999 operators cannot handle grid references

[Cudzoziemiec]

That's cool! It could be useful as long as people know to look for it (and the operators know what to do with it). Perhaps on roadsigns at junctions as well to be really useful?

OT, I notice a EU flag sticker on the back of that roadsign. That's something I've not seen before on a roadsign, what's it about do you know?

[hellymedic]

The Dorset example I put into my edited post names the lane, the grid ref and the village...

[gordon taylor]

OT, I notice a EU flag sticker on the back of that roadsign. That's something I've not seen before on a roadsign, what's it about do you know?

The EU puts a lot of money into road schemes at the edges of Europe. I've seen big signs that say so beside rebuilt roads. I recall the phrase "locally significant route" from one of those signs somewhere in Ardnamurchan. I assume that the road in question was resurfaced and re-signed with EU funding.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Those signs are commonplace now in Poland (not just for roads but sewers, water mains and so on) but they're always much bigger and state who did what when. This one is so much more discreet that I wondered if it was just confirming the sign conformed to some EU standard on road signs!

[Andrij]

OT, I notice a EU flag sticker on the back of that roadsign. That's something I've not seen before on a roadsign, what's it about do you know?

[tinfoil hat]
That's there to help guide the invading forces for the European super-state.  As they drive on the right side of the road they'll easily see the backs of British signs.
[/tinfoil hat]
 

[Feline]

When I had to call an ambulance on a CTC ride from a remote spot in Wales with no mobile signal (somehow I was able to still get through, but it meant the operator couldn't get a lock on me or phone me back), I quickly realised that giving them an NCN route number was useless. However clicking the up arrow on my Garmin Edge 705 gave me the GPS coordinates in longitude and latitude, and they were able to dispatch an ambulance based on that.

[RJ]

I was surprised, and pleased, to see that some new roadsigns in remote parts of Argyle show the full GR on the back.





That could be useful if it became standard practice on rural roads.

That part of north Argyll is now in Highland region - they've been doing this with road signs there for some years now, and I agree it's a very good idea.

The EU flag probably shows that recent(ish) road improvements have been partly paid for by EU structural funds.

[nuttycyclist]

Outside London no one knows post codes apart from their home or work. They don't put them on street signs like they do in London and no one refers to parts of a city by the post code.

Agreed - other than postcodes being on street signs.  Last time I had to call an ambulance I was visiting London for work.   I knew exactly where I was - junction of four roads, all named on signposts PLUS a fifth road just off one of the four, AND lastly outside a tube station with two major tourist attractions within eye-shot.

Operator was insistent that until I provided the full postcode of the gentleman who had tripped over the kerb and was bleeding heavily, nothing more could be done.    No matter who I asked (and I got quite a lot of people asking several others as a pyramid style cascade) nobody in there knew the postcode.

I recently visited the EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) where the London Ambulance Service take 999 calls, so I saw how their computer system works. I specifically asked about OS grid coordinates, and their screen has boxes for northings/eastings. They can also search by keywords, e.g. "Tesco" or "The Gherkin", which shows a list of all matching descriptions, then they can pick whichever one looks most relevant. Each calltaker has an additional screen with the London A-Z (or equivalent) on it, which jumps to the location you specified, whether that was based on postcode/grid ref/whatever. So, once they know the general area, they can ask for more specific info (e.g. adjacent roads) to get your exact location. None of this delays the ambulance, because someone else will be dispatching that while you're talking. All in all, I was impressed, and hopefully there are (or will be) similar systems elsewhere in the country.

Not my experience!

[benborp]

On the ride back from the Dun run a friend and I were approaching Waltham Abbey via country lanes. We'd just taken the decision to bail at the nearest train station because the general standard of driving had plummeted in response to a recent rain shower and we weren't feeling sharp enough to deal with it with any great confidence. We rounded a down hill bend to find smoke rising from the trees on the opposite side of the road and a wide swathe of the verge gouged away. A convertible BMW that must have passed us less than twenty seconds earlier was lying upturned in the ditch. The driver emerged as I got to the car and was able to tell me that there was one other person inside, just as she crawled out. One of the first drivers to arrive was on her mobile giving details to the ambulance service. The driver didn't appear to be injured but the passenger had a large number of minor cuts and lacerations and had lost her shoes (she was quite concerned by this). I tried to clear a path through the vegetation for them and tried to persuade them not to climb over the car, in which I failed. She slipped and then burnt herself on the exhaust. Other drivers helped the couple to the shelter of their cars and started to tend to them. It was at this point that I noticed that the woman calling for the ambulance was becoming more and more irate. It turned out that she lived at one of the nearest houses to the incident and had given her postcode but the operator was insisting that the postcode for the location of the actual incident was needed. The caller was getting angrier and angrier but continued to repeat what she knew - the postcode for what she thought to be the nearest property, the incident's location in relation to that postcode (road name, distance and direction) and the fact that there was no postcode for the exact location of the incident. This stalemate obviously continued for a couple of minutes until the point my friend and I, unable to offer any useful contribution, decided to set off towards 'civilisation' and flag down any emergency services that crossed our path.

[hellymedic]

benborp's post worries me greatly.

[Kim]

I have visions of trying to do a postcode lookup on the Royal Fail website using a smartphone in order to summon an ambulance.

Paging Mitchell and Webb...

[ferret]

just out of interest I live pretty much in the middle of nowhere and there are 5 farms in the area all with the same post code 

2 or 3 times now we've called out the ambulance and given them the grid reference,

only to get a phone call an hour later asking for directions