Idiot driver who deliberately held up on-call ambulance is sentenced

[Retro]

This one has to be seen to be believed. Why the hell did he do it? It's not explained. There's video of the incident in the article. At least he got properly nailed for it. It's not often that I feel justice has been done, but it was in this instance.

Albert Butler, 38, of Reading, was seen in dashcam footage driving in front of the emergency vehicle before breaking and deliberately driving slowly to obstruct it in Maidenhead.

The NHS South Central Ambulance was responding to a medical emergency when the red Suzuki Vitara "intentionally" slowed it down on 2 February, Thames Valley Police said.

Driver who held up ambulance on purpose sentenced

Albert Butler, 38, of Reading, was banned from driving for three years and made to pay £600 in costs over the incident in Maidenhead on 2 February.

news.sky.com

 

[Arantor]

I assume this genius had read stories online about ambulance drivers putting on the lights and sirens as a way to 'encourage' people to get out of the way of bad traffic, and assumed that's what they were doing, so deliberately blocked them.

 

[Retro]

Actually, the abuse of the blue lights does happen and I've seen it myself a couple of times, but in both instances they were police cars and of course these don't excuse this cretin. Did you see how he actually pulled out into the middle of the road when the ambulance tried to overtake and flashed its lights? If someone would have died because of his obstruction, then he'd be up for manslaughter, or perhaps murder.

In both cases, the police cars were driving normally along the road where there was a fair amount of traffic. They approached a four-way junction where they would have had to wait a bit like everybody else. Only they didn't. On came the lights and the siren, they got everyone to move out the way, looked quite the inconvenience to me, then once through the red light, they turned it off and continued driving at a normal pace, no urgency at all. No way were these cars off to an emergency.

In both cases, I saw this as I was waiting at the same junction behind some cars at the red light, but on the other side going in the opposite direction. It was several years ago, the incidences weren't close in time either and happened in different places. I'll bet this practice is widespread.

 

[Arantor]

I live next to a 4 way junction with traffic lights on all sides, I have definitely observed blue-lights vehicles of both police and ambulance formats turn on their lights/sirens just to get through the intersection and off again after.

I don’t generally begrudge them because as far as I’m concerned, they work bloody hard for not enough pay for the crap they have to deal with and this is a small perk of the job in the meantime. But I can see how others might feel otherwise.

 

[Retro]

It's true they do. I still don't approve of it though, but am prepared to look the other way.