Why did the police pull your ambulance over?

[aussiemedic]

Hey all

Just a quick one, but I think we would all get a laugh out of this one....

Why has the police pulled your ambulance over in the past and what did they speak to you about?

I will start this off...

I was returning from a job one night in a supervisors car (a Holden Commodore sedan) when the police pulled me for.... of all things.... impersonating a police officer.

Yes, my company wheres blue shirts.... but my badges are very different.... and my car was a black car with red lights (police have red and blue lights in Australia)

Any way, they pull me up and tell me that it is illegal for me to display red flashing lights on the vehicle (hang on a sec.... it was the police that gave me the authority to do so....) and to wear a blue uniform and that I had been spotted impersonating a police officer....

I asked him if any one had made a complaint, if they had seen me (as I know I had not used lights and sirens at all that day) and they said no. I asked what the prob was, and they said it because I had a blue uniform and lights and that I would be arrested and charged.

I then asked the constable if he was arresting officers of the NSW Ambulance Service (they have red lights), the fire service (they wear blue uniforms) or the local rescue service (who also wear blue). He said no. I then suggested that his partner arrest him for impersonating a police officer (as a joke of course - after all, he was in a police uniform....) and at that point he spotted something shiny on my collar... did I mention that I am a chaplain as well? He had spotted the crosses, and I have never seen anyone leave a scene as quick as this fellow.

The good outcome of this, I did speak to the local police commander, and the constable had just completed training and was not fully sure of the law, so it was an honest mistake.... apologies were passed and our two services get along nicely now...

Just to go on record.... yes I do follow the road rules and laws.

I also heard a story of a highway patrol officer that used to pull ambulances over under lights at 3am on an empty street in a built up residential area and issue a fine for not sounding the siren. So the ambos did this, and every body complained about sirens at 3am, so they stopped and the fines started again.... what a catch 22.

Any way, I look forward to your responses.....

Have a great night / day or sleep if it is your day off....

Tim

[bandaidpatrol]

Probably the funniest story I have in my bag of tricks, it's been a long, long time... But it was close. The police didn't have radars, so they were basically on a guessing game by timing cars from point A to point B (a line painted across the street). We had just bought a brand new, streamlined Cadillac ambulance, boy she was a beauty! White paint, with chrome everywhere, chrome siren, tunnel lights, trim and mid strips, bumpers and handles. The spedometer started with zero and went up to one-hundred-sixty. I'd never seen that before in my life, and never did after either, who in their right mind would want to go so fast...

I would. We had a bad wreck one night on highway 219 south of Warren, Pa. Car load of highschool kids were drunk, ran off the road and hit a steel post that was filled with concrete. What a mess, no seat belts, or safety glass, three were thrown out and DOA, one was horrifically trapped. We carefully dis-entangled the boy, and loaded him up. I radioed back home for a hearse to come for the rest, and off we went. The nearest hospital that took ambulances was about 65 miles away in Williamsport, Pa. We didn't waste anytime getting there, had it up near seventy on highway 220. On the way back, there was four attendants on board, we stopped to get a pop at a little store, and my brother asked me how fast I thought she would go. Well, we found out..

Luckily we had four attendants on board. Because I just barely saw that Penna. Motor Patrol car along higway 15, but we went by him just as fast as the telephone poles. I heard my father screech "holy sh*t, we're going 110".. About that time the siren on the police car turned on, but we were long gone. Unfortunatly, they did have radios, so when I saw the two cars blocking 15 at Mansfield, I threw the back lights on, my brother hopped on the cot, they put the resuscitator to his face, and pretended to be doing artifical respiration. The officer came up to my windows and said "What the hell do you think you're doing, you whizzed by that patrol so fast he couldn't tell if it was a car or a rocket.. Well, what do you have... I interrupted, and said we got a man having a heart attack (he was barely 17 years old), I'm going to the cardiac hospital in Williamsport. They didn't second guess me, and waived me on by. I got a few miles up the road, turned off on a side street.. and we all had a good laugh on the way home. Don't you suppose we would have been running lights, and siren, and been driving toward the hospital, instead away from it, if I had a heart attack victim on board?

[Scaramedic]

It was about 1992, January, we are coming back from the hospital and we get pulled over by a Sergeant in an unmarked cruiser. He walks up to the driver and says "do you know your tags are expired." We were like no, we didn't know, or to be honest really care they were expired. He says and I quote again, "yep they expired November 1992" Now it takes me a second to process this, and about the time I figured it out the Sergeant figured it out too. He says wait a minute, walks to the back of the unit, comes back and says "oh it was covered in dirt, but they're not expired." We were both like oh no you said November 92 dude, nice try. He turned red mumbled something went back to his unit and left. It was hilarious.

[mediccjh]

Well you see, what happen was, I was drivin' de amblance when my partner dumped his soda out the passenger side. Then the siren blasted and I was pulld ova'. Da pig walked up on the passenger side and aksed "Who was drinkin' dat soda?" My partner said it was him. Da cop said you gots it all over my car. My partner offered to wash it fo him at da station, but the PA STATE POLICE DETECTIVE said, nah, that's OK, just don't do it again.

[bandaidpatrol]

Well you see, what happen was, I was drivin' de amblance when my partner dumped his soda out the passenger side. Then the siren blasted and I was pulld ova'. Da pig walked up on the passenger side and aksed "Who was drinkin' dat soda?" My partner said it was him. Da cop said you gots it all over my car. My partner offered to wash it fo him at da station, but the PA STATE POLICE DETECTIVE said, nah, that's OK, just don't do it again.

I used to have a partner who did stuff like that on purpose. Mostly to the rigs of rival services. He also had this way of showing people how he really felt, by using a "charcoal bomb". To make one of these bombs, you take old charcoal paste.. yes.. paste.. and fill the fingers of rubber gloves with it. The paste was mixed with water for patients, but it was like tooth paste in the tube alone. He would sit at the rear window, cut off the fingers and toss them out windows when we drove by their rigs parked along the street.. Stupid, yes, but it made a hell of a mess. Also worked with a blob of it surrounded by wet toilet paper. Made white rigs look like dalmations.

[fireflymedic]

Our incident wasn't so funny, I only wish it were. In our area, it's common practice, if you see an ambulance on the road coming the opposite way non emergency to flash your lightbar quick and give 'em a howdy from the airhorn. This is especially true with fire companies. My crew was headed back from an early morning fire run (like 3 am) and we saw our second out EMS crew headed out non emergency, so we said howdy. Well, our station is just about a mile from the state police post, and we usually have a pretty good rapport with them and the S.O. as well. As soon as we passed the crew, we flipped our lights off (weren't on more than a second or two) and started heading back to our station. Shortly thereafter, we looked up to see two state pd cars behind us blue lights flashing. We got over out of their way, and they stopped right behind us. We pulled all the way over, and stopped. Two really peeved cops marched up and demanded our driver get out. They lectured him up one side and down the other about trying to impersonate a cop, and pull cars over using fire department vehicles. They proceeded to tell us that was their job not us to pull people over, and that none of us had the skill or training to do so. Our driver listened patiently while we're all sitting there dreading the reports that will be written to both the board of EMS and the fire commission as well as the butt chewing we'll get from our chief. After giving us a stack of tickets a mile high and following us back to the station to talk with our chief (who was now well informed of the situation and getting more pi$$ed by the minute) about what was to be done with us, he let us go. After a brief yelling and screaming match behind the forbidden door of the chief's office, the two troopers emerged looking a smug. Our driver went up and looked at the one trooper and said, "How many arial trucks have you seen trying to pull over cars? Ain't no way I'd try it, I wouldn't do your job if you paid me. Oh that's right you don't ! I do it for free." The cops about died, they then learned he was a new reserve officer with S.O. Needless to say, we were never bothered again, though the practice of saying howdy has been strictly banned in our department as a result.

[Defiant1]

um, mine doesn't really deal with a rig, per say, but when we had been on our way back from an athletic event we were working med. staff at, we happened to be riding in an EMT's truck which had light's and a siren (he's also a LEO and FF); well, the couple in the car ahead of us had been basically making out (just kissing). so, our driver hit his lights and siren for a quick second and then shut it off. let's just say that the "romeo" in the car ahead of us kept his eye's on the road, while me and the other 2 passengers and the driver were laughing our asses off

[emt-b_wa]

The other day i was driving priority to a MVA I was going pretty fast about 85 on a 65 road i had a state patrol car pull up behind me and ride my butt with his lights going so i figured if he wanted to go faster id go in the right lane and let him around but he pro ceded into the right lane so i got back in the left and pro ceded to the call. He then ran up to me and yelled at me to stop and began yelling at me for speeding. WTF It was a nasty wreck and we were the first unit on scene. After pt care i graped the Sargent and the officer and the officer told me he should write me a ticket for wreck less driving for going that fast and the Sargent flipped out on the officer.

[Michael]

It was about 1992, January, we are coming back from the hospital and we get pulled over by a Sergeant in an unmarked cruiser. He walks up to the driver and says "do you know your tags are expired." We were like no, we didn't know, or to be honest really care they were expired. He says and I quote again, "yep they expired November 1992" Now it takes me a second to process this, and about the time I figured it out the Sergeant figured it out too. He says wait a minute, walks to the back of the unit, comes back and says "oh it was covered in dirt, but they're not expired." We were both like oh no you said November 92 dude, nice try. He turned red mumbled something went back to his unit and left. It was hilarious.

I heard a version of this http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blballs.htm story and believed it for years. Maybe it happened once.

[Scaramedic]

I heard a version of this http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blballs.htm story and believed it for years. Maybe it happened once.

Actually happened dude. What I didn't mention is that it was pure harassment on the part of PD. A Little history of Portland EMS. Portland (Multnomah County) used to have 3 ambulance services and the city was divided in roughly three zones, west, southeast and north/northeast. We had dropped of a pt at Providence Milwaukie and were "out of" our area. Some Portland Police Bureau officers were very protective of their districts and out of district ambulances were open game. So this Sgt. decided he found an excuse to pull us over, that's what made it really funny. He did not ask why we were out of district or anything he just left without harassing us.

Peace,

Marty

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