Wesley's World

Hello [Bedfordshire Ambulance Service],

I routinely see ambulances in Bedford turn up to an event with no care for their parking whatsoever. Last Saturday an ambulance parked diagonally across Bedford High Street, massively disrupting traffic for a long time. There was NO REASON WHATSOEVER for such sloppy parking. Perhaps the driver gets a kick out of being above the law and screwing up so many people - because he can.

Disruption to traffic and the increased danger that causes is the result. I have sat in my car behind an ambulance before now that completely blocked Lansdowne road in Bedford, because the driver couldn't be arsed to park it nearer the curb. There was no emergency. But hey - "I'm an ambulance driver - her her her".

Today, I got such an incident on camera. Between at least 4pm and 4:15pm today, and perhaps long before - an ambulance was parked almost in the middle of Mill Street in Bedford, causing widespread disruption. Notice that the gap left between the ambulance and the curb is not wide enough to accommodate a car, so we can safely assume that when the ambulance arrived, there was no reason not to park normally.Three ambulance crew were in the ambulance, and the incident was a non-emergency. The patient, an elderly gent, eventually walked away. For about 5 minutes the near-side rear door of the ambulance was left completely opened flat against the rear of the ambulance - protruding even further into the the road. If a car had clipped it, especially when the old fellow was leaving the ambulance - it would almost certainly have been fatal.

Clearly, in an emergency, traffic disruption is a price well worth paying, but in this case it was not. At times there were very long queues in both directions, and traffic was backing up on Bedford High Street. It served no useful purpose whilst inconveniencing and endangering the public.

Sheer idiocy, surely? Obvious questions which sprint to mind:

1. Why not park near the curb in the first place - regardless of the emergency? It takes no longer.
2. Why not have one of the three staff move the ambulance to a more sensible spot when the urgency of the case is determined?

This is not a one-off - it's a trend, and I think you stamp it out it urgently.

I look forward to your comments, but I have to say - I'm virtually certain they will not only be useless, they'll be closed-minded, defensive and hugely annoying.

So - over to you.