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View Article  Rioting And Waiting.
Aparrently there are near riots in the Canary wharf area.
Today I have been working alone on the FRU car.

I've just spent an hour and twenty minutes sitting on scene with an 86 year old woman waiting for a 'real' ambulance to take her to hospital.

Why so long?

Because all the ambulances were dealing with (presumably) drunken rioting idiots...

(It's also typical that the one time I work outside of my normal area we get the 'fun' of rioting...)
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Sent from a mobile phone, probably from the cab of an ambulance.
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View Article  Close Call

So yesterday we nearly had an accident in the ambulance.  first off, let me tell you that I’m doing occasional video captures of our drives through town – it’s part of a little project I’m working on entitled something like “I can’t believe you did that when there was an ambulance with flashing blue lights and loud sirens bearing down on you”.

It may need a shorter title.

We were racing on blue lights, as I wasn’t driving I was using my digital camera in video mode to see if I could catch anyone doing something humourously dodgy.

Then, from in front of a bus…

 …well – see for yourself… 

The reason there isn’t any sound is that I don’t really need you all to hear me shouting, “FFFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKK!!!!!”

As my camera isn’t really a video camera, I’ve blown up one of the frames to let you see what I thought we were going to hit.

Having kittens

 

I have no idea how we didn’t hit him, or his dog – but I’m bloody grateful we didn’t.


UPDATE: Due to some of the comments, I thought I'd clarify.
We didn't hit a person because (although it looks fast on my crappy camera with limited frame rate) as we approached the zebra we were aware of the hazard and therefore going at a speed that allowed us to stop before our wheels even touched the zebra.

If we couldn't have stopped before crossing the crossing, then it would have been dangerous driving.

It's why I had to provide a freeze frame, because the child is spotted and the vehicle brought to a halt within such a short period of time.

The dog running was travelling faster than a human, and yet we still stopped in time.

Recall also that I am sitting in the passenger seat, and therefore have a poorer view than my driver. It's why I swore, and the driver didn't, because they saw the child and took the correct action.

So my point is - even though it looks like we are going fast, we drive so that we can stop given the hazards of the road - those hazards include kids on scooters (and their dogs) dashing out in front of us despite the lights and sirens.

It's my fault I didn't make this clear in the initial text of the article - I'd just like to blame 28 hours awake (which is why my crewmate was driving in the first place...)
Welcome to Random Acts Of Reality, a Blog based in London, England, written by an E.M.T working for the London Ambulance Service. Also, number one search result for "Womble porn". All names have be changed to protect the guilty. This Blog was previously known as "Why I Hate Humanity" but the antipsychotic medication seems to have kicked in.

All opinions on this website are mine alone, and may not reflect those of the L.A.S or other ambulance crews

Find out more about me here.

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