I haven't blogged in ages, I know. And there's loads of stuff I need to tell you guys but first I've promised various people that I would write up a day out I had recently.
You see whilst at a charity moped racing event I won a raffle prize. Oddly it wasn't a bottle of wine or something you'd normally get in a raffle. No. It was a day out with Northamptonshire Police Accident Investigation Unit; or as Nodding Dogs would have it "A day out scrapping stiffs off the road."
I must admit I was a little apprehensive about what the day would bring but I went ahead and arranged a day that would be suitable. The day that was chosen was the 9th January and the day dawned nice and dry. I rode over and after getting seriously lost in Northampton I found the police centre.
Once I was there I was met by PC Keith Millard who looked after me for the day. Keith is a lovely chap and he explained the day to me, apparently it was unlikely that I would have to scrape up stiffs (phew).
Keith took me through what the Accident Unit do, including a computer presentation, looking at an accident file to see how it was investigated and a look at the equipment used. All very interesting stuff.
Next Keith had to go for a medical so I was handed over to a road patrol unit. I forget their names but they were lovely guys who took me up and down the M1 and let me see what a bit of their day might include. Turns out one of them was a biker and pretty much an hour was passed talking bikes. I enjoyed having an insight into the minds of the traffic police, they are, as I assumed they would be, reasonable chaps.
When Keith gave 'em a shout they took me to an M1 service area to hand me back to PC Millard. That's where things got a bit active. Right outside the police building at the services there was a woman who was calling 999. Turns out she was pregnant and had started bleeding heavily. Whilst Keith was dealing with her - calming her and getting an ambulance etc. a couple of things happened. First a Dutch fellow arrived seemingly from nowhere, mistook me for a policeman and wanted to know how he could travel on from the services en route to Holland. Seemed a bit surreal to me but I told Keith who got control to order him a taxi to Northampton. Whilst that was happening I noticed a car pull into the services with, what looked like, half it's engine hanging out of the bottom of the car. Keith and I got to 'em before they left the services and it turns out that the plastic trim from beneath the engine was broken and hanging down.
After that Northants Police and Keith rather nicely treated me to a fry up at the services, whilst we discussed politics and policing
The rest of the day passed very pleasantly. Keith showed me what it was like to scream down the M1 at 120mph with the blues and twos going and every vehicle scattering from our path. That I really enjoyed, I could get used to doing that.
I'd say the scary part of the day was when Keith got a call about some lumber on the M1. I really salute they police for going onto a road like the M1 and pulling debris off. I don't think you could pay me enough to run onto the M1.
I must admit I also got an evil pleasure when we nicked a lorry driver for using his mobile whilst driving
I think those are the major points of the day. I must say I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. My thanks to Nodding Dogs and Bluesky!