From yesterday's Telegraph:
A Mondeo police car may be written off after its roof was cut off to allow a crash victim complaining of spinal injuries to be moved. The victim's injuries tuned out to be no more than a bruise.
Th mororist was hurt in a collision and was asked to sit in the car for safety, and then developed back pain. Paramedics asked firemen to cut off the as it seemed to risky for him to use the door.
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Picture here: tinyurl.com/89ebs
I think you *have* to laugh - I love the way the car appears perfect in the picture. Unfortunately we all have to pay for a new one.
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In that case we'd better all rush out and buy 8 month old white 2.0 litre Mondeos, then flog them to the Norfolk police. I'd reckon about £21,000 profit per car, if the report is to be believed.
HJ
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It's a shame they didn't name the idiot driver responsible for this complete waste of money and rescue resources.
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Unless the paramedics could say for sure there was no spinal injury, they had to consider the possibility.
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So now every crim will just say their spine hurts, and eventually the Police will not be allowed to put people in their cars who've had a crash, however minor. Typical of this stupid country where weakness and failure is the order of the day.
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Sorry for any typos Im very long sited
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If paramedics asked for speed-humps to be planed flat for a man who says he has back ache, would they?
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Sorry for any typos Im very long sited
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It seems a bit extreme to me. If he/she has already walked, which he/she had, that would have been good enough for me to either do a manual extraction with a KED (a short back and neck immobiliser) or "step out keeping your back and neck straight (with a C collar on) and then assisted onto a spinal board. That is unless now presenting with severe numbness, paralysis or tingling in some part of the anatomy......... then consider chopping the roof off.
The trouble is, we weren't there, so we don't know what brought about this decision.
Maybe fresh out of training school and just wanted to see how a roof is chopped off?
Reggie
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I dealt with a collision recently involving a Polo that had been side swiped whilst parked. The collision had jammed the drivers door, but there was no other damage. The driver complained of a bit of whiplash but was otherwise fine.
The fire brigade immediately went running for there cutting gear. I grabbed a crow bar and with a small pull the drivers door popped open and the driver got out. Fire Brigade weren't amused because they love to cut the roofs off things.
As an aside issue. I believe that the Met are banned from putting RTC casualties in their cars for this very reason.
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As an aside issue. I believe that the Met are banned from putting RTC casualties in their cars for this very reason.
How long before the cops start driving round in convertables?
I can see it now, passenger plod holding up the blue lights just like Junior did for his father Beuford T Justice in Smokey and the Bandit.
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In that case we'd better all rush out and buy 8 month old white 2.0 litre Mondeos, then flog them to the Norfolk police. I'd reckon about £21,000 profit per car, if the report is to be believed.
The report was quoting a recovery worker who was quoting a police officer as saying that the car was worth £25-30K, so probably not very reliable. However, Police cars used to have uprated brakes, suspension and electrical systems so I wouldn't be surprised if the full cost of such a car, plus all its police equipment, plus the fitting and preparation costs etc, was £25K. £30K sounds over the top.
What I was surprised about is that the car's only done 20K miles in 8 months.
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>>..car's only done 20K miles in 8 months.>>
It's because of all the paper work that takes up so much police officers' time (or so we are told)...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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"Fire Brigade weren't amused because they love to cut the roofs off things."
I can just see their faces. It didn't cause you to smirk just a little bit though, did it?
Reggie
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you have to admit tho, they did a tidy job of it.
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I can feel a claim coming on....!
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A paramedic acqaintance of mine explained it thus:
A driver who spends too much time watching "had an accident?" type infomercials on daytime TV is involved in a very minor prang.
Eyes lighting up with pound signs, they demand of the other party / plod / passers by that an ambulance is called because of their excutiating and potentially lucrative neck pain.
Paramedics get called away from urgent cases to attend the minor prang. A lifetime's experience and examination tells them that there is a very slim chance of any genuine harm having occurred.
"Well sir, if you insist that you're in such discomfort, we'll have to cut you out of your (barely damaged otherwise) car....."
In 9/10 cases, the neck injury clears up very quickly.....I guess if you're sitting in a police car you've got nothing to loose though...
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As ridiculous as I think it is to cut the roof of a perfectly good Police car, I have to disagree with the £25K bit. I think it's a bit sensationalist.
The car is/was a white Mondeo 2.0 LX! The car itself probably cost the force no more than £12K new. I appreciate that the equipment in it will be worth more, but that is taken from car to car anyway, so hasn't really being written off along with the car.
As for mods to the car itself, it's unlikely they spent any serious money on the car, the standard Mondeo brakes are more than capable of being used for Police motorway work, and I doubt they would bother doing anything serious to the engine or else quite simply they would have bought an ST220 Mondeo in the first place and saved themselves the bother of modding an LX. I would put money on that car being mechanically standard.
I know that the Focus 1.4 CLs that are used as runarounds by our local force aren't modified in anyway mechanically. They may be quicker than standard, but that's because of their lively running in period!
Blue
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It could just be me, but that roof has come off in such a way...
....how difficult would that be to weld on?
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Adam
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I'll let you know how much it makes, when it arrives at auction, in the 'Non-Runners' section, a few months from now!!
VB
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