Cut up by a fire engine on a quietish country road

DF33

For those that know it I was riding from Aberford to Barwick on the way home. I was descending a hill towards a very tight double S bend over a narrow bridge over a stream, this is followed by an uphill stretch into Barwick, so it is a very slow section at the bottom to negotiate anyway.

I was a couple of hundred meters from the bridge and riding at the speed the traffic would go anyway as downhill. A fire engine pulled out from behind along side me to over take. I knew immediately he couldn't in the space available. He then tried to get passed, had to brake for the bends - still on the wrong side of the road - then had to force his way back in front of me. I had already braked as could see the situation happening.

He then came in, just in front of my wheel, braked right down to about 15mph to manage the bend, crawled round it with me fustratedly stuck up his arse. Then slowly pulled away up the hill where he could have safely passed anyway.

So he overtook me where he couldn't see what was about to emerge from the blind bend further on, had less speed than me, cut me up, then reduced my speed round the bends to his speed. All in something like an 18 tonner.

He must have known the road fairly well and wasn't on a shout, just returning to base or whatever.
I was so taken aback I didn't even gesticulate towards him.

What hope is there for us when professional drivers do this?

inkyfingers

If his driving was illegal/dangerous then should have got his number plate and then rung the fire brigade and put in a complaint. We all see bad driving on a daily basis but if we don't do anything about it then we are part of the problem.

A young lady nearly took me out whilst texting on her phone last week so I buried myself to catch her up then knocked on her window when the traffic stopped and explained in a reasonably polite manner that she had nearly killed me and was that text message really important. She was completely shocked and maybe, just maybe she might think twice about it next time.

Tom Butcher

I'd report it to the local fire station - don't have to make a big deal out of it but if the driver is in charge of a vehicle that big and getting paid for it then it wont do them any harm if their boss has a quiet word with them about their driving.

mouth

Should have CCTV on it, so report it as they are duty bound to follow up on the complaint. Worth mentioning that this goes for all professional driving as well. As for the blind bend, don't forget that he's sat higher up than you and can probably see further ahead in this case.

If he was on response, then I suspect that you probably wouldn't have felt the need to post but either way, his/her standard of driving should be among the best in the country, if not the world.

Let us know how this goes.

ooermissus

Mouth wrote:

his/her standard of driving should be among the best in the country, if not the world.

I had a head on with a police car overtaking a camper van on a blind corner on a country road after dark one winter's night. So not sure the standards of driving among the emergency services are always world beating...

After I'd helped the policeman out of the wreckage of his car, I asked him where he was off to in such a hurry. "An RTA" he replied.... :roll:

Police admitted liability and a superior visited me to suggest there was no need to take things further, as the chap had been given a 'talking to'...

zippypablo

As someone who used to drive fire appliances I would urge you to report this.
This kind of driving is not acceptable and as previously mentioned there will be cctv (silent witness) footage if you report it early enough.
There WILL be an investigation and it could be that this isn't the first instance of this person's bad driving.
The individual will probably be removed from driving duties pending the outcome of the investigation and likely reassessed.
The Officer in Charge may have already dealt with it.
If nothing else the silent witness may be used by driving school to highlight bad practice on driver training courses.

Yossie

ooermissus wrote:

Police admitted liability and a superior visited me to suggest there was no need to take things further, as the chap had been given a 'talking to'...[/quote]

Nothing like looking after your own, eh .....

Corrupt fascist scum.

cougie

Bit of an overreaction there Yossie ?

My wife had a head on with a non police car - Driver only had to do some kind of speed awareness course as far as I recall. I'm pretty sure writing off a Police car wouldn't have done the constable any favours anyway.

Pseudonym

cougie wrote:

Bit of an overreaction there Yossie ?

the poor fella is prone to them, sadly....

ooermissus

Yossie wrote:

ooermissus wrote:

Police admitted liability and a superior visited me to suggest there was no need to take things further, as the chap had been given a 'talking to'...[/quote]

Nothing like looking after your own, eh .....

Corrupt fascist scum.

Just how things work in a small town...

mouth

zippypablo wrote:

If nothing else the silent witness may be used by driving school to highlight bad practice on driver training courses.

The bus company I work for use their own CCTV for this very purpose as well as customer service training etc. As mentioned I'd urge you to report it. A simple mistake like forgetting to signal or something , then you let it go but this seems like plain old dangerous driving to me.

If you do decide to report it, then be ready with as much information as you can: time, location, what you were wearing, weather/visibility conditions etc. Don't suppose you got a vehicle/reg number or the County service it belonged to? The more of this you can provide the more credibly you will be treated.

Redhog14

The Fire Service will have a good idea of where their vehicle was at the time so it would not be difficult task to track the driver down.

I would not hesitate to report this. I have reported many a truck/van/coach with varying degrees of concerned response from their organisations so you should defo get a response from the FS. I would point out that I have also highlighted the patience of a tourbus driver to his company.

fossyant

I have heard from a very good souces that one of our rather good MTB/Cross Pros had his Scott road bike smashed to bits recently, caused by a Police Car doing a u-turn without checking, another car crashed into the Police car and said rider into that. Fortunately the rider wasn't badly hurt, but I can imagine the Police report !

flashman469

Fire appliances don't all have CCTV fitted as standard. This is unacceptable driving but is difficult to comment on until all the facts are known. It may have been an appliance being fully crewed by an operational crew albeit not driving to an incident or it could have been a spare appliance being crewed by a sole support staff worker (engineer). Either way, individuals driving fire appliances receive a lot of general road awareness training in addition to response 'blues and twos' and are subject to regular refreshers. I would recommend that you file a complaint to the Service headquarters and ensure you receive an update on any action taken. In all likelihood, the individual concerned will be forced to undertake refresher training and will hopefully refrain from such driving in future.