Thursday, May 17, 2012

Police officers wreck police car driving over rise-and-fall traffic bollards

Two dejected armed police officers stare blankly into space after smashing their £30,000 patrol car into a set of infamous rise-and-fall traffic bollards. The officers were driving along a restricted road when the electronically operated bollards - designed to let buses through - rose up under their unmarked BMW 530i and trashed the front of the vehicle.



The male and female PC - both sporting body armour with guns in their holsters - had to wait an excruciating two hours for a tow truck to take the wrecked police car away - whilst laughing onlookers took pictures with their mobile phones. The embarassed male officer slumped against the grey patrol car looking at the floor whilst his female colleague sat on the kerb of the pavement.

Now both officers could face a carpeting over their driving escapade on Market Street in Manchester amid fears the vehicle could be written off. Council bosses had previously warned that motorists who crash into the bollards could face legal action for causing damage to the bollards under the Road Traffic Act.



One on looker said: ''The police officers were absolutely mortified at what happened and were clearly very embarassed not least because shoppers and other onlookers were laughing at them. One old guy was giving them a lecture about driving properly in Manchester whilst another was shouting 'karma' because he got fined the previous weeks for doing a U-turn. That wait for the tow truck mist have been the most embarassing moments of their lives.''

2 comments:

Gareth said...

Emergency vehicles are supposed to be fitted with the same transponders as buses. At least they are in my home town. Either the driver was used to driving a vehicle with the transponder and this car didn't have one fitted, or the transponder failed.

The same thing happed to a council lorry near here last year. The bollards dropped as the lorry approached then rose as the driver passed over them snagging the rear axle. Turned out the transponder was faulty.

Patty O'Heater said...

I suspect the only faulty item here was the driver's brain. Police are not trained to think these days.