Amazing driving as always. Love seeing how you manage to stay calm and judge how fast you should be going, I feel like a lot of people would be inclined to be speeding all the way even when they shouldn't
Mercedes at 1:55 must have excellent awareness, could just see it in the distance when you were passing the van, and he'd managed to spot you from afar and find a safe space to stop. Nice to see some good driving.
3:00 Tip for drivers confronted with approaching sirens from the back, near a roundabout : make an extra full round lap to effectively give way to the emergency services.
Or pull over across the entrance to the roundabout. Two fold, blocks vehicles coming on to the roundabout and allows the emergency vehicle to pass and be certain there’s nothing coming.
Thank you Chris. To be able to drive like this and THEN provide critical care when you arrive on scene is amazing. Thank you for being you and sharing with us 👏🏻
It’s awesome to see how much pride you put into your Driving, colleges of mine really don’t, I’ve seen shouting and swearing, some horrible Emergency stops, bulling and aggressive driving and down right lazy. Since starting as an NQP I’ve tried to continue to use the Roadcraft techniques and refresh on them in order to make My Driving better each run. Thanks for the videos and I really take inspiration from them, and learn from the points you note.
Love seeing your videos whenever you upload! As an emergency driver (police) from Germany, it's always interesting to see how similar and/or different things are compared to the UK. Thank you for the high value content. Keep up the good work and drive safe!
it's really interesting watching as an american EMT as well. y'all drive way more aggressively than we do, usually. it makes sense though, there's significantly less room for drivers to get out of the way on European streets than American ones.
Whilst possibly distressing the nature of your work and the care you give, these videos reinforce the importance of what you and other blue light drivers engage on a daily basis. From your videos I’ve been fortunate to implement some of your comments and find myself thinking, what would Chris be suggesting when blue lights and sirens are nearby. Keep up the cracking work and truly informative content.
Great vid as always Chris. Also, something we don't see much of these days is admitting an error. Great to see you do, and turn it in to a learning tool.
1:40 You can tell that you are eager to get to the job, clearly somebody who requires immediate life saving treatment (hence the CAT1/Crit Care deployment) spot on video as always.
I am staggered by other drivers LACK , of land discipline . Islands are the worst example , and mirrors , or who is behind is not their first thought . Nice drive , love watching .
It really says something when the slowest reaction time was from the dog walker. Great reaction from the grey hatchback also, I’d imagine the typical response is to brake and stop, rather than realise you can’t pass and keep rolling with an indicator on so you know that he knows you’re there and will pass when practical.
One of the very best driver training videos out there on the whole of RU-vid very few show this important decision making process and dynamically changing plan on the drive
As always, great driving and great insight into the constant and frenetic decision making process. Good weather conditions, but still, that is probably one of the fastest drives to date while always minimising and mitigating risk (such as the van overtake). Amazing how you find the time to give a pip on the horn to warn and reward. Superb situational awareness.
Always a pleasure to watch you Chris - and I suspect maybe we should be happy that we don't see too many of your videos! Still - every single time I've watched your runs, I always find myself saying things like "Stay!" or "Wait your turn!" or "Get out the *** way!" As always, excellent work.
Always great to see other drivers on what we call a priority drive, or code 1. Unfortunately, our bosses don't allow us to post similar videos to social media. Best wishes from an Australian paramedic.
Heya fellow Aussie! Ironic they don’t allow you to post videos yet there’s been half a dozen emergency tv shows over the years. You don’t see a lot of driving though, apart from in Highway Patrol, although if it was just 30mins of cops yelling at bogans it wouldn’t be as good viewing lol. Stay safe champ, thanks for what you do.
@@thesausage351 Those shows don't accurately portray a shift, only snippets of a job. The producers ask you to act more serious (I kid you not), and then the footage is assessed by clinical leaders and management before being heavily edited and turned into the shows you see on TV.
@@coover65 Yeah I figured there was a lot of editing involved. It’s disappointing because they really are good shows to watch, even with the overall Feelgood vibe they try to portray.
@@thesausage351 There are a lot of jobs we go to and think "this'd be something for those TV shows", but there are many types of jobs that the producers won't show. Some aren't suitable for TV, but some like when I had a goat happily make its way into our ambulance and refused to let me get the stretcher out when we were at a house would be entertaining. About 20 years ago when I was working with out of a station wagon backing up stretcher crews, we had a TV crew with us for a Friday and Saturday night shift. Out of about 20 jobs we had, 4 made it to the show. And to be honest, not the 4 I would've chosen.
@@coover65 Yeah, TV is a funny thing. I had a buddy involved with a now defunct car TV show in Aus, and he would say that the producers would sort of manoeuvre people around so that people most others would consider to be attractive would be in positions where the cameras would cut to, so quite a few girls with low cut tops, or big boobs, or guys with a logo t shirt, for instance would be in frame. When I was there, they had some ring-ins come in when they were filming the audience shots, all wearing a logo t shirt and just mingling around other people. The product we saw live v the version that went onto tv was drastically different. There was perhaps 100 people on the night we went, maybe not even that, but the tv show made out like there was double or triple that, with amplified claps and cheers, generic shots of the audience being filled up in certain areas, but then keeping other shots closely cropped on the hosts, it’s all a lie lol.
Always love to see your uploads showing the good and bad driving and awareness of other road users, a few in that one could have made your life easier! Don't care how much training or how professional you and others are... (not meant as a criticism in any way) you must be bouncing with adrenalin by the time you get to the patient. Thank you for the work you and others do!
It's bad optics if the hearse gets there before the ambo! (And I've seen some hearses tearing down the M4 before now. Urban legends suggest that races are not unheard of!)
Hi Chris thanks for another excellent video driving at speed and staying calm like you do it's amazing. Take care sir, looking forward to the video 😊Gary.
I'm actually amazed to see near everyone on that run done the right thing, didn't panic and got out of the way or kept moving till safe to get by.... Smashing driving
4:43 just as you was coming onto this road, I was thinking just how dangerous this part is as I live close by. You also expressed your worries for this road, as its a very common place for people to want to overtake.
Some very nice driving as usual. The tiny things like looking past inside to see what is coming makes a huge difference. With that riding style, you need a powerful car too. You clearly use a good acceleration a way you just cannot do with an average family car that lacks the power.
1:19 more kudos to that Peugeot driver if they'd used that massive lay-by to pull over into! Although to be fair to them, that white van was tailgating them quite badly, making it difficult for them to make a sudden manoeuvre, but also, making it difficult for you to see there were two vehicles.
Good on you to highlight the error/oversight and thank you for sharing this. Algorithm took me here and was not disappointed. Personally I think all emergency vehicle driver should do advanced driving course. It takes the stress/adrenaline out of actually getting to the action in the first place. There must be some psychological benefit to the job surely...
I think even your videos are helping me, not a blue light driver, but I am learning to drive in general and last lesson, I hesitated in overtaking a Double decker Bus on a really narrow road with two way traffic in an Urban environment where Cars are parked illegally all across the pavements left and right because I could see oncoming traffic and was not sure how fast they were going, but I think your method of perhaps just going out a bit to the right looking and If its good committing to go forwards towards the direction of potential oncoming traffic whilst overtaking and merging back in to the left hand lane should help me out and If its not good just stay/go back in my lane before using any gas, so thanks for this tip it may help me in the long run in certain road situations.
Awesome. I kept thinking this video was speeded up, but it clearly wasn't. Highly instructive. And at least this time you had White vans that did not drive on in blind indifference!
Chris, the fact that you gave thanks to the drivers for letting you pass, proves that you’re not only focusing on the road making all these decisions, but you’re also give generous gestures when responding. Well done!
It’s funny, I’ll always do my best to get out of the way, and to alert others of an approaching siren and ambos and rescue squad are always thankful and will almost always acknowledge you, however police very very rarely will. They don’t have to, but it’s nice when they do.
I do think police have more of a stressful job, but EMTs also have stressful jobs. They have to deal with all the bloody stuff. I do think emts should get more appreciated because they see things that some cops won’t be able to see. And the emts will most likely be the ones touching and giving care to the injured people, or even casualties. I can’t imagine how emotionally straining an EMT has to endure.
@@jamiebonczek8026 You’re 100% right. Even for someone you don’t know, yours could be the last face they see, so you must have to tread this balance between not being emotionally involved, and being warm, and friendly. I’ve seen people criticise EMT’s on fb, usually after they see one of the TV shows where perhaps several people died in a large scale accident and after the debrief when the camera pans the scene or whatever there might be a couple of EMTs laughing with cops, I mean ffs give them a break, everything is over, they have to normalise and deal with everything they have just worked through, and humour is one of the best ways to distract yourself. If I’d just been to a car crash and saw what they saw, I’d be ringing my buddy up and talking crap about some of his customers and stuff, anything to deviate from what I had just seen. Emergency services are bloody hero’s man.
Another excellent example of how to handle your car on the road at high speed, while keeping complete and total control of your situation, and being fully aware of what's around you. This is why I'm so against some of the trolls you get on this channel, Chris. I'd love to see them put in a situation like yours, where they have to think on their feet. You are a genuine, gear jamming rig jockey (and yes, that is a compliment!)
Great driving! A little tip at 1:25, in situations like this I tend to check how many shadows are being cast in front of me due to the vehicles in line even if I can't see the actual vehicles. There is some shadow you can see around 1:20, plus around 1:16 in the curve you could also see that there is another vehicle in front of the van, which helps if you are thinking about overtaking. Of course it's hard to pay attention to every little detail, but this may help sometimes. Wish all the best!
@@Lew699 I tried sharing these tips for the general audience, I think we all know Chris is a calm and collected professional and he also showed in the video how he is looking down the street to see what's coming ahead. :) I can certainly see a tiny bit of the said shadow (in other situations this might be more useful as when the sun is lower it casts a longer shadow, but this video seems like was around noon). I also highlighted in my last sentence that we are all humans and we can't always pay attention to everything, but maybe subconsciously knowing these can help in a few cases. :) Edit: typo
sorry, but when are you ever in a situation like this exactly? are you a first responder? also, the dashcam has the advantage over the driver here, since its viewpoint is in the centre of the car, not the right. This is just you trying to larp as if you are this guys peer.
@@Nbomber People on the planet don't have to be first responders to have a big van or truck in front of them blocking some of the view, and instead use the cast shadows to check if there is another vehicle in front of the van or truck when they want to overtake, so they know if there is space to return to their lanes. I did this a couple of times. However, I do agree with you that the dash cam has an advantage here being in the center, as it's right-hand drive in the video, so this is not the best use-case for checking shadows, but the theory may still apply to other possible situations (left-hand drive in this sun, right-hand drive if the sun is on the left, etc.), but you are correct in pointing out the advantage of dash cam's viewpoint. Cheers! :)
car magnets! we just love them!. We do most of our runs in the city so roads are fairly congested, i try to use P4/5 as much as possible. no cars just DMA's. some good power there, nice not to worry about gear changes too. Amazing sometimes the drives we do then as soon as we're on scene to an arrest or similar how quickly the drive gets forgotten. I'm always very appreciative of drivers who spot us in their mirrors long before we get close and have already pulled over. Just the clowns who like to race us that make it dangerous for everyone. stay safe and thanks for the video
The road at 4:45 onwards looks to me to be one of the original A roads, which were three lane: one each way and an overtaking lane in the middle for crashes... I assume it seemed liked a great idea when they were discussing it in the Ministry of Transport (as it was back in the 1930s when this idea was thought up) but in practice it was definitely A Bad Thing.
That section is a bypass from 1990 to relieve traffic through some small towns/big villages. I used to drive it daily, and it's bloody spooky. Would prefer there to be 2 lanes one way, 1 the other, and every roundabout alternate which direction has 2 lanes.
Brings back old memories of when I used to be a passenger in my mates car and he could handle a motor, he should have been a rally driver because his driving skills were excellent just like yours ;-)
That was awesome!! Is there anyway of displaying speed, RPM, gear selection, braking force, acceleration? That would be pretty colour data to accompany your vids 🤙 great job and thanks for sharing.
Have a look at some of the people complaining about him speeding now, imagine their face if they saw the actual data? Lol. I’d imagine his boss wouldn’t want that data shown publicly. He’s an exceptional driver though, you can pick good drivers when they appear to just be floating along, not stressing the motor or the brakes, just floating by, gently yet swiftly accelerating and braking, never too much of either, and in total control.
Great driving Chris. As a fire engine driver I’d love to get behind the wheel of a car on blues lights just to see the difference. I like how your honesty in your videos and acknowledge when you didn’t see something properly. Take care👍
You will find that others motorist won’t see you so early and will have to account for this if transitioning from truck to car driving as it can catch you out if they don’t see you til last minute or at all, you know the ones that slam on the brakes when you come up behind them as they ‘only’ just noticed you🙄
@@Law_Abiding_Citizen_ok I’d say your absolutely right. You’ve got a lot more road presence in a fire engine more visible etc, it’s amazing how many people still don’t see you, or take you on head to head 🤣🤣
1:20 shows the dangers of vans tailgating. Looking back a tthe video dpeending on the speed of the road it looks like the van is following the pug way too closely,which affected your ability to see it from afar.
4:42 That's why we stopped building wide lane roads here in Finland. I like them, but that is a problem, even though it is illegal to cross the center line during opposing traffic. I had this exact situation once last summer and had to make a hasty return to my side of the road.
You ever think of moonlighting as a rallycar driver? The energy control you've got on that Rover (?) is outstanding, especially considering the high CG they have.
Whenever I see a blue light vehicle in my rear view mirror approaching me in the distance, I flash my lights to the cars ahead of me, before pulling over to make way. It does seem 95% of the time to have the desired effect of them pulling over in anticipation. First time I’ve had the opportunity to ask an emergency responder, but is the useful?
Officially no, the blue light driver would be anticipating and planning based on what is approaching. Whilst I've seen drivers do this plenty of times, and I must admit it has been helpful on occasions, I couldn't condone it as if anything were to happen you could be held partially to blame in the event of a collision. Generally speaking the best advice is to indicate, move over and slow down in a safe and controlled manner.
Question for normal drivers - Most people tend to slow down and pull over to let you overtake regardless of the situation. However if its a situation where overtaking is tricky, is it better for people to just continue and let you figure it out?
Chris, you give credit to the Peugeot driver for keeping moving... Im slightly surprised by that, as we both know rolling hazards are the riskiest to pass. You made it look easy in the Volvo, but theres no way I'd safely pass him in a slow Fiat DCA, and as such would continue to be stuck behind him. I find this type of driver particularly hazardous when responding. Oncoming vehicles will stop to let me overtake but I wont have the acceleration to pass a rolling hazard like this Peugeot so end up stuck behind him for miles whilst everyone else is doing what they can to help us. I find when both sides pull over and stop and allow me to navigate between them is the best way.
Another great vid Chris. Curious to know how the Audi (and I suppose the Skoda) hold up to those speed bumps and ‘traffic calming’ measures ? Some do have harsher on-ramps than others. Do you have thicker tyres than perhaps the low profiles that might come with these models ?
