the guy at 13:36 blinking with the lights What a legend

They need to have "how to be mindful of emergency services vehicles" on the driving test. I don't think they teach you anything except "get out of the way" but watching these videos definitely shows there's more helpful ways to do it!

As a resident of Hertford I know this route well and that was edge of the seat viewing! Amazing driving skills. Thank you for serving Hertfordshire 🙏

I love that you have an intense workload but still have time to give a wave of thankyou. Incredibly professional, courteous and smooth - a true credit to your profession

I always learn something from watching, Chris. I didn't know how you had to treat double white lines, and this may affect my reactions to an emergency service vehicle in the future. Your videos could well be used by driving instructors as 'homework' for their pupils.

I had visions of the car leaving asda at 13:42 would interpret the car flashing as " letting them out". Fortunately they saw and probably heard you coming. Enjoyed the overlap decision making as it helps others to be better prepared if they face the same situation.

What superb awarness by the Seat at 8:02, nice gradual stop and very clear telegraphing of their intentions. Excellent excellent work Seat!

Always great content Chris I've really learnt alot about driving and driving from your perspective regarding where I should be what's helpful and what's not. Keep up the awesome educational work mate

Wish I could get out of Stevenage that quick :) Nice driving as ever. Thanks

The few times I've had a blue light come from behind me, I have always been in doubt about what to do. I hope watching these videos helps me make better decisions next time.

So many decisions made, interactions with other road users, great driving, amazing level of calm and concentration. Then the video ends and you realise that all that skill and judgement was just the first part. Now comes the critical care part, could be an accident, a heart attack. I wonder how many calls like this make up a shift. Absolute legends.

A real eye opener for sure here Chris for both members of the public and first responders on the Double White lines hopefully we can all learn from this and give that little extra bit of room to let the important response through

I can't speak for cars, as I'm a Firefighter, but personally, with the two cars on the brow of the hill, I would have presented myself further onto the oncoming lane, encouraging the oncoming vehicle to stop earlier. But, you can't predict what people will do, and people see big red trucks earlier than they see little green cars so its not certain that would work in your case. You hardly lost time, no accident and journey continued, so you played it right I'd say. As always, great video! These were really, really helpful when I was doing my ERD last year.

Love the skill, love the calmness, love the notes. Thanks for posting & for doing such an amazing job 👏🏻👏🏻👍😀🇬🇧

I am Stateside now in Arizona, but grew up in Stevenage, so am very familiar with the A602. Watching your skills, and the reaction of other drivers, will make me a better driver in the future! Thanks for sharing!

I use the roads on this video all the time. I am not only massively impressed with your driving skills, but I was also really pleased to see the excellent reactions from the public. Bravo to Chris and the public!

8:30 - I would have done the same as you, however, as the drivers of the other vehicles, I would have continued forwards to give you space, instead of stopping and forcing you to slowly squeeze through the narrow space.

Just like to say excellent driving/professionalism & as someone who's been blue-lighted to hospital in the last 2 weeks Thank You for your service to the UK public you're a star Best Wishes Jim, Surrey👍

Glad to see some drivers are still on the ball for the emergency service

I used to live in Ware and work St. Evenage so it was fun to see this route again after at least 10 years. In answer to your question What would you have done ? Backing off is always the right answer. That road has been changed over the recent years and so even the locals are readjusting to new layouts. The entrance to Heathmount which sits halfway up that hill used to cause so many tailbacks in the morning. Your driving is impeccable as always. Keep up the great work Chris. Expat living in Sydney 🇦🇺🇬🇧

The amount of people who don't move over in the oncoming lane, or stop directly across from someone on the other side of the road, is astounding. It happens to regular drivers all the time, being forced to try and squeeze through an unnecessarily narrow space if you want to make any progress at all, but we aren't all rushing to save someone's life. I really don't get how so many people can be so utterly unaware of not only their surroundings, but also how their actions impact others.

Don’t think I’d survive the stress of all that driving. Good job. Thanks

Really helpful video. I hope that by watching these videos I have become much better at responding as an HGV driver. I do not think HGV drivers get enough coaching on the best response to EV.

So much to learn from this, well done to the one's whom look well ahead on the road

Excellent skills there and full respect to you, thank you for your service, additional respect to the majority of the drivers that were switched on with their situational awareness, (red car at the roundabout aside), the black car at 13:40 must have some blue light experience to read and assess the situation from that distance. Great vid thank you.

Great video and amazing driving skills. The 602 between Stevenage and Ware, used to be my "twice a day" commute. I was always nervous as to what would happen if an emergency vehicle on blue lights was behind me as a lot of the stretch has no places to pull over. After seeing this I would be far more confident to let the "expert" take the decisions.

Always amazing to see the incredible skill of your driving Chris and your general attitude towards others. Absolute top respect.

Watched every second. Never crossed my mind regarding the double whites with blues but definitely something I'll keep in mind going forward.

Just superb as always, so much to take in and learn. Looks like a nice route, although appreciate you weren't there to enjoy the scenery. Thanks for sharing.

You’re very good at conserving the cars momentum. I notice you’re able to lift quite early for round abouts and roll through rather than rushing up, braking, and then powering on. A lot of drivers don’t understand sometimes less is more, and it’s much faster to lose less speed over a longer distance than to lose more speed and then re-accelerate. Some things you can’t teach, and a lot of fast driving is learned on a car by car basis. Very good driving.

Excellent high speed driving skills. Super fast descision making. Love seeing so many people being compliant. I bet its not always like that.

6:07 i like how you turned the sirens off to also stop other drivers panicking when they have nowhere to go. Otherwise they would end up mounting the kerb. It's being in an emergancy but respecting road laws and predicting how people would react.

Amazing video, gives a great insight into what it’s like to be an ambulance driver.

I'm from Stevenage and regularly come back to visit family. Knowing all the routes in the first half of the video. You done amazing!

That's a challenging route even for a clear road at the speed limit, let alone with fair traffic and blues. Loads of gotchas too. Great video and thanks for showing me some of the changes to the road layouts since I last drove it! :)

hi chris. just wanted to say thank you for doing all these clips, i myself spent 7 years in st johns ambulance and i know what like first hand to cars people act when on 999 call some people panic cant be helped. thank you for all you do helping us the pubic. you are a credit to the nhs thank you

I drove this road twice a day for many years, it's nice to see it again a lot has changed since I was there, great driving as usual.

This popped up in my feed, an amazing insight from your perspective and great explanations too, really cool to watch, God bless you with protection and safe journeys..🙏🏻

for me as a german firefighter is quite interesting to see, that you’re not allowed to overtake at the double white lines. If we are driving to an emergency, no traffic rule applies for us at all. Of course the lines are there for a reason and I would not overtake there, even if i’m allowed to.

Great drive as always. And some great assistance from the good road users of Hertfordshire too. But it’s clear to see that too many motorists just don’t look in their mirrors. Their attentions are only ever grabbed by the sound of the siren. There were plentiful opportunities for some of these dopey individuals to pull over and let you past, but it seems they were blissfully unaware of your presence because - as you are trained to do so - you went silent. I followed my brother - a serving police officer, and a blue-light trained response driver - for twenty-five minutes on a 15 mile journey to our home town, where I waved at him and flashed my headlights repeatedly. He never saw me, because not once did he look in his mirrors! I was shocked and told him so when I met up with him soon after. He just shrugged his shoulders and giggled. Unbelievable! And as for the numerous double-white-line quandaries you faced on this call, I commend you for putting other road users’ safety first and foremost...... but as for the law: The Road Traffic Act 1988 states that all road markings must be clear and therefore safe for all road users to see. If an accident occurs because of someone’s failure to perceive worn out road markings then ultimately those whose responsibility it is to maintain those markings will be held responsible. There is not a court in the land who would prosecute a motorist for falling foul of the Highways authority’s shoddy professionalism. It’s the same with double yellows. Faded and broken double yellows are not legally binding, and are therefore just a mess. Thousands of parking tickets are thrown out every year because supposed violators have successfully demonstrated that the authorities have failed in their legally required duty to maintain such markings as set out in the said act.

I always give you blue light guys the thumbs up sign when you come up behind me to let you know I have seen you. I will get out of the way as soon as I can. Thanks for showing the A602 road works are open I've got to go to Stevenage soon and it will save me going past Hertford Hospital and Stapleford . Great respect to all you guys in our local ambulance service. 🚑 You do a great job.

Nice to watch your safe and swift driving. Also nice to see good driving from the other road users too; restores your faith after all the dashcam videos on KZfaq! 😉

something new i learned today that emergency vehicle sometimes cannot cross solid double lines and only if its safe or depends on emergency. thanks for that info

That has got to be the most skillful driving I have ever seen

As always Chris so many learning points to be taken from this array of traffic situations you and other blue light services face. As others have said, having viewed many of your bodies I now have a greater, and I believe more pragmatic, understanding of how to help the blue light drivers in their work. Keep up the wonderful work.

I agree Chris, that Landy driver was an utter legend!

Great video as always. The double whites being such a rigid and strict limit was quite interesting. Given the amount of solid lines we have in our area it would definitely limit our options if we were restricted as much as you are here as the solids can go on for a long while. Normal rules of showing extreme care and attention do apply, but slightly less rigid here with us in Norway. For the crest of the hill incident, I have the same issues as you do with a fairly low vehicle. I expect I would have discovered the vehicle as early as you did in the clip, I would have fallen back early and waited for a clear and positive gap. Given the fact you had a car in front, the car facing you might be distracted with him and figuring out your siren, and you might not get you the space you need if you decide to run the gap, as evident with the two cars coming to a stop almost at the same spot.

I drive this route to work and het here I am watching this, good video

Watching these before starting as an NQP in the south - I know there's lots more to learn but your notes are helpful to be aware of some of the things I need to be paying attention to

It shows how advanced a driver you are that you can, process the details of the callout, information of driving that fast and doing so safely and still thank other drivers. Like putting your thumb up to thank the van driver on the roundabout while driving between two cars/lorry then immediately hitting the double swerve to go around the roundabout, with your thumb up to thank the driver. In 3 seconds.

I never anticipated that a video about EMS response would bring me joy,sad that cant find a police version though!

Really great driving, this kind of thing is really important for people to understand. I didn't know about the double solid white lines for emergency vehicles, so iv learned something. Not sure about the range rover flashing you to go to the other side of the traffic island, mainly because of the car at the junction. If they weren't paying attention they could have assumed the range rover was flashing them to pull out. I get that it helps you but if I was in the range rovers position I wouldn't have flashed you through.

Currently doing my CERAD exams and assessments, this is very helpful Chris thank you!!

So cool to see you drive from Stevenage to Ware as live in Ware and often drive though Stevenage to work as a PC. Very good driving 👌

Good to see a new driving video.

Such skilful driving, cool as a cucumber, could watch all day.

Excellent. That stretch of A602 out of Stevenage is always a test. Great driving.

I did a google maps direction search from Lister Hospital to Salvation Army Ware and it reckoned 25-35 minutes during a weekday. Well done for doing it in 12!

So many people see blue lights and brake making things worse! When I see blues approaching i drop gears and nail my V6 wherever possible and get well out the path of the emergency vehicle further down the road where it won't slow them! Had one dude get pissed with me the other when he slammed on his brakes because of an approaching ambulance leaving myself with no place to get out the path in a hurry so I overtook him to clear the road, the ambulance crew recognised what I'd done though and the passenger gave a thumbs up which I appreciated. My old man was traffic old bill and his response to emergency vehicles (what I do now) when we were out in the car as a family got me thinking the right way from a young age.

Interesting as I've had emergency service vehicles "stop and start" on double whites - now I understand more why. Fascinating watching, especially as an old resident of Hertford. Still recognised large sections even after 25 years since I moved away from the area :)

Neat, tidy and accurate - as my instructor would say (albeit rarely to me). Nice progress, nice flow, nice lines. Your approach to solid lines is very different to what I was taught. We would just kill the front blues at the first sight of the solids, as a general rule. Solids are usually there because vision is very poor round a bend. If someone realises who you are then you can always re-engage for the overtake briefly. But in general solids aren't usually there for very long and unless vision was good (unusual) I'd just kill the front blues and hold back. There were a few moments that felt like they could quickly get a little hairy. 08:12 is tricky because of the hill brow. I think I would have preferred staying offside for longer to encourage the oncomer to slow, you could always come back in again. 09:08 lovely bit of flow here. Just a general observation that there were a few moments you could have given your ears a rest for a few seconds (in fact one of the few times you turned off the two tones was as you came up to a zebra crossing with pedestrians looking to cross?) Overall, v nice

I know that road VERY well and you drove spot on. The road from the pub (Three Horseshoes i think) to the rab where you turned left is absolute 🐕 💩 surface wise so you did well not to put your car into the ditch / bushes. Brings back memories as my ex lived the end of Ware High St and she boasted she'd made it into Stevenage town centre in 11 mins. I did it in just under 10 (it was dark so I could see headlights and deserted so I only slowed for the roundabouts).

Wow, it's amazing to see how calm you stay! Amazing driving skills :)

I had no clue regarding the fact on double white lines you still have to follow highway code. Keep these videos coming as this is extremely helpful as the one thing they cannot teach is how to handle blues as a member of public.

Awesome driving Chris, keep up the great work!

I use this exact route on my way back from Stevenage starbucks to Ware/Hertford border where my gf lives so was so familair watching this and was a great drive.

Been learning to drive and failed my first attempt yesterday when I turned into a bundle of nerves 😅🙄 thankfully haven’t yet had to move out of the way for emergency services but feel much less anxious about it now having my watched this. Will watch more and take note. ✌️♥️

Great discretion on the DWLs and skilful driving. Seen quite a few police cars cross the lines but there is a subtle difference of operating within the law and seemingly being above it!

Thank you again Chris great driving skills stay safe and take care.

Great stuff and very instructive for us civilian drivers. You must be bloody knackered by the time you get to the job 😁

This video is very informal and should be on the highway code it is very educational to know how to emergency services with so we can help you by helping our self

Chris, you felt some G's in both directions taking the underpass at six hills at speed 🙂 - Excellent video.

Wow, incredible driving. Thank you for your service. You could literally be the difference between life and death

The brow of the hill was the safest outcome. It was difficult to pick both cars reactions and I think most people would have expected that the car on the left would have moved further across to allow you to travel through, fortunately the oncoming driver reacted well and pulled across and stopped, both 2 very deliberate, easy to read actions, which made it safe to proceed.

Dropped in as per Ashley Neal; as much of a good and experienced driver I think I am, (two no injuries major incidents in 40 years) I don't think I could have driven like that, at that speed and not crashed. Just phenomenal professionalism. 🚑

I've driven this road only a couple of times, in the early 90s. I was in a rented Corsa, for work, that had all the acceleration and handling prowess of a really bad bread pudding. It tool a little more than a quarter of an hour! impressive driving - especially recognising the restrictions other drivers have, as well as yours. Not always something I see, in these parts ( narrows eyes and looks at local police station) bit white-knuckle in places but you can't have clear forward vision all the way!

You go through all that just to get to the job where the real work starts. Well done 👍🏼

Always interesting to watch your videos, MORE,MORE,MORE.

Maybe there's a misconception from the public believing that when your lights and sirens are on you will progress and over take at every opportunity. Never thought about that so it's a good point to make and share, will know if future now.

Just thinking, after this stressful drive you can't relax. Immediately after that more stress waiting: life-saving action. Only true heroes can do this job. Btw: I like your explanations in the video very much. Tks for sharing

Great video as always Chris. Would have done exactly the same as you on the brow of the hill. Once an oncoming vehicle gets that close having not reacted, I'd normally prefer them to just carry on through. Always a worry when they leave a small gap, in case one of them moves unexpectedly while you're in it. But you have to take the opportunities they give you.

Excellent Driver very calm and sure of his ability.

Question for Chris, or any emergency drivers.. 11:25 - Would you rather the driver pull into the hatchings, and you continue on the road as "normal", or for the driver to tuck left into the other lane, and you use the hatchings?

Seen this guys driving before pure skills smooth 👍 didn’t know about the double whites. Happen to me once just thought the job got cancelled then had another job straight after. I work on that road where they are based and think the should set the lines back at the end of cavendish road to allow ambulances and cars to get out with ease.

Brilliant video again Chris, thank you for all the work you do, as well as the other crews ❤️

Serious respect for emergency services drivers. Thanks

Very interesting to watch, and surprisingly alert drivers. As a motorcyclist (not biker!) of 52 years, you realise how many drivers are totally oblivious to what's going on around them. I'm wondering if you know the road well, or would you use your satnav as an aid to the nature of the road - bends etc ?

You’re a phenomenal driver, Chris. I’ve seen some shocking driving from a handful of Police cars on blues around Surrey. In one instance they basically ploughed their way through some heavy traffic approaching a busy/active roundabout. The officers in question need to take a seat and observe with you for sure.

A lot of drivers panic when they see a blue light or hear sirens. The best thing to do is stay calm, try to see which direction the emergency vehicle is coming from and find a safe and appropriate place to pull over. Sometimes it may be better to continue, till you find that safe place to stop.

That brow section was done so well, you anticipated not seeing, no need to risk 1-3secs on the run, for dangerous actions, slightly awkward that the two cars decided to stop together to make a gap but thats fine.

White van noticed you early, miracle! Jokes aside is really nice to see people actually pay attention to you

Really useful to know that an emergency vehicle shouldn't cross double white lines. It will help me to respond accordingly to help ambulances etc. make progress on the road.

Had blue lights behind me a couple of years ago on a narrow road. Natural instinct is to slow and try to pull over, but sometimes the sensible thing to do is put the boot down ( sensibly) and get ahead to a safe point to let them pass. And like others, had no idea an ambulance is still not allowed to cross the double whites)

This guy's a skilled driver AND polite af to other road users C:

the 602 is a very tricky road , nice job sir

I applauded you guys, having to think whilst your on blues and make progress safely and have the thought of the job your going to , it’s a lot to take in you make it look easy though well done

i dont think you could have done anything different for the 2 cars that just stopped next to each other on the hill if u stayed in they both would have stopped in the same place if u pulled out they both would have stopped in the same place i think the choice was already made for them before you even came around the corner

I must say l was impressed by ambulance driver plus all those vehicles moving out of the way. the lorry driver and the car who flashed his lights in particular.

Trying to observe an advanced driver on KZfaq is quite impossible you really need to be in the passenger seat. The only one I can see to dock a point is 9 minutes in when you over take and the red car coming towards you was not as far left almost like he had not rally seen you but as I have said in the driver seat that may of looked totally different. The Range Rover stopping well that is blue and twos for you. When I trained first responders or young police officers they alway new what people where going to do but blue lights people can react in very odd ways and so many don’t know you can not overtake on white line. I would class that drive as excellent, well observed, great hazard management and safety line always dealt in the best possible way. Many a limit point chased and most important you arrived safe and no one was hurt. Well done James

Very insightful, thank you for sharing this :)