Overtaking an emergency vehicle with flashing lights on.

[SaferRides]

I was riding down the Thames coast yesterday and pulled over to let a fire engine with its lights on pass. Then I overtook the cars I'd been following and caught up to the fire engine.

I expect overtaking it would have been illegal?

[AllanB]

Maybe that emergency vehicle was part of the Governments new safer roads program and it was trying to get to the accident before you had it? I worked as you didn't crash.

[SaferRides]

Right. They're going to need a lot of fire engines for that to work.

[russd7]

be aware that not all information received by flick is good info so they may have been searching for what they were going to, if it is like our flick then 100km is top fuckin speed with a full tank and five hefty firefighters on board.

not sure of legality but I always feel a bit odd passing any emergency vehicle even when they don't have the lights flashing.

just a side note, there is a lot going through the driver and officers mind when responding and having someone pass is not expected so could become more of a distraction and you would probably be called all sorts of dickhead.
if its a volunteer truck then they have just fucked their day up to try and improve the outcome someone else's, so be respectful.

good question tho :2thumbsup

[Berries]

Ambulance and fire engine are fair game, Police car perhaps not but there is no rule.

Came up to an ambulance once in heavy rain on the way in to Queenstown. He was doing less than 100, perhaps for the comfort of the person in the back who knows. Thought about it for a while and then went past, gave them a wide berth and no silly speed. Figured do it carefully and argue in court if there is an issue.

Can't see any legal reason why you couldn't. Clause 3.1 of the Road User Rule talk about "making way" when signalled to do so but that is something completely different. If you wanted to be an arse you could say that they have failed Clause 2.1 (2) of the same rule -

(2) If a driver’s speed, when driving, is such as to impede the normal and reasonable flow of traffic, that driver must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, move the vehicle as far as practicable to the left side of the roadway when this is necessary to allow following traffic to pass.

[russd7]

Ambulance and fire engine are fair game, Police car perhaps not but there is no rule.

Came up to an ambulance once in heavy rain on the way in to Queenstown. He was doing less than 100, perhaps for the comfort of the person in the back who knows. Thought about it for a while and then went past, gave them a wide berth and no silly speed. Figured do it carefully and argue in court if there is an issue.

Can't see any legal reason why you couldn't. Clause 3.1 of the Road User Rule talk about "making way" when signalled to do so but that is something completely different. If you wanted to be an arse you could say that they have failed Clause 2.1 (2) of the same rule -

(2) If a driver’s speed, when driving, is such as to impede the normal and reasonable flow of traffic, that driver must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, move the vehicle as far as practicable to the left side of the roadway when this is necessary to allow following traffic to pass.

doesn't apply to an emergency responding vehicle under lights and siren, tho most are going to be travelling at or above the posted speed limit unless other factors have come in to play, fair call about passing ambo travelling slow but f they are traveling slow for the patient comfort then they are most likely not going to have lights and siren going and they probably won't pull to the shoulder of the road to let you pass, keep in mind they may also be looking for the incident which may be just round the next bend.

If you pass that fire engine or ambulance you could very well impede their ability to get close to where they need to be.

[Autech]

Having been given a ticket similar to this matter there is a "Failing to make way for red and blue beacons" infringement. I'm not sure if that would be the same for an ambo or fire engine as they don't use blue and red beacons.

In my case that meant when a cock sucking jumped up fuck headed wanker of a cunt of a cop performed a dangerous u-turn in front of me when I thought he was pulling the car over in front of him, I was in the wrong for avoiding the collision that he nearly caused. Apparently whatever emergency he had that caused him to u-turn in front of me wasn't that important as he decided to turn around and ticket me instead.

Disclaimer, I don't think all cops are cunts, just this one, most cops I've encountered have been awesome and do a great job. Only takes one experience to ruin it for the rest of them though.

[SaferRides]

Having been given a ticket similar to this matter there is a "Failing to make way for red and blue beacons" infringement. I'm not sure if that would be the same for an ambo or fire engine as they don't use blue and red beacons.

In my case that meant when a cock sucking jumped up fuck headed wanker of a cunt of a cop performed a dangerous u-turn in front of me when I thought he was pulling the car over in front of him, I was in the wrong for avoiding the collision that he nearly caused. Apparently whatever emergency he had that caused him to u-turn in front of me wasn't that important as he decided to turn around and ticket me instead.

Disclaimer, I don't think all cops are cunts, just this one, most cops I've encountered have been awesome and do a great job. Only takes one experience to ruin it for the rest of them though.There's more than one of them.

[Gremlin]

I've overtaken a rural fire truck years ago. I came up behind them, they were doing about 80kph and it was a long straight, perfect visibility.

Felt guilty as hell... but 80kph in the country?

Few km down the road it was closed due to a car visiting the scenery and setting fire to it, and I was turned around and had to go through a detour. Met the truck coming the other way :rolleyes: Well, I found out about the closure sooner...

I wish they used police bikes more in Auckland traffic. Splitting through heavy traffic, caught up to a cop car trying to push through. Sat in a traffic for a bit to give him a gap, started splitting and caught up again. Decided best not to overtake a cop car tho...

[buggerit]

as long as you stay within the speed limit, dont impeed the vehicle or cause other traffic to, I dont see the problem.

[G4L4XY]

I was riding up the Thames coast and gave way to a police car with flashing lights (breathed a sigh of relief he wasn't pulling me over) and proceeded to keep up with him until we went through a 50 zone, I didn't feel it appropriate to keep up with him going through a town.

[Tazz]

100% would not pass if their emergency beacons/lights are on, fair game if not.


Having been given a ticket similar to this matter there is a "Failing to make way for red and blue beacons" infringement. I'm not sure if that would be the same for an ambo or fire engine as they don't use blue and red beacons.

In my case that meant when a cock sucking jumped up fuck headed wanker of a cunt of a cop performed a dangerous u-turn in front of me when I thought he was pulling the car over in front of him, I was in the wrong for avoiding the collision that he nearly caused. Apparently whatever emergency he had that caused him to u-turn in front of me wasn't that important as he decided to turn around and ticket me instead.

Disclaimer, I don't think all cops are cunts, just this one, most cops I've encountered have been awesome and do a great job. Only takes one experience to ruin it for the rest of them though.

You could contest that. Even with sirens blaring they must obey the road rules, otherwise what's the point of having them if they just cause accidents XD
If they go through a red light and you hit them, it's on them for not making sure it was clear for example from what I have been told/understand.

[Ruahine]

I was riding down the Thames coast yesterday and pulled over to let a fire engine with its lights on pass. Then I overtook the cars I'd been following and caught up to the fire engine.

I expect overtaking it would have been illegal?


You must pull over or make way for a vehicle displaying red/blue or red only/blue only beacons.

So a firetruck/ambo/police car with its beacons on, don't overtake.

With beacons off, usual road rules apply.

See: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0427/latest/whole.html#DLM303072 section 3.11.

[SaferRides]

You must pull over or make way for a vehicle displaying red/blue or red only/blue only beacons.

So a firetruck/ambo/police car with its beacons on, don't overtake.

With beacons off, usual road rules apply.

See: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0427/latest/whole.html#DLM303072 section 3.11.
I decided it wasn't a good idea on the Thames Coast and followed. But if you caught up, travelling at a legal speed of course, where does it say that you cannot overtake?

[Berries]

You must pull over or make way for a vehicle displaying red/blue or red only/blue only beacons.

So a firetruck/ambo/police car with its beacons on, don't overtake.
Not sure I agree with your interpretation there. Pulling over or making way are things you do when the vehicle is approaching you, from any direction, so that you do not impede them. I can't see how overtaking them if they are travelling slower than the posted speed limit can in any way be considered as impeding them.

[Autech]

Not sure I agree with your interpretation there. Pulling over or making way are things you do when the vehicle is approaching you, from any direction, so that you do not impede them. I can't see how overtaking them if they are travelling slower than the posted speed limit can in any way be considered as impeding them.Just as one yanking a u-turn in front of you can't be.
I dun learned my lesson though stopped a line of traffic the other day when one chucked their lights on. Not risking them risking my neck again

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[Ruahine]

Not sure I agree with your interpretation there. Pulling over or making way are things you do when the vehicle is approaching you, from any direction, so that you do not impede them. I can't see how overtaking them if they are travelling slower than the posted speed limit can in any way be considered as impeding them.

Yeah, fair enough, as long as you don't impede them.

[rastuscat]

Ambulance and fire engine are fair game, Police car perhaps not but there is no rule.[/I]

Falls under the speed rules. Likely if the popo is going Code 2, they will be exceeding the speed limit. If you pass them, expect a reaction.

However, I've been the numpty popo who forgot to switch the lights off after using them. You don't normally realise until you are driving along and people ahead of you keep pulling over. But still, I normally drove at the speed limit, so passing me would have been a bad idea.

That's the guts of it. The speed issue.

The other consideration is that if you overtook a fire truck which had bells and whistles on, you could ride away and not get in his way. But if you overtook a popo with the bells and whistles on, as soon as you got ahead, the bells and whistles would mean you had to stop. That's the difference between red lights, and red and blue lights.