One of my responses over to Luton when we had really heavy rain causing lots of standing water. Added, that the time of day made for very heavy traffic through Luton to negotiate through.
10:07 whilst the pickup driver is a knob for pulling out, what’s scarier is the fiesta driver who behaves likes that with flashing lights coming at them. “My side of the road and won’t move” and that’s for an emergency vehicle. Imagine what their driving standards and attitude is like with ordinary cars and people.
Yeah they both screwed up in an unfortunate spot. Shoulda stopped right before the parked car. Same with the minivan rushing towards the roundabout in the first third i believe. Barely had time to stop.
Yeah I was thinking exactly the same about both. When I saw the pickup pulling out I thought okay there's some room...but then saw the Fiesta who I assumed would either (a) stop or (b) shift over - but nope, forcing Chris to pretty much full brake they fully deserved the glare from him.
What they teach is if you’re going offside to overtake, you want to be as close as possible to the right hand side of the road - like literally to the pavement close. This is because when you straddle both lanes, oncoming vehicles will see a gap between you and the pavement and for the most part will attempt to go through that gap. However if you stay far right, they will not attempt to go inbetween two vehicles coming towards them and this will make them brake and stop. There are obviously exceptions everywhere. But the majority of drivers do give way in good time to emergency vehicles 🙏
Oh and also, what you find is, whilst driving along the motorways or dual carriageways there are two types of drivers. Ones that see you early and move left to open up the fast lane, and the ones that don’t see you until you get up and close to them. The latter drivers then panic when they notice, followed by (and I kid you not 99% of the time) brakes then a manoeuvre to the left 😂
I’d love to see his heart rate as he’s driving in these situations. I bet it doesn’t differ in the slightest 😅 god bless him. Legendary professional driver. 🫶🏻🙏💯👍
@@jonpeters9065 Hi Jon. I think it is actually for the red ford who continues pushing their way through.No excuse ran or otherwise. Just goes to show nothing can be taken for granted eh.To be fair the pick up could have done a better jobas well !!
@@jonpeters9065 i mean yes, the pickup could have seen him. but he does the right thing. asap drive to the left and stop to make room. he did all he could. the red dude keeping on driving like a delusional punk is the problem
Hi Ashley, we don't get a choice in tyre brand as its a lease but they do have to be high performance rated for the speed and weight. Otherwise, I simply take what brand the company say we can have. Hope all is well. Chris
THat AUDI at 12:30 is a perfect example why not to cut corners at junctions does it not? If the AUDI came around correctly then they could have quite easily seen Chris coming, and made space a lot easier than last-second diving towards the crossing posts. Glad no pedestrians were waiting to cross at that moment
A rare catch of someone actually racing to get TO luton rather than leave it! Was also waiting to see how you were going to tackle the small railway bridge by Leagrave High St. Well handled!
10:05 of the clip.. what the hell was the 4x4 thinking?! And the on coming car aswel.. those people are the ones that scare me! No hazard preception and thinking process at all!
As a pickup driver one of the things I like about it is it gives me a great view of what is going on around - while granted Chris was weaving in and out of traffic on approach no excuse really for not seeing the emergency vehicle and holding back on pulling out.
@@Rroff2 even though he did pull out the junction, he didn't make a great effrot to pull over.. just stopped.. if you're not sure what to do just keep moving
@@findthebadger418 I can vouch for that, In a career in Hotel Night Management, in one hotel in rural Berkshire, if I'd any Emergency Services requirements, I knew that I'd have to wait up to 30-40 minutes for Police to arrive. For even a First Responder, let alone Paramedics, it was often up to 50 minutes till they arrived. Even as a First Aider, it was an awfully long time especially if I needed both Police and Medical assistance; thinking on my feet as events unfolded was necessary.
In Norway ambulances should reach their target within 10 minutes. If they know they cant make it, they send an ambulance, and a helicopter, in case the helicopter get sent to something with higher priority.
Watched all your vids and noted on this one far more drivers appeared to not notice you were there ( less positive deflection e.g ) .All the factors of the weather, lack of concentration because it's a familiar commute, Desperate to get home so not losing my road space etc. Your patience and skill shows through. Thanks again.
With the sounds of the car and the sirens this is ASMR heaven. Great driving as always Chris, I hope you are able to keep posting these videos for some time there are a lot of us out here that appreciate them! 🥰
@@kitdatkat Part of it is to pretend that it's a quiet environment when it's not. Good for voice phone calls in noisy environments where the goal is just to understand the words, but terrible for everything else (even voice calls where you want to hear the person's voice well, in a nuanced way). Background sound is good when you want the feel of the place to come across better.
11:14 it’s nice to see how both Chris and the fire engine give each other space to get past without having to fully stop one another. While the fire engine had a car on the left. Also great to see how they “waved” to each other
Anyone else sat holding their breath with some of those tight squeezes!! Awesome driving...Im afraid if that was me there would have been some expletives at certain points of that drive!
@@johnbossley4810 ha ha ha ...I've done that already... I love in those how almost every expletive phrase is the same phrase on those UK dashcam footage videos its hilarious!! I think this annoys me more because how do you not see a car behind you lit up like a damn Christmas tree and sirens wailing and yet still decide to pull out ...or sit there like an eejit contemplating your navel???
Really disappointed in some of the driving behaviour by some of the public in this video, next to no awareness a few times, might be raining but that’s not an excuse to disregard an emergency vehicle, especially that Fiesta driver round the 10 minute mark - if you can’t see blue lights coming towards you and think “I should stop and allow space” then you simply need to hand your licence back to the DVLA
Maybe they have disabilities or just decreased awareness and reaction times due to age. Not everyone has the same capabilities as you but can still hold a drivers license. Remember a sizeable percentage of the general population have below average intelligence and don't have the mental capability to make the necessary and correct decisions every time.
That was tremendous, thank you. Surprising how many cars not using lights in those conditions. You had to show great patience - it looks as though the majority of drivers were helpful which hopefully makes up for the odd few who weren't (including a few who tried to do the right thing but were either very nervous or unlucky).
if you can't see the vehicle in front without lights then you're not abiding to HC rule 126. Rear lights do not increase safety and never have, it encourages drivers to drive faster, as do brighter front beams
Hi Chris. Really loving your videos which give a good insight into the amount of concentration and skill required to drive on blue lights. All whilst trying to safely and quickly get to where you need to be, no doubt you are also digesting the call you’re attending and thinking about the best course of action to take when you eventually arrive. From a fellow response driver, thanks for what you do🤞
Afternoon Chris, have you ever thought of adding a speedometer on the screen so we can roughly see the speed you are traveling especially through residential areas and built-up areas. Jack
As always Chris a first class video, it must get frustrating at times when people decide they don't want to move over for you, but that being said the weather played an important part in this video, positioning, awareness and getting the fright of your life when you see vehicle's pulling out from your right, but as usual you take it all in your stride, keep them videos coming, really enjoy them, and as always, Drive Safe, Stay Safe.
Nice watch as usual. I’m trying to get my reactions right from the start as I’ll be taking the driving test in the upcoming months (Germany). The mistakes made provide valuable learning opportunities to me. Keep up the great work!
Ich denke nicht, dass du ihm zu seiner armbanduhr gratulieren wolltest :P Aber ja die videos sind echt top, wenn du vorrausschauend und nachsichtig fährst dann klappt das schon :)
Hi @Chris Martin EMS just found your channel I am a 3rd year Paramedic finishing in July in the North West and these videos are really great. They should be helpful for my blue light training :D Would love it if you added commentary :]
Firstly, that traffic looks incredibly challenging even in "normal" (non-EMS) conditions. Secondly, with the crazy weather it appears so much harder to negotiate as you have all the additional risks to consider. Thirdly - I'm both thankful and surprised that you only had to jam your brakes once but the LOOK you gave was very satisfying. As someone who doesn't do a job like this, I find the videos fascinating but also I find myself shouting at my screen...
Don't worry about it. I used to do this job, and I shout and swear at these videos. I am starting to think that there should be an extra element to the driving lessons/tests structure that includes how to handle blue lights traffic around you. And it should be passed BEFORE passing the final driving test. I also believe that we should have copied the French years ago which made it compulsory for all drivers to pass a first aid course before they took their driving test.
Some peoples observation and awareness is exceptional (lorry driver and the silver car and BMW on the roundabouts were noticable), it really makes those that are completely ignorant stand out (silver van amongst others). Awesome driving as usual in testing conditions. Love watching James Ward channel as well, he done a recent video of training ambulance drivers, these are skills that all drivers/riders can use to improve diving awareness, reading the road and dealing with hazards.
RU-vid has randomly recommended your videos and I'm finding strange enjoyment in them. I always think back to time when I'd rung a mate, here in Brisbane, Australia, who was a paramedic. About nearly 10 minutes of talking garbage, like what we'd been doing at the weekend or were about to do, or some such dribble, I realised tge siren was still on. Only then it dawned on me that he was on his way to a job.....
As much as 'every second counts' you still have to factor in that sirens past a certain speed massively decrease then throw in rain and wind its very easy to miss an emergency vehicle behind you, just saying this because i feel like people think everyone on the road who doesn't spot and move over within 0.1 second is a 'bad driver' and the driver has to assume what the emergency vehicle wants to do, i.e do i stop on this hill or does he want me to keep moving? there is a lot of factors for the public not just the blue light driver. Great run as always but you might want to get that LED looked at as you know what they say when one bulb goes so do the rest lol. I have been on a blue light run in a ambulance and when you factor in rain plus high speeds you'll find sirens have little effect and its more of the driver glancing and seeing blue lights, low speeds sirens are loud enough to be heard but like anything things have a weakness and for blue lighters its the weather so people should take this into account before calling drivers seen in these videos, they're not robots with psychic powers. Only thing you can do is make sure you have a good 360 lighting setup with wig wags (full beam flashes in 999 mode) and a good siren pack because every tone has its own purpose and a bullhorn works wonders but in heavy rain its best to ease off and understand the risks go up and the chances of not being seen as quickly also goes up.
Yes but no. You should always know whats going on behind you. I get that some delivery van drivers wont see or even hear him close behind but if a suv or other car with good rear vision cant spot the blue lights right behind him they have all 3 mirrors completely off or are just not paying attention at all.
@@D3nn1s Dont get me wrong some people are just oblivious to ANYTHING going on while driving never mind emergency vehicles but that's not my point....my point is just because you've got lights and sirens doesn't take away everyday factors, its like if someone doesn't see your lights or hear your sirens in the fog so they don't move over instantly they are labelled "bad drivers" like no they're not...im assuming you can drive and if so have you ever been on motorway when its chucking it down? the amount of road noise goes up and visibility goes down and any visibility they do have will be focused on what's happening in front of them. I too used to to give drivers stick until i actually went on a blue light run in bad weather as well as had emergency vehicles behind me in bad weather, again not defending all drivers as some are just completely ignorant or oblivious but most drivers in these uploaded clips do nothing wrong but are shamed in comments and it annoys me, we are humans not robots immune to bad weather. On a blue light run its the blue light drivers responsibly to make sure everyone around him is safe and to expect in bad weather that human response will be a lot slower so if a responder wants to floor it everywhere while its chucking it down simply because he has sirens and lights then thats his problem not ours, one of the first things you're taught in blue light training is no emergency is worth getting to if it makes others unsafe or you pose causing another accident, bad weather responses you take everything into account such as braking distance, visibility dropping, your sirens being drowned out by rain/wind this is all common sense. Again, not defending ALL drivers but just because someone has three mirrors and doesn't see a blue light vehicle behind them within 1 second doesn't mean they are a bad driver its more of the blue light driver expecting too much.
@@connor6585 I get that people can get caught out looking in the wrong place at the moment the emergency vehicle appears, but usually the drivers that get called out in the comments do something more than take 2 seconds to react in my opinion. The one here that stands out to me is the oncoming Fiesta at 10:08 or so. They really had no excuse for not stopping before reaching the parked car. Maybe you're commenting this because a lot of people are pointing out the pickup there too? A little after 10:03 they appear in the junction but they pull out then stop with the emergency car approaching. A lot of people are calling it out for not paying attention, which I admit I was a bit unsure about myself. They do stop to the side as soon as they pull out, so noticed the blue lights which is what didn't have me thinking they were 'bad', but I guess others are going by how little time they waited before pulling out. I presume they are a driver you would give the benefit of the doubt as missing the blue lights due to the weather when still in the junction, which would have been a better place to wait until the emergency vehicle had passed. OK, after typing the above, maybe I actually agree with you. :) Personally I've seen emergency vehicles what I feel is quite early, at least going by how everyone around me acts. My first experience with blue lights behind me was on a national limit single carriageway coming off a straight with another car behind me. It was a grey unmarked Audi A6 Avant if I remember right, my first year of driving. I caught a glimpse of it in the nearside (passenger's/kerb side?) door mirror when it came out of the curve at the other end of the straight, a good few hundred metres behind, curve being from the left and the corner I was approaching was a tighter left hander, clear weather though. I and the car behind had plenty of time to round the corner and pull off the road into a dipped kerb section in front of a truck business driveway (so plenty of space for me to pull forward enough for the car behind to fit as well, without needing to reverse or drop down a kerb to pull away again). My experiences after that weren't so good as I always spotted them 'early' but had cars drive around me. I'd see them coming at 1/4 mile or so and wait to pull over so that traffic behind could see I'm not stopping for no reason, and when I pull over as they get closer they still drive around me, even when I don't indicate to force them to figure out what I'm doing, perhaps look for what I might be stopping for, but it hasn't worked. My latest spot of blue lights was when I was driving briskly around a roundabout, traffic light controlled, straight-lining at the commitment point of going through the green lights, and the police car moving briskly from the left came up a road that has a high island of grass and a road that sort of raises up to meet the roundabout so a marked Skoda Octavia estate didn't appear until tens of metres from the give way/stop line, while I was coming across my stop line on the roundabout itself for that pair of lights (their red light for my green, (in case it sounded like I was still joining at the next/previous set of lights around)), so carrying not the full 50 mph but not far off as the sole car on the road at that time (hence my choice of line) meant I didn't have time to react to get my car stopped before being in front of them, also carrying speed. Although I wanted to exit 2 around from where they joined, I hit the brakes and as I was on the inside of 3 lanes I just indicated right and stopped in lane 4/3 next to the kerb of the roundabout itself, (I was stopped about level to where 2 lanes exited for the next exit round from where they joined where the remaining 2 open up to 3 lanes). It's the Lodge road roundabout in Coleraine, Northern Ireland if this description is too messy, they came from 'town centre', (police station is down there) and I came from the the A29/previous exit www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.1248416,-6.6574245,3a,75y,46.06h,82.64t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2RZXyYz5Ca1Q4Sqw9XCekA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en) Obviously google's camera is on the roof up a pole, I drive a Focus with eye level mid windscreen height, so what is visible of queueing traffic from the town if you move around street view is more than I could see, and if they were carrying similar speed to me, 40-50 mph range I think, then they obviously wouldn't have been in that zone for very long for me to have seen them, at least I think that's how it would have been, but I doubt myself a lot. :) They popped out into the roundabout behind me, tapped the brakes when I was sticking right, activating indicator and braking with the intention of stopping before the next set of lights as they were red with a pickup waiting in lane 2 of the 3 and I didn't want to block their option to take lane 3 with light traffic joining from Portrush. I don't think there was much, maybe a couple of cars, but I was watching the police behind me and passing so don't know precisely what was coming on. I felt bad for causing that fraction of a second of braking from them but with the speed I was carrying I don't know what else I could have done. Having a family member in the car who is a bit panicky didn't help as they aren't a great passenger for someone practicing advanced driving/Roadcraft (although self-taught prior to actually reading Roadcraft from various advanced driving and emergency driving videos on RU-vid) techniques on a basically empty road (no one was immediately around to be confused by my use of more of the road at the points I did so), and as I was seeing and reacting to the police were also, very audibly, reacting to the police. I don't know if that would be something other viewers of this type of video would give off about had that police car uploaded that footage, and if so if I would then have been the type of driver you would be defending with your initial comment. This took more typing to include the details than I had thought. :)
It's so facinating to watch it from your point of view. I get so agrevated at other cars when dealing with emergency vehicles, especially when they just seem to just want to slam on the brakes making it harder for you guys. Makes my blood boil. I bet it takes some getting used to and some deep breath excercises!
Fabulous controlled driving in difficult weather!! Used to live & work in the general area, so good to see familiar roads....but you can see why I now live in East Yorkshire!!
Very interesting to see how some people choose to get out the way and how some people are oblivious, a lot of good driving but also some people who just don’t have a clue 😂😂 Very good driving from yourself however in these conditions, love your videos as always as it’s good to see a response persons perspective of a blue light response and an onboard with it! Great video as always!
Toujours cette maîtrise de soi, malgré la météo défavorable et les chauffeurs qui ont du mal à bouger. L'adrenaline doit être constante. Admirable prestation. Un amical clin d'oeil.
This is the second vid of yours i have seen. First one, dry bright day, open country, yeah i could do that, if i was well rested and fresh, wouldn't feel as safe but i could do it and arrive in one piece. This one, in these conditions, i would have written that car off 5 times over. My brain isn't capable of processing the information yours handled in this never mind everything else that's going through it, the real world consequences of a mistake + thoughts of the job your going to and coming from. That was incredible to watch.
Im impressed chris, thats some very nice wet weather driving. I hate the rain and all i can say is, id have made a serious mess during some parts of that.
Hey Chris! Just wondering if you’re chewing gum and if you do is it a habit, just for taste or does it help you concentrate somewhat as I do while driving as well :)
It's always interesting seeing the different nomenclature our two countries come up with. For instance, aqua-planing. I've never heard that before. Only hydroplaning. Obviously they mean the same thing but it's just so weird to see at first lol
Great driving but at that time of day I would have gone B655 toward Barton Le Clay, A6 then Icknield Way toward Leagrave station. It's a smidge further (mile or so more) but it's significantly less traffic. getting to that side of Luton is horrendous from that Stockinsdale rd direction having tried it many times. Some very good awareness by some drivers and terrible by others grey car out of Hitchin and that Black Utility vehicle that pulled out on Leagrave road then just stopped!
How disgusting is it that the car could see you with lights and sirens and yet still continue through the bottleneck in the road forcing you to emergency brake. The locals don't seem very knowledgeable about what to do if an emergency vehicle is approaching them. Quite a few mounted the pavements whilst others stopped and others simply didn't give two sh*ts. Great work!
Just want to say. Great driving. Very very calm in situations I need to see more of your vids. As I tend to look and listen out and try to get my truck in a good position for you guys. I try to let other's know your coming. But so many bad drivers on the road. I don't know how you are so calm. I would be shouting at the drivers for doing stupid things when emergency vehicles are coming. Keep safe.
Thats what im thinking too. In germany/switzerland its even the lorry drivers. Its fucking past sunset and youre using like 20l+ diesel anyways, just turn on your fucking headlight so you can see
Hello Chris, watch most videos you have posted on RU-vid. Watching this video the Black pick up truck must have seen you Approaching and still come out the junction Knowing you will need to pass them. Look forward to more videos.
Every possible reflective surface/sign lit up like a ice blue Xmas tree, in their forward vision and yet they still fail to notice!! I get the siren bit, I have my music fairly loud so I'd miss that, but never have I missed any emergency vehicles, mirror's...
0:48 really shows how many drivers just don't hear the sirens for some reason: the Grand Picasso saw nobody driving in the roundabout so they committed to it, hence were surprised as you appeared "from nowhere"... hearing should make up for lack of visibility there, but so often it does not.
I have a question. 5:10, a similar scenario but there’s no where to pull over (no parking spaces) there’s a hill one side going up and coming down on the other side is a 6-8” curb and it’s not wide enough to squeeze up the middle. Traffic is flowing good at a constant 40 both ways. Question is, would you rather have to slow down and pick your way through the gaps where people stop or continue at 40 until it widens in 300-400 yards or there’s a bigger gap in oncoming traffic to get past?
It's an Automatic, you can see the gear stick in a past 360 view video Chris did here.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tiNVhvTBdiA.html
Skoda Octavia VRS (from I saw in a previous walk round video) fitted with a DSG gearbox (Semi Automatic..... has clutch packs but it shifts itself or you can change via paddles or by pushing the gear selector Forward (to change UP) and backwards (to change DOWN)). 😊😊
Will they strip all the equipment off your current car and put it on your new lease vehicle or give you all new lights and sirens? really think you would benefit from a Hi-Lo siren and bullhorn to be honest as they worked wonders for me.
Not Chris's reason, but there's more room to play around with per say being in the middle of 2 lanes. And before the van moves over it was a long shallow left corner, it would have been immpossible to be in the van rights mirror. Another factor is the headlight pattern on the Skoda, the left light has a more direct and straight path, better to get directly into the mirror. The right headlight dips down and to the left, making it harder to put into the vans mirror. Oh, and who knows what kind of slippery mud and debris has been kicked into the side of the road, another hazard to avoid whenever possible.
Maximising the viewing angle of the blue lights on the van driver's side mirror. If he hasn't noticed Chris on the driver's side mirror, perhaps he'll notice on the passenger side. We motorcyclists employ somewhat similar techniques if we want to be seen (for example if someone is hogging the overtaking lane and it looks like the driver hasn't spotted us).
It never stops amaizing me, how many drivers do the minimum attempt to get out of your way . Do they look in their mirror , they all queue too close to one another , so they cannot move to their left easy , but have to hope the vehicle in front moves up .
Hi Chris Video suggestion for you. Not sure if/how it would work, but could you get a video of a blue light run from one of your colleagues in an Ambulance. I think it'd be interesting for people to see the difference in how people react to a larger, more visible vehicle :)
Hi Chris, great video as always. There was some really poor driving from people in that video ESPECIALLY that Ford Fiesta. How you did not say a few swear words when that happened I do not know…maybe in your head I’m sure you did? Keep the videos coming mate, thank you.
Do you know most of the addresses enough to find your way by looking at a map before starting or are you sometimes depending on gps to find the way? Driving alone on a 999 call and trying to listen to or looking at a map on a screen must be something that slows down the response time?
It may be something about sirens i've never noticed before but it sounds like you're shooting your horn as well as using the siren. Is this the case? What's the purpose of doing it., other than an an occasional "thanks''
The siren is wired to the horn. Different combinations of "beeps" activate different tones. Makes it much easier to change the siren tone while on the move vs. having to take your hands off the wheel to push buttons on a panel
