Yesterday on the way home from Oxford I unfortunately found myself stuck on the M40 southbound for approximately 1.5 hours as a lorry had overturned.
I noticed that both the police and fire services used the hard shoulder to get to the incident, however the ambulances drove through the centre of the traffic which was at stand still, so some vehicles had to move partly onto the hard shoulder to make way for them.
Can i ask does anyone know why they do this and not just use the hard shoulder like the rest of the emergency services?
Can i ask does anyone know why they do this and not just use the hard shoulder like the rest of the emergency services?
Im only guessing here :sad: but the hard shoulder is full of all manner of rubbish its not unusual to gain a punture whilst pulling on to it for someother reason.
any broken down car on the hard shoulder cant move out of the way
and finally its more fun to move two cars to the sides by forcing a channel :twisted:
This will only be an educated guess.....I used to work closely with some blue light drivers.
The police and fire services will want to get there as fast as possible, for the safety of the people involved (and balance this with the safety of themselves and all the other people on the motorway)
All the emergency services should obey the rules of the road, unless there is a better reason no to.
The hard shoulder is the least safe part of a motorway, you can't see if anyone will move into your way. But you can see people move out of your way actually in traffic. And the person who doesn't see you won't move as opposed to jump in front of you!
Speculation.......If the police had got there 1st and assessed the situation and the people were obviously not too badly hurt, they will let the ambulance know not to rush perhaps?
