IHCD Blue Light Driver Training Days – Blues and Twos
Having carried out the vehicle daily inspections we boarded the ambulance and set off for a day of blue light driving. I was first behind the wheel as we had been taking it in turns for the duration of the course. I was the most excited that I had been for the previous 12 weeks of the course, the prospect of switching the lights on and pressing the horn to alert the public made me feel that finally I was getting somewhere and that it was time to get to grips with the fact that in a few weeks’ time I would be attending emergencies for real.
I was driving under normal road conditions and speed with the usual commentary coming from the instructor. With no warning she’d flicked the switch and calmly stated “The blue lights are on and the siren is going on…now”. At that point the cars that were neatly positioned in front of me gradually deteriorated into a fine chaotic mess, I guess they were expecting the sudden onset of lights even less than I was (quite how I wasn’t expecting it is beyond me, the whole aim of the day was to practise blue light driving after all). After a few seconds of madness the cars had become motionless and I could make my way through the meandering mess of motors and through the approaching set of red lights.
Going through red lights was a tad unnerving if I’m honest. Even when the lights are green and I’m in my personal car I’m wary of the nutter that runs the orthogonal red (but only by a few seconds because that’s okay). I took my time (relatively) to approach the red light with a right-left-right look down the road I proceeded through the junction with hesitant caution. The volume of information at 4 way lights is vast, there are: cars, motorbikes, bicycles, and pedestrians that are all moving in some direction, then you have the parked and stationary traffic that at any second may decide to move into your path. The best way to describe that first set of lights is to say that it felt like luck more than judgement that I negotiated it safely. Of course that wasn’t the case. It was because I was doing no more than a few miles per hour until I was certain that the area was clear before I made any rapid progress.
On this run that can only have lasted a few minutes I negotiated umpteen obstacles in a busy town environment and at the end of it I remember feeling like I had just run a 4 minute mile. I was clammy, breathing fast, pulse racing and had a beaming smile or was it a grimace?
I could try and recall each and every obstacle, each stubborn driver that refused to budge, each clueless motorist that has disregard for the 3 shiny things attached to their car that reflect light and indicate that an ambulance is approaching, the overtaking of police cars (a strange sensation) and their invaluable use as a traffic clearing escort, or the ignorance and failure to reciprocate the odd hand wave of the fire service personnel as you politely acknowledge the fact that they are on the road, but I wont.
In summary the driving course has been a very useful three weeks. The variety of vehicles and situations that Ambulance workers have to drive under in wide and varied. The course has been useful in highlighting the main hazards and methods of driving but cannot begin to hope to cover the assortment of situations that will arise when driving to and from an emergency.
