Police motorway driving…

So before I think about making a complaint, perhaps some of our police colleagues on here could comment on the following and offer up suggestions as to the reasons for the driving style (other than late for shift change, lunch, etc) I witnessed on the M1 yesterday:

Coming back from a morning in the Peak to Nottingham, driving back through Chesterfield, tootling along the A617 dual carriageway towards J29 of the M1, a marked Volvo estate (I have the vehicle reg, time, location, etc) joins the road just behind me, me having passed the slip road, and proceeds to accelerate to a speed that would see Joe Public pulled over (I had an indictaed 74mph on the clock, which I know equals 70mph in reality). He then proceeds to tailgate other traffic to bully it out of the way so he has free run along lane 2. At this point I can see what’s coming so move back to lane 1 at the safest possible opportunity, having completed an overtake myself, and before he can get close to me. He is not displaying/using blues and twos.

I then catch up with him at the motorway junction roundabout, where he’s forced to wait by traffic on the roundabout. We proceeed down the sliproad, him again bullying somebody out of the way so he join the motorway quickly. This results in him being boxed in to lane 1 by traffic in lanes 1 and 2. I observe the flow of traffic and moderate my speed so I can join and then progress safely through lanes 1 and 2 into 3 to overtake the slower traffic. Meanwhile, he bullies his way out in to lane 2, then lane 3, by simply moving in the direction of where he wants to be, regardless of whether there’s other traffic there or not. Given what I’d already seen earlier I slow and move back over again to let him pass.

Now slightly annoyed I must admit to moving back out to try and get a better idea of his speed (which continues to fluctuate as he hits pockets of traffic) and give up when I hit an indicated 85mph (feel free to flame me, speed kills, etc…).

He’s still not showing blues and twos. He continues to tailgate (c. 6-10ft away from the bumpers of cars in front) and bully people out of the way so he can make progress, although the volume of traffic means he makes little more progress than I do, all he’s managed to do is burn more fuel and wear down his brake pads more.

Due to the traffic I can still see him ahead as we approach J28, where he proceeds to, at the last possible second, dive across all 3 lanes for the exit causing traffic to brake hard; at this point he switches on the blues, which are switched off again as soon as he reaches the slip road, as if use of blue lights somehow excuses his inability/unwillingness to plan ahead and exit the motorway properly and safely.

I carry on home simmering with resentment at the seeming gall he showed, when he’s supposed to be a role model for good standards, policing by consent and all that…

Anyway, 2 questions:

What might have meant he had a reason to drive like that? (And I get the sometimes need to make swift progress without blues and two in order to not alert an offender to the approach of the police, but given he was on the motorway for such a brief period and pulled nobody over, this did not seem to be the case – if he really needed to get from one junction to the next that quickly there was no reason I could see for him not to use lights and sirens.)

Do his awsum skillz as a driver mean he can alter the laws of physics and stop a fully laden Volvo estate travelling at an estimated 90mph in a space of 6-10ft?

I struggle with long sentences but you should all be in lane 1 unless overtaking

Make a complaint, if you can be bothered.

If you do though, I’d omit the bit where you confess to breaking the speed limit yourself.

Dave

That’s the point though – due to the volume of traffic, those in lanes 2 and 3 were overtaking. He was just forcing poeple to move back over in to what I would say were unsuitable gaps in traffic so he could get a car’s length ahead. Bit like the BMW and Audi drivers everybody on here rants about.

Can’t comment on that drivers reasons but sometimes we do have too ‘make progress’ without using blues and twos. What if he was trying to catch up with a suspected stolen car but didn’t want to give the game away? Could be one of many reasons but obviously it could just be as you said!

maybe they were tailing someone and trying to keep a good distance but not lose sight.

Could use lights when the car was up the slip road to get across as safely as possible in the situation.

Possibly Andy, but there was nobody ahead of me on the A617, visible at least, and I didn’t see anybody ahead of him on the slip road. Plus, if that was the case, I wouldn’t have caught up with him waiting at the roundabout, he would have been long gone…

Do you fell obliged to report every other instance of bad driving on the motorways then? If not I suggest you may just let it go.

Thorpie, I accept that is sometimes the case and that kind of driving is sometimes necessary. That’s why I asked the questions as the situation is not always clear cut, but refer to the fact he obviously waited at the roundabout rather than getting through.

Do you fell obliged to report every other instance of bad driving on the motorways then? If not I suggest you may just let it go

If it was by a public servant who was supposed to be a role model of good standards (or anybody else for that matter) driving in a manner that put others at risk, then yes. Wouldn’t you?

Possibly Andy, but there was nobody ahead of me on the A617, visible at least, and I didn’t see anybody ahead of him on the slip road. Plus, if that was the case, I wouldn’t have caught up with him waiting at the roundabout, he would have been long gone…

they might not have been in sight of the vehicle they were following – they might have been moving in relation to where another vehicle is reported to be heading – trying to get somewhere first rather than follow someone

My advice is just let it go unless you want to be pulled over, breath checked, can I see you documents, is this your car, etc, etc until they get board with you or find someone else to play with.

The car he was trying to get behind could have been any of the ones ahead of you (by the sounds of things, hundreds of them) the fact that you didn’t see the outcome doesn’t mean anything.

I’m always wondering whether this behaviour is deliberate to incite any would-be boy racers to have a go.
last week for example, possibly the same coppers on A1 tailgating about 2m behind someone in outside lane during those ‘keep apart 2 chevrons’ sections.

Mind you, is it worse that Po Po doing the ‘safety car’ thing, driving 69mph in middle lane so that people don’t dare speed up enough to get past…

What if he was trying to catch up with a suspected stolen car but didn’t want to give the game away?

that’s certainly worth driving recklessly and putting lots of peoples lives at risk…

speed kills

No, crashing kills.

My cousin is a Po Po and has been getting driving training, and he described some of it as driving around and getting people to move via use of “body language”. I don’t know why, whether it’s a training technique, operational technique, or what.

maccruiskeen – Member

Possibly Andy, but there was nobody ahead of me on the A617, visible at least, and I didn’t see anybody ahead of him on the slip road. Plus, if that was the case, I wouldn’t have caught up with him waiting at the roundabout, he would have been long gone…

they might not have been in sight of the vehicle they were following – they might have been moving in relation to where another vehicle is reported to be heading – trying to get somewhere first rather than follow someone

If that’s the case, the question remains “why not use blues and twos on the motorway stretch then?” rather than resorting to forcing poeple out of the way. He could also have planned his entry to the motorway better to avoid being boxed in and as a result would have been able to make initial progress more swiftly and safely.

Meh, you can see any number of people driving like twunts on any British Motorway pretty much all the time.

You never know this particular twunt might actually have had a good reason.

I was more annoyed the other day by the police car the drove along in the middle lane on an empty motorway.

What is the world coming too when we can’t expect lane discipline from our public officials

a marked Volvo estate (I have the vehicle reg, time, location, etc) joins the road just behind me, me having passed the slip road, and proceeds to accelerate to a speed that would see Joe Public pulled over (I had an indictaed 74mph on the clock, which I know equals 70mph in reality). He then proceeds to tailgate other traffic to bully it out of the way so he has free run along lane 2. At this point I can see what’s coming so move back to lane 1 at the safest possible opportunity, having completed an overtake myself, and before he can get close to me.

Sounds to me like you need to concentrate more on your own driving and where you’re going rather than watching everything that’s going on behind you.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing the wooden tops here – I work in another public sector that sometimes attracts criticism for some of the things we do and also have friends in the Police. I’m just trying to understand why he might have done what he did so if I see it coming again I can act accordingly and make his speedy progress as safe as possible for me, him and any other drivers.

I would let it go, it does sound like they were trying to get in position for a reason.

Now slightly annoyed I must admit to moving back out to try and get a better idea of his speed (which continues to fluctuate as he hits pockets of traffic) and give up when I hit an indicated 85mph (feel free to flame me, speed kills, etc…).

Sounds like you got a bit excited, not sure I’d be keen to follow him through traffic over the speed limit…

Report him if you want.

You haven’t got the bigger picture….

How on earth do you know what he/she may/ could be doing ? And more importantly why should you know ?

He could be tailing a suspect…have been told to be somewhere asap but has chosen not to blues and toos it on a common sense basis.

Too many people with too much time on their hands, worrying about what everyone else is doing !

Leave them alone – they do a bloody good job ( most of the time when you aren’t looking ).

wisepranker – Member

a marked Volvo estate (I have the vehicle reg, time, location, etc) joins the road just behind me, me having passed the slip road, and proceeds to accelerate to a speed that would see Joe Public pulled over (I had an indictaed 74mph on the clock, which I know equals 70mph in reality). He then proceeds to tailgate other traffic to bully it out of the way so he has free run along lane 2. At this point I can see what’s coming so move back to lane 1 at the safest possible opportunity, having completed an overtake myself, and before he can get close to me.

Sounds to me like you need to concentrate more on your own driving and where you’re going rather than watching everything that’s going on behind you.

Sorry, could you explain why I may need to concentrate on my own driving – I know exactly where I was going and what my road position was, I was in lane 2 to overtake? I thought a part of being safe was observation, all around, and that includes looking well ahead on fast moving roads to spot traffic coming down slip roads wanting to join traffic as well as use of rear view mirrors in order to be aware of what’s going on behind, for example faster moving traffic that may want to pass.

brack – Member
You haven’t got the bigger picture….

How on earth do you know what he/she may/ could be doing ? And more importantly why should you know ?

He could be tailing a suspect…have been told to be somewhere asap but has chosen not to blues and toos it on a common sense basis.

Too many people with too much time on their hands, worrying about what everyone else is doing !

Leave them alone – they do a bloody good job ( most of the time when you aren’t looking ).

And that’s why I asked for the police view – there may well be general circumstances I’m not aware of that may justify that kind of driving, my motivation is to try to understand…

For anyone that wants to ‘understand’[/url]

Perhaps because you admit to doing 85mph on a motorway due to a combination of anger and curiosity.

I was in the local vets at the weekend and overheard a receptionist saying they were getting a police dog in soon, that had scoffed a bag of coke!

So thats how they train sniffer dogs to find drugs 😉

Sure enough a very happy looking dog was brought in by a Officer, one van, three patrol cars, all with their lights going. One of the officers joked that he had beaten his record time for that streach of road!

You could smell how hot the tires were, as I left.

They could’ve been training

They could’ve been an ARV

They could’ve tailing a suspect with other unmarked cars in the area

They could’ve been getting to a place ASAP to wait up for a suspect

You wouldn’t have been able to spot them flashing their lights at the cars they were behind or been able to hear them give a blast of their sirens

Ski I can’t blame them for having that response to the vets, the dog is treated as one of them

So policing by consent…?

I already do something that’s “…worthwhile …a bit different, where face new and challenging situations daily…”. And have played “…a vital role supporting day-to-day police activities…” in a previous life. But thanks for the link anyway. I refer you to my previous post about not bashing what the police do – they have my support for what is a very tough, sometimes thankless, job but they are also supposed to be role models, setting the example.

Assuming he had good official reason to be ‘making progress’, does that then justify driving with a complete disregard for basic safety (braking distances) and other road users? Is this normal practice?

They could’ve been getting to a place ASAP to wait up for a suspect

You wouldn’t have been able to spot them flashing their lights at the cars they were behind or been able to hear them give a blast of their sirens

So why not use blues and twos for that short stretch if they weren’t near the suspect?

No I wouldn’t have been able to hear the sirens but flashing headlights would be visible – have you never seen lights reflecting off paintwork/numberplates?

Houns – Member

Ski I can’t blame them for having that response to the vets, the dog is treated as one of them

True Houns, I did phone back in the end to see how the dog got on, it was fine btw.

Ah phew :0)

Well…just do something about your so called incident then.

And stop bleating on here.

Because as I suspect you are just hoping to transfer your unhappiness on to someone else.

And this person just happens to be in uniform.

Depends on sunlight etc

Cougar – Member
Assuming he had good official reason to be ‘making progress’, does that then justify driving with a complete disregard for basic safety (braking distances) and other road users? Is this normal practice?

Thank you, I perfectly accept he may have a real need to make progress, but as said by Houns – he has headlights he could flash and was in a fast moving, clearly marked patrol vehicle that would have been apparent to anybody looking in their rear view mirror, so what is the need to tailgate?

Depends on sunlight etc

No sun yesterday round these parts to mask reflection; flat, grey day…