Unmarked police vehicle collides with taxi in Tuen Mun

[ArrynField]

BMW estates are quite rare. If you spot one, drive carefully.

Unmarked police vehicle collides with taxi in Tuen Mun, one officer injured – The Standard

[redslert]

Unlikely for the police vehicle to be repaired after airbags deployed.

[paddylast]

Looks like almost a head on collision. Interesting that the article seems to point the blame at the police.

[Peaky]

A bit off topic... but having had a police van driving like an absolute idiot at the weekend (and nearly hitting me when he cut back in overtaking on a blind bend when something was coming the other way) what on earth is the convention or law here for flashing lights? All i see in the highway code is to make utmost effort to get out of the way of emergency vehicles, which no one ever does. Because HK.

Every police vehicle seems to drive around with at least rear facing red and blue lights on constantly. I presume this is meant to remind people to be patriotic, just like the random blue solar powered and red lights all over the place in the mainland (???)

However some of them, particularly motorbikes, but also this van, have front lights on too but make zero effort to pass. The van followed me for about a mile with many safe chances to pass without speeding. Fortunately I had already slowed right down when he pulled an unexpected overtake on a blind bend otherwise we'd have ended up in a side swipe and i would have been in court and I presume I'd have been totally screwed despite the dash cam. No sirens at any point.

[ArrynField]

Can we see the footage

https://www.police.gov.hk/info/doc/pgo/en/Epgo018.pdf

[Peaky]

Against better judgement to post anything... have had (as an ”inconvenient” witness) experience of how these things go.

Thanks for the doc... it only seems to refer to sirens not lights. I guess I have my answer... ignore lights until sirens start. He probably went for the overtake because i was slowing down a lot to let him pass. Just takes a lot of unlearning of what I'm used to from the UK.

[bsh]

A bit off topic... but having had a police van driving like an absolute idiot at the weekend (and nearly hitting me when he cut back in overtaking on a blind bend when something was coming the other way) what on earth is the convention or law here for flashing lights? All i see in the highway code is to make utmost effort to get out of the way of emergency vehicles, which no one ever does. Because HK.

Every police vehicle seems to drive around with at least rear facing red and blue lights on constantly. I presume this is meant to remind people to be patriotic, just like the random blue solar powered and red lights all over the place in the mainland (???)

However some of them, particularly motorbikes, but also this van, have front lights on too but make zero effort to pass. The van followed me for about a mile with many safe chances to pass without speeding. Fortunately I had already slowed right down when he pulled an unexpected overtake on a blind bend otherwise we'd have ended up in a side swipe and i would have been in court and I presume I'd have been totally screwed despite the dash cam. No sirens at any point.

Had a similar thing with a very slow ambulance with flashing lights on. I'm behind it going slow and giving it extra room. It then goes into a right hand over-taking lane (to nowhere except back into the left-hand lane) and I'm on the left. I'm even going slow in case the ambulance wants to pull back to the left lane but I still manage to overtake it.

The ambulance driver then honks his horn at me for over-taking him!

I thought the speed you're going, whoever is in the ambulance will have died before you even get to a hospital!

[ByeByeEngland]

I used to think the cautionary driving of emergency services even under flashing lights and/or sirens was down to the stupidity of the drivers. Now I appreciate their defensiveness is probably due to the negligence or incompetence of the average HK road user. From the UK were so used to giving way (even if it means breaking road rules).

Be interested in what the protocols are in packed cities of places like India, Bangladesh, Vietnam. Any insights?

[Peaky]

India etc. the ambulance just makes its own lane (as does everyone else). Being the guy who paints lanes onto indian motorways must be the lowest job satisfaction occupation on earth. Closely followed by the guy who puts up the signs that say “Lane driving is safe driving”

German/Austrian version of that is also cool... if there's a queue on the motorway they all pull across to the edges of the lanes (or beyond) and leave a big corridor for any emergency vehicle to whizz through. Very confusing the first time you see it though!

[chobochobo]

I've 'learnt' that in HK that one should not to try anything when there's an emergency vehicle coming up with lights on. Even if you try to pull over to one side, no one else will ever do anything and the emergency vehicle itself seems quite happy to just wait. On occasion, I've successfully slowed down on one side with hazard lights on to let them pass/overtake me but that's usually with light traffic only.