Whilst proceeding in an orderly (25mph) manner up St Johns Road this morning, I had to perform an emergency stop in the Worzel-mobile. This was purely to avoid a Panda Car that had just left Hedge End nick and was flying along Allotment Road with its blue lights going (but no sirens). The Panda Car just about stopped at the give-way markings, but its ABS seemed to be working overtime. I was taking it steady and pulled-up in time, but it was still quite a close thing. Far too close for a Sunday morning...!

This has happened to me a few times now. The problem is that if you are travelling up St Johns Road you simply don't see these emerging Police vehicles until the very last minute and when they approach the junction at speed it tends to trigger these emergency stops. Alert drivers usually react to something emerging at speed from a side road by standing on the anchors: its instinctive. Sooner or later, if it hasn't happened already, somebody is going to suffer a rear-end shunt in St Johns Road, because of the Police being in too much of a hurry...!

And its all very well having the blue lights turned on Officer, but if I can't see the bloomin lights until the very last minute, because of the various obstructions around Hedge End nick, the blue lights are totally useless. Why weren't the sirens on..?

So what I'm essentially saying is that I think the Police need to exercise greater caution at this blind junction. I doubt whether the extra 5 seconds will make a great deal of difference en-route to MacDonalds. Particularly as that 5 seconds was lost while we we each took a moment to work out what the other was doing and sorted ourselves out...!

And one final thought. If this had happened the other way round, I would have expected to be pulled-over and nicked for dangerous driving...!