In message , at 11:00:41 on Sun, 8
Feb 2009, Roy Stilling remarked:
MIG wrote:
I would take "ambulance" to mean a vehicle which carries sick or
injured people.
The word "ambulance" on this vehicle more likely relates to the fact
that it belongs to the ambulance service, just as it would if it was
written on a bicycle or a building. (And such buildings or bicycles
would need to be treated with appropriate respect, and not
obstructed.)

If a vehicle falls under the legal definition that allows it to bear
the designation "Ambulance" and does so, then it is legally an
ambulance and entitled to various legal privileges that don't apply to
ordinary vehicles.

Not all of the protections. Only "NHS" ambulances are covered by the
recent Emergency Workers obstruction law [1], for example.

Years ago, my father, then a London bus driver, used to be a volunteer
ambulance driver for a disabled ex-servicemen's charity. The ambulance
was a Bedford coach converted to carry wheelchairs but it was legally
an ambulance and bore the designation. Sometimes if he was doing a
trip that started early, he'd collect the ambulance the night before
from the bus garage where it was stored and park it outside our house.
Some neighbours complained to the council that we were parking a bus on
the street so the council put up a "Buses prohibited" sign outside our
house. The next time my father parked the ambulance outside the
council threatened to prosecute. We pointed out that the vehicle was
legally an ambulance, bore the designation "Ambulance" and therefore
could be parked on the street and we never heard any more about it.

I think you successfully bluffed them.

My understanding is that "Ambulance" is a protected designation and
it's an offence to apply it to a vehicle that doesn't meet the
definition.

Given that there are "animal ambulances", I doubt that very much.

http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/ambulance/dscd0552.jpg

[1] "a person employed by a relevant NHS body in the provision of
ambulance services (including air ambulance services), or of a
person providing such services pursuant to arrangements made by, or
at the request of, a relevant NHS body;"

"a person providing services for the transport of organs, blood,
equipment or personnel pursuant to arrangements made by, or at
the request of, a relevant NHS body;"

The latter is interesting because there have been cases of people
transporting organs being nicked for speeding. It's not clear that a
policeman nicking someone for speeding counts as obstructing an
emergency worker - because there's a 'reasonable cause' exemption for
the policeman...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/2949904.stm

--
Roland Perry