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Clacton: Traffic cop miracle escape
A traffic policeman had a miraculous escape after his patrol car aquaplaned on a wet road, hit the central reservation of the A120 and burst into flames
The police officer walked away unscathed from the crash
The accident happened just after 9pm last night about three miles from the A133 Clacton turn-off near the Texaco garage.
Firefighters from Dovercourt and Clacton were called to the scene and one lane of the road was closed for more than an hour while the debris was cleared away.
An Essex Police spokeswoman said there was no other vehicle involved in the incident.
"The car aquaplaned on standing water and hit the central reservation," she said.
"It caught fire but the officer was able to get out. He received no injuries other than minor burns from the air bag.
"He did not need to go to hospital and is now recovering at home."
Acting leading firefighter Steve Moseley from Clacton said the car was a total wreck. "By the state of the vehicle he was a very lucky man," he said.
Published Monday, January 20, 2003
The car was an ST200 mondeo. It was a total wreck in the papers last nite. I wonder why there aint no pics?:confused:
Standing water!!!!! Yeah right:rolleyes:
I thought that the A120 where that is was quite sloped so the chances of standing water would be very slim:rolleyes:
At least it was like that last Friday when I was bombing along there quite happily:p
Silly Tw@t, bet he was...
a) Driving too fast...
b) And also on the phone:mad:
No one EVER drives slowely along the A120 (I'm screwed if they ever put a camera on it;)
Where's the punch line, matt your crap at jokes:)
A copper was killed on the A23 on New Years Day at about 5am after being on duty in London all night.
Now, what was that about not driving while too tired?
Don't get me wrong, my heart goes out to the family, friends and force, but sometimes you wonder whether they heed their own advice?
Also, are the driving cops (not traffic just standrad orficers) now trained to a higher level?
I seem to remember a normal driver (ie standard test) being the standard in squad cars, and there were several high profile cases where they were involved in high speed chases and killed innocent people...
Will Taylor
21-01-2003, 11:08
Yeah, there was quite a bit of fuss a while back - the bottom line being that police personnel with no further training than what we have were taking part in high speed chases, and as you say Starionman, killing bystanders.
Think I read about it in Top Gear a while back. Theres was a statistic too - in London, there are an average of three accidents per day involving police-cars.
Cheers,
Will
Originally posted by caleini_400
Where's the punch line, matt your crap at jokes:)
No puch line really. But look at like this.
Copper on his own in 200 bhp car. "Hmmm, I wonder how fast I can get it to go?"
"Nothing about".
The rest is HIS story (as in History - not!)
and if you're travelling at sensible speeds, there isn't much chance of aquaplaning, especially if there is no standing water and I assume his tyres are in good nick, being a cop car.
Yes, surely it had cop tyres, cop shock and a broken cigarette lighter:)
mambastu
21-01-2003, 12:55
A friend of mine worked as a breakdown driver in a garage in Rustington, Sussex a few years ago. Got a call in the early hours one morning from Sussex Police asking him to attend an accident to urgently recover a car.
When he got there he found a brand new (new that shift) Police Senator 3.0i 24V which had lost it coming out of a roundabout.and gone off backwards across a big curb and into a large tree. Firtree 1 - Senator 0. Car was a writeoff apparently, the tree had lost a bit of bark :)
No other cars were involved :rolleyes:
A guy had done a similar thing in a Delta Integrale 16V a couple of months before, hit exactly the same tree and unfortunately died in the accident. Less than a month after the Police car had crashed the roundabout had a fresh coat of that high grip surface on it.
dave_s13
21-01-2003, 16:50
Normal copper ie Panda drivers, are not allowed to undertake any kind of high speed pursuit, thats up to the traffic division.
Your not even allowed to drive the crappy Vauxhall Astras untill you've done your 2 year probation, then you need to do a basic driving course.
Sometimes they seem to get carried away and drive like complete nutters to get to a call it goes pear shaped and bang someone gets run over.
jim potter
21-01-2003, 17:49
ok , then
i work for amey highway services and amongst other things we deal with r.t.a's and assit the police. just so happens the 2 guys on callout, got a phone call to go to the a12 just past the texaco on the east bound track. when they got there the car was still on fire !:eek: . anyway they said to the copper ' that guy must have been going' to which they replied 'dunno' judging by the amount of crash barrier he took out , he was well into 3 figures.:o .
i bet the police report says different, oh and aqua-planned my arse, there was none to little water on that road, SPEED was the main factor here. perhaps a tyre blew out, who know's.
jim - a real life highwayman
:D
p.s these r the fact's i have been given, they may not be correct. or they may be .
Just found this thread and it's quite spooky as I was thinking about this sort of thing the other night.
On Sunday I had to drive into work as the trains were being silly again, got to Ipswich Road and slowed to my normal 30-35 to let the turbo cool etc.. before I got home, half way down Ipswich Road in Colchester a Police Volvo estate went flying up the road towards the A12 (apologies too those who don't have a clue where I'm talking about) and must've been doing about 80+!
It was wet and dark (again just after 9pm so was probably on the way to attend the same crash).
Thing is, if the ambulance was already on the way, where's the justification for driving at almost 3 times the (supposedly)safe and legal limit past people riding bikes in a cycle lane 3-4 feet away, just because it's your mate who's just had a stack?
Suppose it just pi55ed me off a bit as it could've been me he hit rather than the central reservation if I was a few seconds earlier getting home.
Dave
80mph up Ipswich Road :eek:
Thats just plain fcuking crazy
Dave
Originally posted by jim potter
i work for amey highway services
Is the Shared Service Centre good for you......:rolleyes:
jim potter
23-01-2003, 15:24
ah, i take that u work for shared services then.!!! well short answer is 'NO' , mainly due to the wages being wrong at least once a month, the people above me , tend to blame u lot for the mistakes although it's hard to c how it's all one departments fault..
which department do u work in ??? cant give me a pay rise on the sly can u :eek: ;) .
jim
I do not work for the S.S.C. hence the " :rolleyes: ".
I work for, er, a non-roads section.;)
jim potter
23-01-2003, 15:52
ah my mistake:o
u have my deepest sympathyies if u have to deal with them !!!
come to think of it arn't amey going bust !!
jim
Originally posted by jim potter
come to think of it arn't amey going bust !!
jim
Well, there are two schools of thought on that;
1) Amey is in a spot of bother and may or may not get away with it (mainly due to the megabucks Underground contract that's coming up)
2) Amey are too big and if they are allowed to go pop then there would be serious repercussions (ie they would be propped up).
Either way, I hope they get their act together!
Ripper.
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