Moped Pursuit

11Apr08

It was a warm summers evening and Pc Bobby Dazzler and his crew mate Pc Sammy Stroker were assigned to provide response cover for a neighbouring police station’s area. As they were driving through a medium sized village in a nice area of the county of Westshire a moped passed them in the opposite direction. This ‘ped was 2 up. The rider and his pillion were obviously youths and looked too young to hold a full motorbike licence between. Surprisingly both were wearing helmets. Bobby being the traffic geek that he is saw his opportunity to seize the ‘ped under Sec 165A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 because the rider would probably only hold a provisional licence.

The ‘ped was giving it licks as it went past the officer’s Panda so Bobby, who was driving spun the diesel heap of a Ford Focus around and gave it some pedal to try and catch the ‘ped up. Neither officer knew what road they were on, only the name of the village. As they got to the end of the road at a T junction Bobby looked left and right and to the right he could just see the ‘ped disappearing into a dip in the road. Bobby floored it again and was making some ground on the ‘ped. Speeds were reaching 60mph, which in a car is nothing special but for a 50cc ‘ped which is 2 up must be quite scary. Bobby activated the blue and tooz just as the ‘ped reached a big roundabout at the end of the road where the lane they had been travelling down intersects a major dual carriageway.

The pillion passenger kept looking back so both riders on the ‘ped knew that Bobby and Sammy wanted them to stop. The ‘ped took the second exit on the roundabout back on to the continuation of the country lane but their riding became more erratic. The rider was taking bends on the wrong side of the road and this road was slightly busier so more cars were having to pull over. The ‘ped was managing to maintain a speed of about 60mph because it was going downhill. This was a proper pursuit now; Bobby’s first since getting his blue light authority. Bobby told Sammy that he better call in the Fail to Stop because he was getting a bit worried now due to the manner of driving of the ‘ped. Just as Sammy did this the ‘ped reached another T junction, pulled to the offside of a car waiting at the junction on to the wrong side of the road and turned right, pulling in front of a car travelling towards the junction from the right.

This car just missed the ‘ped, but luckily had left enough room for Bobby to manoeuvre the Panda through the gap. The ‘ped was now making slow progress through another village because there was a gradual incline to the road. This road had a 40mph limit but the ‘ped was barley making 25mph. Bobby managed to catch it up but could not do much other than continue to follow with lights and sirens blaring. Bobby wanted so mush to clip the back wheel of the pad with his front bumper but he resisted the temptation.

Whilst all this had been happening the control room had done their usual pursuit questions, confirming Bobby’s driving authority, road conditions, traffic density, manner of driving of the pursued vehicle etc. Sammy had been giving a clear, calm commentary over the air despite not knowing where they were but then inevitable finally came that Bobby had been expecting… ABORT ABORT, FROM THE CONTROL ROOM INSPECTOR YOU MUST ABORT THS PURSUIT.

Bobby switched off the blues and tooz but continued to follow the vehicle. As stated, the ‘ped was struggling to reach the speed limit on this stretch of road so nothing above a normal level of driving was required to keep up with the ‘ped. Both vehicles then entered the national speed limits but the road then went down hill just as it entered another village. As the ‘ped entered the 30’s again Bobby and Sammy had to let it go.

Just as the ‘ped disappeared into the distance the control room put out a job for a theft from motor vehicle in the village where Bobby & Sammy had picked up the ‘ped. The suspects matched the description of the ‘ped’s riders in terms of clothing and a moped was seen to make off from the scene. It must have just been making off from the scene as Bobby & Sammy saw it speed past them hence the reason it failed to stop.

The Westshire Constabulary has a blanket policy that no motorcycle will be pursued. This does not mean that a pursuit cannot be initiated but you can guarantee that 99 times out of 100 the pursuit will be aborted. Apparently if a motorcyclist falls off whilst travelling at speed they might get hurt or something?! Also if this is a result of them being chased by the police it is the police’s fault if they get hurt or die. For some strange reason it’s not their fault that they chose not to stop or that they started to ride like a crazy fool to try and get away.

Therefore the clear message to all criminals in the Westshire force area is if you want to commit a crime, use a motorcycle as your getaway vehicle because the police wont chase after you incase YOU get hurt.

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