Bad police drivers

[AdamW]

Earlier we had a discussion on the reopening of the case against the moustachioed speeding police driver doing 159mph and being let off.

Now, I've done some reading in to the kind of driving standards the police are trained to. According to one source I read, even panda-car drivers are taught to a level equivalent to an advanced driving licence, plus high-speed techniques. I once saw a panda-car take the roundabout at the end of my road at speed in a very impressive manner, so I don't doubt that they are trained to a high standard.

But it seems they aren't trained to not be complete goits!

Last night I had some dozy mare in a police car pull onto the roundabout from the opposite side to me, in what I know to be the "turn left" lane. No indicators to indicate she was actually going to "Perform an Andy" , i.e. turn right (from the left lane of a two-lane roundabout ). The driver on her righthand-side had to brake, and me (already on the roundabout), having the audacity to not realise she was late for her tea or something, I ended up with an irate policewoman tailgating me for the next half a mile. No blue lights whatsoever.

Two questions:

1) Has anyone else witnessed a worse case of police driving?
2) Is Joe Public within his rights to stop in the road and give the police driver behind him a telling-off when they behave in such a stupid and obnoxious manner? I'm sure if it had been the other way round I would have been stopped.
3) Seriously, if there is a layby ahead, can you indicate and point (in the same manner the police do) to indicate the policeman has to pull over? Are they obliged to pull over if they have nothing better to do?

(Andy, I know it was the other person who did that move to you, but "Perform the manoeuvre that the person who crashed into Andy" was too cumbersome )

 

[dg123]

This is from a police driving instructor:

The training for the panda car drivers depends on the job of the driver e.g. PC, community support, tranffic warden, etc. For those who are not police officers this consists of a one hour assessment of the driver. The police officer's course is to an advanced standard but, just as in the case of learner drivers passing a test, once the test is passed drinving standards are not maintained. The driver does enough on the day then reverts to driving how they think fit - potentially, this makes them more of a danger than other (not so qualified) drivers.


Myself:

Last night I watched a policeman negotiating a police Transit around a roundabout whilst using a hand-held mobile phone. No signals, no giving way to the traffic with priority.

I have been behind a panda car whilst it was driven on an extremely busy motorway junction roundabout without signalling, then proceded to cross solid whites lines on blind bends before executing an abrupt turn-off without any signal.

 

[notb665]

They are, quite literally, a law unto themselves.

 

[andy]

to indicate she was actually going to "Perform an Andy" , i.e. turn right (from the left lane of a two-lane roundabout ). The driver on her righthand-side had to brake, and me (already on the roundabout), having the audacity to not realise she was late for her tea or something, I ended up with an irate policewoman tailgating me for the next half a mile. No blue lights whatsoever.

oi! i was in the right lane! in this case, i was in your position

 

[Steve]

oi! i was in the right lane! in this case, i was in your position

(Andy, I know it was the other person who did that move to you, but "Perform the manoeuvre that the person who crashed into Andy" was too cumbersome )

 

[Slogger]

from what i have observed ( by being chaseD)

THE police are way less aggressive now then they used to be

in the 80s and 90 if you took the chase they would try to knock you off yer bike

nowadays they are way less aggressive and with it slower


saying that they are slower is a bit of a contradictorial statement cos as time has passed bikes / cars are faster

the gap between the two has widened by a long way thoigh as some bikes can actually achieve 200 mph with ease

 

[kendor]

1) Has anyone else witnessed a worse case of police driving?

Yes i was in my wife's car with her driving along the motorway near bracknell when a police car tried to enter the motorway from the sliproad, instead of stopping to let us go as we were already passed the slipway they progressed to trying to cut across forcing my wife to steer towards the outside lane where a lorry was we were lucky not to have been killed the police car eventually gave way as he should have done in the first place and turned on his lights to pull us over to which we obliged so he comes up to the window and apologises profoundly for nearly causing an accident, good training? not in his case!

 

[williams89]

Picture a line of traffic moving at about ten miles an hour. Behind me is a traffic police car. The sort driven by the best trained drivers in the land. Then WHAM BLAH off went their siren at full blast. I nearly did something very childish. It made me jump to say the very least. The highly trained police drivers were looking at me and laughing at their handy work as they sped off on an urgent call. probably a vehicle spotted parked on a double yellow line.

Be kind to animals. Support your local police.

BE HAPPY