I'm sitting on station at the moment, unable to go anywhere because I don't have an FRU car.

The reason for this is that my mate working the day shift has crashed it into another car. I'm not too sure on the details, as he's currently in the hospital being checked over for injuries but the word so far is that it's minor injuries only all round.

Add in the FRU that I mentioned yesterday which was crashed last week, and there is a distinct lack of motors to go round.

(Also I think that the fancy new Zafira I had yesterday is having an engine repair done on it).

I'm sure that it's nothing to do with this spate of crashes, but because of our ORCON times, we did all get a memo a week or so ago telling us to try and drive to calls a bit faster...



I think I'm getting a station officer's car after 10pm, I'll try to be careful.

I'm not perfect.

I arrived at work to find that my FRU car was nowhere to be seen. There was no-one on the early shift, so where had my car gotten too?

Last week a friend of mine had an accident in the Newham FRU car (in front of a load of police officers, which gave them some amusement I would imagine). So the car that I would normally use was being borrowed by Poplar station.

So the plan was for me to get picked up at my station by a station officer, then I would get the keys to the brand new Vauxhall Zafira. I'd thgen return to my station and start working.

The station officer met me and drove me down to Newham station. He asked me that, because I was leaving my secondment on the FRU, if I could write up my thoughts on what was good, bad and what could be improved about it.

I told him that this blog would answer most of those questions.

The brand new Zafira was parked in the garage at Newham, so I hopped behind the wheel and after some struggling with the new design of handbrake, managed to reverse it out of the garage and into the parking area.

Where to the absolute horror of the Station officer I drove into another car.

Oops.

Luckily there was no damamge to the Zafira (which has less than 600 miles on the clock) and very slight, if any, damage to the private car.

The first accident I've had in over 18 months and it's in front of a station officer...

Not a good start to the shift.

My thoughts on the Zafira are this - if you wanted a rapid response vehicle, the Zafira shouldn't have been chosen. It's top heavy and wallows like a hippo in thick mud. The acceleration is awful, you hit the pedal and it takes one and a half seconds before the diesel engine gives you any sort of power. It is comfortable to pootle around town in, and the high up viewing position is quite nice.

But there is no way that it could be considered a 'Fast' car.

I think the reason why we have them, is because they are able to carry patients, and I imagine that soon FRU drivers will be asked to take the coughs and colds that we see so much of of to hospital.

I am tired, and in an incredibly bad mood after this shift. I'll explain more when I can motivate myself to write about it.