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.

Was a night drive. We started late in the day in order for the Sun to go down and the stars to come out.

Prior to any driving we carried out the usual procedure of the vehicle daily inspections followed by a quick discussion of the dangers and principles of night time driving.

The Dangers:

• restricted vision
• estimation of speed and distance
• reflections inside and outside the vehicle
• dazzle
• fatigue
• moving from light to dark areas
• a film of moisture, grease or dirt on windows increasing glare

All very obvious dangers you may think. That may be true but how many of you actually consider them? I don’t know too many people that allow for restricted vision or diminished speed and distance estimation at night. In fact I’d say that a percentage of drivers will drive faster and more erratically at night due to the relatively emptier roads.

The advice:

• clean windows, lights and reflectors
• adjust angle of headlights for vehicle load
• ensure lights and switches, windscreen washers, wipers and demisters work properly
• use main beam when appropriate
• use dipped headlights on left hand bends, hump bridges, overtaking, heavy rain, snow and fog.
• avoid being dazzled by oncoming traffic by looking towards nearside (left in UK) of road and slow down
• observe other vehicles headlights and tail lamps, and cats eyes for clues as to direction of road
• If tired —>stop safely, get fresh air, rest and get refreshments

Due to it being summer we only had an hour or so of actual night driving with the remainder being dusk. To be honest I found that dusk presented the greater hazard. Driving in and out of the shadows and towards the Sun on the horizon presented a greater challenge than darkness. This was probably because my eyes were never afforded the opportunity to ‘get used’ to one light setting. However, at night your eyes become accustomed and things become a lot clearer.

A good tip was to use dipped headlights (rather than full beam) when turning a left corner as the lights are aligned slightly to the nearside. If you maintain full beam on a left corner the road is practically invisible as all the light is directed way ahead and elevated. This advice is good for humped bridges and hill crests too.

I enjoyed the change of setting from day to night. The day stuff was beginning to drain me to be honest. Night driving allowed me to scan into the distance looking for clues as to the contours of the county roads. The cat eyes are a great help when trying to use the limit point method. A good point to remember with cars eyes is: the more there are, the greater the danger.

Day 10

Motorways. Today was all about joining the motorway; on the motorway; and exiting the motorway. The IHCD Driving book devotes a large section of the book to motorways and this has been reciprocated by our instructors as we have been up and down the motorways since day one. In essence nothing new was taught to us today but pertinent points were revisited.

General motorway safety:

• maintain lane discipline
• maintain safe following distance
• do not reverse
• plan your exit route
• be alert

Motorways are excellent for practising overtakes and acceleration sense. I tried to combine the two without using the brakes. It can be done. One thing you notice about people driving along motorways is that they are mostly reactive and hardly proactive. If one person touches the brake it usually creates a wave effect. Within a split second five or so cars react and also brake creating a caterpillar effect where the traffic constantly closes up and spreads out again. Infuriating.

The end of day 10 signifies the half way point of blue light training. Hopefully, the next time we go out it will be on ‘blues and twos’.

A good place to practise?

Day 6
Cornering. I made it in to work early today to get myself some breakfast from the canteen as I had nothing in the cupboards nor fridge. I settled for a nice bacon and egg toastie with a milky cup of tea. Also I wanted to make sure that the vehicle daily inspections were completed well in advance of 0900 as instructed by the tutor on Friday. Of course, a 0900 start never materialised as the tutor was collared by some colleagues. So I went to the canteen for another cup of tea, this time I made it a little stronger.

Eventually we set off for a day of cornering in the windy roads that interlace the local counties. We were briefed on the principles of cornering and reminded of the presentation that took place on Day 5 including: road camber and surfaces; centrifugal force; safety factors; and the system of car control for cornering. Fortunately (or more likely intentionally) the choice of roads afforded us plenty of opportunity to put the principles of cornering into practise. Over the course of eight hours we must have turned a couple of hundred corners and each time we used commentary to reinforce the learning. Commentating while driving is thirsty work too.

The most useful tool for cornering from my point of view is the limit point.

This is the point at which the nearside and offside kerbs appear to meet.

Therefore if the the distance between the limit point and the vehicle decreases, so does the speed of the vehicle. If the distance remains the same, so can the speed. If the distance increases you can consider increasing speed. Genius.

By the end of the day we were more proficient with our cornering skills and will be practising them for the remainder of the course. I read that the rule of thumb for mastering a new skill is 10000 hours, still a few to go then.

Day 7

Overtaking. First part of the day was vehicle daily inspections, no change there. We topped up the radiator fluid and pumped up the tyre pressures. Before we got  to do any driving we sat in the ambulance with the tutor and discussed the considerations and special hazards of overtaking. In a nutshell overtaking is one of the most hazardous manoeuvres that takes place on the roads. This is mainly because you can come into conflict with other road users and hazards.

After a good ten minutes discussion we set off to find some unsuspecting road users. No you might ask how unsuspecting we could be in 4.5 tonne bright yellow ambulance? That’s a good question. We used an unmarked lease car instead. This I guess was to withdraw the courtesy that the majority of road users afford ambulance when we get extremely close to them on high speed single carriageways.

The day was extremely enjoyable. We got to perform a vast array of overtaking exercises on all different types of roads. The main lesson learned for me was to always have an exit plan if the overtake suddenly becomes impossible.

Day 8

More of the same. Today we practised cornering and overtaking in a marked up ambulance. The differences between a car and these massive vehicles are vast. From the information you require and display, through position, speed, gear to acceleration sense there are no similarities. The only thing they have in common is the system of car control. The system works.

These past three days have been fantastic for opening my eyes to the dangers of large vehicular movements. Although we have learned a lot we need to practise these skills for a long time to come and maintain them for as long as we use the roads. I am a bit of a pragmatist and will make best use of a system, others are a little less anal and will allow shortcuts to creep in. I don’t understand why, but they do.

If you were to take a driving test how do you think you would perform? Leave an honest comment if you dare.

Day 4

As per usual the day of driving began with the vehicle daily inspections (VDIs), we found a problem so took the ambulance to the mechanics to get it rectified. A lesson was learned at the garage. I asked what the engine was on the new Mercedes that we were driving, thereby asking what I thought was a straight forward and obvious question. Of course the answer I received was “That’s it there.” as he pointed under the bonnet, knowing full well that I meant the engine size. I set myself up a treat for that I guess.

Driving wise we practised acceleration sense with greater pertinence receiving constant prompts from the tutor as to when and when not to change gear or break. Day 4 was also an opportunity for us to pull together all that we had learned throughout the week and revise all the highway code ready for the subsequent test the next day.

Day 5

Was test day. The test was the IHCD Highway Code test that consisted of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered in 30 minutes. It wasn’t too difficult but did have far too many questions regarding level crossings for my liking. As usual there were plenty of ambiguous questions with misleading and confusing possible answers. However, none of these posed any real difficulties as the whole group passed with good scores. For the second half of the day we revisited all the PowerPoint’s of the week as a quick refresher prior to the week 2 of the course. The final part of the day was  a PowerPoint of cornering, a prelude to day 6 of the course.

That was the end of Driver 1 training following the IHCD syllabus. The aims of the week were to highlight any driver errors that had crept into our driving styles, teach us the correct method of car control, and put the theory into practise. I found the first couple days quite boring in all honesty, probably due to the fact that I’m a relatively new driver and haven’t really had time to pick up many bad habits. The latter stages of the week were far more enjoyable as we got to grips with small bits of advanced driving techniques. I anticipate the second week to more demanding and to present a steeper learning curve.

Even bus drivers have lessons

Day 1

The first half of the day consisted of PowerPoint lectures teaching us about the Law and the Ambulance Driver; what makes a good driver; risk taking; positive attitudes; weather conditions; and the system of control. We were also taught how to carry out a full set of vehicle daily inspections (VDI) for an ambulance.

During the second half of the day we took the vehicles out for a couple of hours as an opportunity for the tutors to assess our driving abilities. There were no real dramas involved so we had a quick debrief and that was the end of day 1 IHCD Blue Light Driver Training.

Day 2

Started off with a short PowerPoint presentation on the system of car control which are:

• Stage 1 Information
• Stage 2 Position
• Stage 3 Speed
• Stage 4 Gear
• Stage 5 Acceleration

Then after a quick tea break we carried out the VDIs for our respective ambulances making sure that they were road worthy and prepared to set off. Our tutor taught us how to carry out the Pre Driving Checks (PDC) and to position the seat correctly. For the remainder of the day we drove around the county looking for obstacles and hazards to utilise the system of car control. I believe the system does make a huge difference to the quality of the drive and that a patient will benefit from a smoother more controlled driving style. That said, even though you try to be courteous and anticipate bad drivers on the road it can sometimes be in vain. Some drivers are absolute lunatics and don’t think twice about cutting up ambulances. After a few hours driving we headed back to the training school for our debriefs. A few useful lessons were learned that day.

Day 3

Today started with a PowerPoint lecture on acceleration sense. When to accelerate; effective use depends on; and poor acceleration results in, were the topics discussed. Some of the examples ring home very true. How many times have I accelerated from a set of green lights only to find myself braking a few seconds later at the next set of lights? How many often do you see a boy racer accelerate up the back end of a lorry only to brake heavily as they realise they can’t overtake? Both these examples show how poor acceleration sense can contribute to a waste of fuel and also be dangerous to over road users. Another lesson learned. That’s at least 3 and it’s only day 3 of driver training.

For the remainder of the day we drove around the area for a couple of hundred miles, putting into practise the system of car control and acceleration sense. To achieve this the tutor asked us to give a running commentary of the hazards and what we intended to do to avoid them. Trying to give a commentary and drive was initially a difficult task to complete, after a few hours it became a little more natural and was conducive to driving. To practise acceleration sense we were tasked with braking as little as possible while maintaining an appropriate road speed. Not that easy in a 4.5 ton Merc when descending huge hills.

Today was an enjoyable day and some valid lessons were learned. I look forward to the next couple of days and improving upon the skills learnt.