and simple as everyone thinks.

Im not sure about Ambulance but not all police officers have co drivers and the sirens etc are not operated by foot!
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I am aware of that, hence why if you read earlier I said they probably didn't have time to react, i live and breathe the fire service, so understand, i merely stated our boys turn everything off and pass slow and wide, even if on the way to a multiple car pile up with persons reported, they wouldnt want to cause more injury on the way to who they are helping, joG felt they needed to be sarcastic to me and state where someone was injured, they should read carefully what I wrote!

Drivers of emergency vehicles will be prosecuted if they cause death by causing animals to bolt, its happened with the firebrigade so it will happen with other emergency vehicles. And to say a horse shouldnt be on the road if its likely to spook at flashing lights is ridiculous!
 
Blimey... didn't expect quite such a debate!

to be honest, i'm not so fussed about the lights... it's the siren that freaks the horses out.

I have a friend who is a traffic cop and he has told me in the past that it is policy to switch everything off to pass a horse. I think they are lucky not to have caused a serious accident, wherever they were going, surely they have a responsibility to get there without endangering other road users.

There are caution horse signs on this road, so should not have been a surprise to the driver!
 
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