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Thread ID: 65570	2006-01-23 00:50:00	ARE THE POLICE IN NZ ALLOWED TO SPEED?	Roscoe (6288)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
423375	2006-01-23 07:02:00	It's different for volunteers versus paid employees. They may not have done a service driving course, they have insurance issues etc etc. Ambulance can exceed the speed limit as described in my earlier post. There may be different implications for different staff skill levels etc, but as a whole it's legal.I forgot to mention she wasn't a driver (well not at that stage coz she was a volunteer)	Myth (110)
423376	2006-01-25 19:35:00	Get a life. EXTREMELY Intelligent answer! Is that your limit? Sounds like it!	Roscoe (6288)
423377	2006-01-25 19:41:00	EXTREMELY Intelligent answer! Is that your limit? Sounds like it!Well it wasn't exactly a brain buster of a thread :rolleyes:	ninja (1671)
423378	2006-01-25 19:48:00	So if your mother/sister/girlfriend or wife etc etc rang the Police and said there was an intruder in her house and they were trying to bust in her bedroom door to get to her then you would want the Police to dawdle along at 50km/h to attend. It's always too fast unless you have a personal stake in the outcome then it's just not fast enough. I guess the day that a crystal ball becomes standard issue for Police then this will become a moot point. I agree. Get a life! The point I was trying to make was that ambulance and fire engine drivers can be prosecuted for speeding. If that is the case then so should the Police which is why I asked the question. Some instances I have seen are just downright dangerous. I'm certain you would think it no less dangerous even if you had a personal stake in the outcome. Besides, the big advantage that emergency vehicles have is their ability to go through red lights, around traffic on the wrong side of the road, etc - not speeding. If someone accidentally got themselves in the way of some of theses speedsters - say exiting from a driveway or sideroad - they would not stand a chance! None of the examples I have seen have been a pursuit. Thank you for the intelligent answers. Nice to know that there are some thinking people out there.	Roscoe (6288)
423379	2006-01-25 22:40:00	I just re-cruised through this post, looking at all the answers and I had a sudden thought . I cannot speak for NZ, but there is a pattern of questions about speeding by certain civil vehicles . If there's as much land as you guys say there, and so few people, then I feel that your community services are rather thinly spaced out and the need for speed is relative to the area to which they must respond . If they are 20 miles from the incident, then I would never question the need to hurry to the address for the sake of life and property . My skewed thoughts and post made me wonder back to a time when some friends from Wandsworth, England visited and asked to see the community fire station . I drove then about 200 feet to the nearest one and it was full of pumper trucks, tankers, battallion crew trucks, food trucks and even a hook-and-ladder with about a 300 foot extendable ladder . It was all pretty close to brand-new stuff too . They were excited to see all the equipment and they were quite satisfied that we had good fire and paramedic protection, until we went down another street and saw another station with approximately the same equipment . This totally flabbergasted them . They actually thought the first station they saw was THE station for the whole community . In reality, we have about 14 of these stations here in just Hemet/San Jacinto . . . all about the same or more wheeled vehicles and even the airport has many tanker planes that drop on the forest fires we have here . Stations (most here anyway) have their own search and rescue helicopter and there are always a full squad of firemen and paramedics in the stationhouse at all times . That is probably why (as I posted) that firetrucks and ambulances don't seem to speed here much, they are usually only a few blocks away from where they are going .	SurferJoe46 (51)
423380	2006-01-25 23:25:00	The point I was trying to make was that ambulance and fire engine drivers can be prosecuted for speeding. If that is the case then so should the Police which is why I asked the question. Prosecuted for speeding or for dangerous driving? Isn't there an assumption of dangerous driving if you're 30-40 km/h above the posted limit? There was an exemption for members of the Executive to exceed the speed limits if required but not to drive dangerously. That wasn't brought up during the Clark Rugby Dash case, perhaps it no longer applies.	PaulD (232)
423381	2006-01-26 01:15:00	Prosecuted for speeding or for dangerous driving? Isn't there an assumption of dangerous driving if you're 30-40 km/h above the posted limit?I don't think it's an assumption of dangerous driving, as the drivers are trained for it. It's a bit different to your average boy-race screaming up the street in his integra. As for "prosecution", they could be done for dangerous driving, if they drove recklessly. The ambulance service I was involved with passed all speed camera fines onto the staff member driving the vehicle at the time. If they were driving non-urgently and got picked up, they got the fine and IIRC a written warning. If they were driving urgently, the fines were returned to the police and waived provided they were inside the 30kph acceptable excess - if they exceeded the 30kph over posted speed limit policy they were passed onto the staff member to pay along with a writeen warning.	ninja (1671)
423382	2006-01-26 03:58:00	As far as dangerous driving is concerned the police have got away with overtaking on a yellow line/blind stretch of road in a rural area whilst transporting civilian passengers. They placed a lot of lives in serious danger and all they got was a little slap on the hand and told not to do it again. Nothing more. I know this from personal experience.	FoxyMX (5)
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