It was a dark and stormy night when Martin Underwood
wrote in article 42d939eb$0$21993$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-
reader02.plus.net...
The converse is true: not using a siren when it's needed. One evening I
was going home from work at dusk and had green lights approaching a set
of traffic lights. Suddenly, from my right, a police car shot across
from the right about 6 feet in front of me. Luckily I'd slowed down a
bit from the 60 at which I'd been approaching because I thought the
lights had been at green for a long time and might change soon. The
police car was not using his siren: my fleeting impression was of just a
single flash of his blue light as he passed my field of vision. I know
that police cars are allowed to go though red lights, but they normally
sound their siren on the approach and to take extra care if traffic that
has priority over them doesn't have clear sight of them approaching and
so will have no advance warning.

Same happened to me on my way home to London near Farnham, Hants; police
car shot out across a light-controlled crossroads on the A31 at a good
60mph, while I was crossing under a green light at a similar speed, and
missed me by a hairsbreadth. It would have been a spectacular smash if
I'd been a second or two further on.

I must admit my initial response (apart from pulling over to get my
composure back) was to wonder whether, since there was no other traffic
about at all, the driver (had he survived) would have been honest and
admitted he had no siren going. (Or are these things logged like speed
on a tachograph?)

--
"All vampires suck, but not all who suck are vampires."
(--B.J.Kuehl)

:::Grebbsy :::::::lemon curry?:::