that google cant answer and the police will take a while to get back to me on, i'm reckoning.Speed limits. We have to obey them. I'm assuming police cars also usually have to. What's the exact circumstances that exempt them from doing so?
I need fairly precise details... preferably a verbatim quote with a source that can be validated.
Why?
Long story. LONG bastard story. Summary: Going home tonight, cops passed me in wet sans blue lights, sped through a dangerous section that its not clever to take that fast even in the dry, responded with BS and intimidation when i challenged them, and i wish to know where i stand as the basis of a complaint. This nonsense just aint on.
full fat edition:
Cruising home tonight, 1.30am (got off early), taking a by-the-by route, it was wet, i was making about 35 (down admittedly a 30 limit road, but one where the going flow rate is often 40-45 in dry daytime). Some nutjob hares up behind me, i decide to detour right at the next lights so I can move off into the filter lane and let 'em by... it's probably a taxi, one's already tailgated me and overtaken when there was a safe clear patch. Typical, they're going right as well, no time to change my mind, and a hundred yards later they overtake, without so much as a signal.
It's at this point I see it's a police car, no flashing lights or anything. Very odd behaviour that, so i think.... and i'm also put out by it, because we're now on a road that's not really condusive to speeding in any conditions, and they're really making tracks. Against my better judgement i follow on and see just how quick. Rozz Copper makes 50+ (i dont dare pass 45 even with the dubious safety buffer of having them to hit any oncoming traffic first, and they're distinctly pulling away) through a tricky section that's usually good for 25-30 in the dry because of parked-car chicanes and very crap sight-lines..... pull up beside them when they stop at the next set of lights and try the whole "excuse me, do you know how fast you were travelling there sir" routine
They're obviously put out by this, it's not the way things are supposed to happen. THEY pull other people up, not the other way round. There's claims they're on the way to a job, they dont have the blue lights on because it would wake people up (eh?), try to make like i'm in the wrong and talking to them in a condescending manner etc. Somewhat cowed by the fact they might be on their way to a burgulary or something, I don't push the matter as far as I could have, but their parting shot gives me pause for thought....
"whats the point of us putting the lights on anyway, there's no-one else on the road save yourself, we're not trained to do that".
(not trained to use their lights?!)
Right. So somehow they have psychic powers that tell them that on this section of road, the only other vehicle is me, following them, and there's not, for example, a night-freight truck coming the other way (despite the large number of such i already passed myself in a 15 minute drive). For such a reason I wouldn't normally go fast through that section - you literally can't tell whats coming round the bends in it, even at night, and there's likely to be pedestrians about. Plus in the wet there's the added problem of stopping distance. I don't care if they have antilocks and wide tyres - a 2-up Pug 306 with all the ancillary police gear doing 50 is going to take at least as long to pull up as my dub would from 40. The roads in this area are f**ing greasy when the rain comes down, as I'm sure i've made clear before.
And if they were going to a job and laws magically no longer applied to them because of that, someone want to tell me just what the hell they stopped at the red light for? They were turning left at a junction where you could very, very easily see a good couple hundred yards down the road to the right, and the one ahead... jumping the red to turn left would have been much safer than speeding and have got them to their destination quicker a lot more effectively than that, given that they were stopped long enough for me to catch them, stop beside, wind the window down, and honk - twice - to get their attention.
Speed kills after all. And a police car without the blues on appears just like any other car until it's gone past you (the headlamps glare out the details) and you certainly cant tell it's coming from any further. Even without siren, the lights penetrate further than regular headlamps. They're higher up, flashing/spinning, brighter, and in a colour that cuts through the streetlamps better, giving much enhanced visibility. Plus a flashing blue gives you a warning that something fast, important, and unwilling to stop may be coming - so you have chance to allow for the fact that policemen can't see round blind bends and make way for them to pass safely. That's part of the reason they have them, not just to get people out of the way, but to serve as warning, because seriously: you do not know what is around that next bend.
Example of which? Another car more genuinely on a job (probably responding to a report of someone doing 42 in a safer 30 from one of the various look-out cars parked up on all the long straight roads tonight - gotta stop those evil speeders!) passed me before that, going the other way... and i could tell where it was from ages off, round a corner, before i even saw it's headlights, as it was fully blued up. No siren, given the early hour, but with lights a-blazing - so any excuse that the two are linked goes in the trash.
(not that i havent heard enough sirens at 2am before)
I would have expected better from people who have supposedly had an advanced drivers course and should be setting an example, and to have been talked to/treated better by people who are supposed to be serving the public trust (e.g. myself) and really have a bad enough image already without denting it by talking to me like they might a common thieving sh*tbag.
I only figured out properly the full meaning of and bullsh*t content of what they'd said a few seconds after they left (yes, they waited for the green light)... turned back off my heading to give chase, but alas... long gone, and i didn't fancy causing extra trouble by shooting off at high speed to look. They did however leave directly in the direction of the local police station. Big suspicion that they only job they were hurrying for was a call that Jacqui the night receptionist was brewing up.... They had big enough smiles on their faces after all, til I sounded my horn the second time...
Does this mean, if it's night and the roads are largely deserted, it's perfectly fine for me to zip through dangerous bottlenecks at 20-over (but not to pass through stupidly un-phased red lights even when i can see its clear for a half mile each way)?? I've so gotta try that excuse if I ever get pulled up..... "well, it worked for your colleague in erdington when I asked him the same question"...
((( and whats so special about me or any "only other car on the road" that they shouldn't put the blues on? they braked down from a higher speed and then followed me for a good quarter mile or so at a practically unprosecutable amount over 30, and quite slowly through the first set of lights - if they'd hit the light switch I'd have been out of their way FAR sooner, and been careful about it... hell, even using it as a warning before they overtook would have been nice )))
I'm quite p1ssed off about this as you may tell, and have fire enough that I will be making an official complaint, especially so if i find that they were just as prosecutable as me at that speed, without the flashers going - and recent(?) news stories concerning speeding emergency vehicles with/without lights being involved in fatal accidents. I'm thinking that's a good 6 points and a couple hundred pounds fine, plus any disciplinary procedures (or even just good old fashioned talking-to) following on from their handling of the enquiry from a concerned member of the public..... oh if only I'd thought of making a citizen's arrest
(or taking their badge numbers... damn... well, i've got a good enough mental picture to ID them with, as well as place/time, and they'll likely blab about it)disclaimer....
(ahem... your honour... i of course did not follow them at that speed, i maintained my own lawful rate of travel (29.5mph), and 50mph is only what i estimated their progress at... as they seemed to be receding almost as quickly as parked cars were approaching, and i only just caught them up in time to challenge them, it could be much higher. and i did not sound my horn, even briefly, as that is naturally illegal between 11pm and 7am - they must have mistaken me revving the engine to catch 1st gear more easily..)
) is to never assume it is so at any time.... Sure "run" the light slowly (walk the light?) if you've checked, but don't blast it at 40 without looking 