'Cheddar' - well there was no 'camera' involved!
I was driving north up the M5 last night on cruise at about 75 mph a couple of miles before my exit, Burnham on Sea. I could see blue flashing lights behind me though they were only catching very slowly, I thought it might be some kind of escorted convoy. As they came closer I realised it was a chase, there was an M plate Fiesta wandering back and forth across the carriage way at about 80mph stopping a marked police Mercedes estate and plain Omega estate with lights in the grill from over or undertaking it, for an instant I thought shall I be a hero - only for an instant mind! As the three cars passed me the Fiesta dived for the exit that I was about to take so I followed the three cars off the m/way and onto the A38, a marked Focus estate came screaming up to the roundabout and just missed getting ahead of the Fiesta then a marked Vito flew past me with blue lights flashing, that was the last I saw of the action, an intersting end to a long journey though.
|
Cool
I hope you suitably exagerate the story though next time you tell it in the pub.
"the armed respose guys were in the middle of a shoot out"
"I chased them down and performed a citizens arrest on all three of the gun toting drug dealers"
etc. etc.
|
|
Well I left out the MI5 guys in the DB9, the Paras jumping out of the helicopter gunship and the two Harriers flying at 50ft at 400 knots .........
|
Had a similar experience myself on the M90 a few years ago - loads of blue lights in the distance slowly catching up and then an old Sierra came into view with two (very) youngs lads in it doing about 65-70 in the middle lane. They were being followed by no less than 6 striped up traffic cars and 4 or 5 police bikes with a selection of marked vans and unmarked cars at the rear.
Like Cheddar I thought of being a hero for about 0.5 seconds then I hit the hard shoulder to let the whole lot sweep by. Often wonder what they did to deserve so many BiB after them and what the outcome was.
|
old Sierra came into view with two(very) youngs lads in it doing about 65-70 in the middle lane. They were being followed by no less than 6 striped up traffic cars and 4 or 5 police bikes with a selection of marked vans and unmarked cars at the rear. Like Cheddar I thought of being a hero for about 0.5 seconds then I hit the hard shoulder to let the whole lot sweep by. Often wonder what they did to deserve so many BiB after them and what the outcome was.
Probably reality TV stars being given an escort to reach the studio on time.
|
|
|
|
|
Just think Cheddar, if you'd been feeling Toadish and doing 90 you'd never have seen them at all... the rewards of virtue :o)
|
Also it occured to me that if the Fiesta was driven by a 17 year old with no license, insurance or tax, with 32 convictions for car theft, 25 for drug dealing and 10 for armed robbery he would probably get 12 hours community service where as I could have got 3 points and a 60 quid fine for speeding!
At least it would be an example of reasonably well targetted enforcement resources.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's a question for the police officers on this board from an aficionado of high speed pursuits. The scroat will often weave from side to side to prevent the officers getting in front of him. When he is being pursued on a M-way by more than one vehicle why do the officers in two separate cars not try to overtake him one on each side. He can only block one car's overtake, and then the cop who did manage to get in front can slow him down for those behind to box him in. Yet I've never seen this done.
|
|
I'd guess firstly because it's not very safe - if he's weaving you could easily tip a car into a spin, potentially endangering other motorists. Secondly, I suspect they don't want to damage their Police vehicles as they would get a ticking off from a senior officer.
|
I'd guess firstly because it's not very safe - if he's weaving you could easily tip a car into a spin, potentially endangering other motorists. Secondly, I suspect they don't want to damage their Police vehicles as they would get a ticking off from a senior officer.
A difficult call, I guess, whether that manoeuvre would be more dangerous than allowing the pursuit to continue possibly into residential streets.
I wonder how bothered they really are about damage? A traffic officer once said to me he wouldn't pursue over grass or down alleys for fear of damaging his car, but you often see that on TV. You also quite often see them 'nudging' a scroat. Maybe it's all down to each force's policies.
|
I wonder how bothered they really are about damage? A traffic officer once said to me he wouldn't pursue over grass or down alleys for fear of damaging his car, but you often see that on TV. You also quite often see them 'nudging' a scroat. Maybe it's all down to each force's policies.
Or the heat of the moment perhaps?
|
>> I wonder how bothered they really are about damage? A traffic >> officer once said to me he wouldn't pursue over grass or >> down alleys for fear of damaging his car, but you often >> see that on TV. You also quite often see them 'nudging' >> a scroat. Maybe it's all down to each force's policies. >> Or the heat of the moment perhaps?
Surely not, Lud. These are trained, highly skilled professionals we're talking about. They're not going through somebody's hedge just because they have the theme from "Shaft" blasting while in pursuit of a villain :-)
|
The only time I've seen an Omega behind me with lights flashing behind the grill it was for my benefit ~ if benefit is the correct word!
Incidentally, there must be some cars that either don't have a grill in the right place or have no room behind the grill for fitting lights. Aren't the manufacturers of these missing out on any opportunity of them being bought as pursuit cars?
--
L\'escargot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
