A fireman has admitted causing the death of a farmer who was crushed by his herd of cows after they were startled by fire engine sirens.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-11990507

Surely the cows caused the death, not the fireman?

Is it even legal to block the Queen's highway with cattle in this day and age?

I thought the judge had acquitted him after deciding that the circumstances for using the lights n sirens were sufficiently urgent?

There is at least one society that membership allows herding of livestock across Tower Bridge.

Just don't tell Bratty.

You don't live in the countryside, then?
Happens all the time, the cows don't fly from the field to the milking machine - though I admit that would be a sight to behold!

Just dont look up with your mouth open

Yep.

And long may it continue.

Back where my parents live (in deepest, darkest Yorkshire Dales) there are a few farmers that have to move their cows from the field to their milking shed twice a day - meaning they have to walk about half a mile along the narrow single lane road. If you time it badly, you'll catch them just exiting the field's gate - meaning you're stuck behind them for a good 15-20 minutes while they saunter along.

However tempting it is to sound your horn and and get all aggressive, you just can't do that in the country - cows are quite unpredictable creatures that can get spooked very easily, much like a horse. The fireman could have shouted to the farmer, who would have herded them to one side and provide a pathway through, or they could have got two or three of the firemen out of the cab to help them out of the way. It would have taken all of a minute, if that, but they were just too impatient. That impatience cost someone their life, and also very likely meant they didn't get to their call out at all - so what was the point of that?

It was the farmers fault, he didnt MOO-ve out of the way fast enough

Well if the route is blocked the problem is that you have to get them off the road. If that will take ten minutes then the fire crew need to use another route. Simples.

Or, frankly, run over the cows. Fire engines are ruddy big and if it's a choice some farmer's herd and someone burning to death, well, there are always more cows.

Jon

The other route's probably longer than 10 minutes away though - the countryside is somewhat inconvenient like that by virtue of not being built on a grid system. If it's a single lane road, you're talking about either reversing a fire engine through twisty lanes for god knows how long, or looking for somewhere wide enough to accommodate a three point turn. All of which would, I'd suggest, add more than ten minutes to the time.

But the fact is their reckless behaviour led to the death of a farmer, which also probably meant they didn't get to their call out anyway - and so this could have also led to another death if it was a real emergency (no mention of this in the news articles, but in theory that could so easily have been the outcome).

Or is a life of a farmer somehow less important than someone stuck in a burning building?

Do you think such information is included when you train to be a fire engine driver?

Quite frankly, I have no experience of cows in traffic and I would simply expect them to get out the damned way if I was in a big red noisy fire engine.

Maybe not specifically in training a fireman, but it's in the Highway Code after all so it's something we should all know if we drive...


As with the police or ambulance, just because it's an emergency shouldn't mean they are exempt from the rules of the Highway Code. Police drivers have been prosecuted for killing pedestrians or other drivers in the course of a pursuit, I don't see why should firemen be any different really.


Yep, I think that was the main problem - the fact that they were getting out of the way cos they were scared to fuk - then promptly flattened the farmer.