When a ambulance requests a police escort what is the role of the Police.?

Question

I am a Police Officer in Ireland trained to drive response police vehicles. Our response cars are usually high powered saloon patrol cars - not like the "pandas" in England. Anyways there was a fatal RTC and the victim needed to go to another hospital 100 miles away. A police escort was requested by Ambulance control. The only Police available were average response police officers with only standard police driving qualifications. The ambulance has blue lights. Usually if a victim is badly injured the ambulance cannot travel at excess speeds. I do not see how an averege trained police officer driving a police car can assist the ambulance to progress quicker to hospital. Im my opinion ambulance drivers are better drivers than Police. I could understand if Police motor cyclists were escorting the ambulance but that wasnt the case. Also traffic police have advanced driver training and would have been mor suitable but they were not available. Im Just curious. thanks

Answer 1

Isn`t it something to do with the ambulance can only legally travel at the speed limit ,even with blue lights (they`re there to encourage other road users out of the way).But with a police escort the other users have a legal obligation to give way and the escorted vehicle can travel faster than the limit.Therefore it`s not the skill of the police driver that's required but the actual presence of the police in any capacity?

Or maybe I`m talking rubbish.

Answer 2

What an odd question.  probably just due to the different countries.

The only reason I can think of for an ambulance to request police presence is due to the violent tendancies of the patient.  Police don't escort an ambulance if the patient is not a criminal...thats why ambulances have lights and sirens of their own.

Answer 3

because then the police can go a bit infront so cars move out of the way so the ambulance doesn't even have to slow down to wait for cars to move out the way

Answer 4

I must agree with some of the other answers. In my experience drivers will get out of the way (most of the time, but not always) for a patrol car and not so much for an ambulance.

Answer 5

If you are a police officer, then you will know that when you are driving with blues and twos on; then it isnt about speed... its about getting through heavy traffic in the safest and fastest way possible.  

Therefore, you arent going to go through built up areas at 100mph just because you are escorting an ambulance

Also, you will find that in the UK, response officers drive peugots most of the time (pandas) - but many are advanced driver trained on the shift anyways- but traffic units attached to the response shift have high powered saloon BMW's and Volvos and also motorcycles,

Answer 6

perhaps the police car could have travelled ahead to try and clear the route, you wouldnt have needed advanced driver training for that

Answer 7

The police escort is not there to facilitate high-speed driving, it's there to help the ambulance have a smooth and unobstructed run.  The police driver has the ability to shift other vehicles out of the way before the ambulance gets there, to block roundabouts and junctions so it doesn't have to slow down and so on.  This doesn't require 150mph ability.

You should know that if you are a genuine trained driver . . .

Answer 8

My husband is a paramedic/firefighter here in Ohio and when they make the request, it is to clear the path for them. For some reason, vehicles are more likely to move to the side if there is a police car than if there is an ambulance. Sad, but true.

Answer 9

I can see your point but to answer your Q.  I once went on a course and a Police Officer gave a talk about escorting Ambulances.  There main role is to travel in front of the Ambulance and what they do is point out holes in roads etc to the drivers of the Ambulance.  This is important especially when the Ambulance is maybe transporting a patient with spinal injuries. Hope this helps.  Common sense in my opinion.  In the UK they have a course availabe.

But then if the victim was dead thats another story and a different answer.