Embedded Files
Incident 5 - Policewoman stuck at a Sports Park
I was on patrol with a lovely police woman called Mandy. She was driving a marked Police Car and we were on patrol late at night. As part of our duties, we were required to check venerable premises on our patrol area. One of these was a set of changing rooms in the local sport park. There were often problems with either youths hanging around late at night, often setting fire to the doors etc, or from people who actually wanted to break in to rob the slot machines. About 100 yards away from the changing rooms, there was an isolated hut used by the person taking the money for the local pitch and put. This had been burnt down a couple of times as it was made out of wood!
The weather had been pretty wet for quite a while, it being February.
Mandy drove into the car park. It was raining and so instead of getting out to walk around the buildings I suggested that she drove onto the pathway and turned down to the changing rooms. There had previously been bollards across the path where it met the car park, but for some reason, (luckily) they had been removed!
We drove down into the bottom part of the park and checked the bottom set of toilets. We then turned round and came back up the path, with one wheel on the tarmac and one on the grass. There was a slight incline and at one point there was a small wheel span but she managed to keep going. I then asked her to turn right at the end of the building and to shin the headlights on the main canteen doors, as these had been the entrance point for the previous burglary. She turned right and drove along beside the canteen. I then got her to veer slightly to the right in order to shine her headlights directly onto the front of canteen doors. As I got out to check them, I suggested that she reverse back a few feet and then turn sharp left and drive up the grass bank to get back to the place where the path met the car park, and that she should then drive around to the back of the car park and meet me there. This would give me a chance to check the side of the building that it was not possible to drive beside. It would also allow me to watch as she reversed and then attempt to drive up the short but steep grass bank. The advantage to her was that she only had to reverse a couple of feet before being able to drive forwards again. Otherwise she would have to reverse back quite a long way along the path, before she reached the junction where she could get back onto the main path.
She said: “Will it be all right to drive on the grass”
I said: “Yes, we’re the police, and in any case it will be much easier for you, as you wont have to reverse back along the narrow path in the dark”.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
Red -> Reversed
Blue dashes - - - wheels spinning/stuck
I walked over to the doors and then having checked them, I carried on around corner of the building as she reverse a few feet. She turned her wheels to the left and started to pull forwards. She got going without hardly any spinning, due to the left wheel still being on the tarmac path. However, immediately it went onto the grass it started to spin. She was revving quite fast and so the car kept going at quite a pace. As she got further up the bank it slowed as both wheels then started to spin. I was looking at her offside wheel which had been okay to start with, but as she got further up the slope, it to lost traction and there she was with both wheels spinning. She must have realised that she was slowing because she suddenly increased the revs of the engine. It sounded like the car was about to take of. The wheels were spinning round and round at a tremendous speed, and although she was only just managing to keep some forward momentum, the car just managed to keep going until it reached the start of the flatter area beyond. It then gradually increased in speed, even though the wheels were still spinning and once on the flat she was okay and able to drive onto the path and then into the car park.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
Red -> Reversed
Blue dashes - - - wheels spinning/stuck
She drove around to the back of the building and picked me up. I was so disappointed that she had not been completely stuck. It was so close, if only she had not revved the car so much! Just me to pick a lady who knew how to keep going!
She stopped to pick me up and I had to think quickly as to how I could get her to drive back onto the grass. I suddenly remembered the golf hut and so I suggested that we ought to check that out whilst we were there.
She was not aware of it so I explained that she needed to go back through onto the path but then to turn to the right this time.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
She started to drive up the path with her left wheel on the grass. However, after a short distance we could see that the path was lined with trees which were close to the left side of the path.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
There was a wire fence immediately to the right and so there was not room to drive on up the path. I suggested that she veer to her left and drive on the grass.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
Blue dashes - - - wheels spinning
The ground was on a gentle slope up hill at this point and we kept going, driving through a line of trees that crossed out path. There was a slight dip in the grass with a steeper slope immediately afterwards. She was now going quite slowly and she drove down into the dip. As the car tried to drive up the other side her wheels starting to spin.
She said: “Ooh the wheels are spinning a lot”.
I said ”Your okay”. She just managed to keep going over the hump and then moved to the right towards the path.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
Blue dashes - - - wheels spinning
Blue -> Intended route
She asked “Back onto the path now ?”.
I said “No, if you loop round you can turn in a big circle and then you will be facing the hut with the lights, and I can check it”.
She then turned gently to her left. We were now almost on a kind of plateau, with the ground sloping very gently from our right down across us to the left. She drove towards a rugby pitch, intending to then make a turn to her right to bring her round to face the golf hut. As soon as the car levelled out it almost immediately stopped with both wheels spinning hopelessly in boggy wet mud. I realized that she was in big trouble. The ground appeared to be a complete bog. When I checked afterwards it was obvious that there was one area that was slightly lower than the rest of the ground, and that she had driven right into the middle of it!
I had wanted her to make the turn to her right because the ground then sloped up towards the golf hut, and I had hoped that trying to drive up this slope, with her wheels turned sharply to her right would induce plenty of wheels spin. It never crossed my mind that she would find a flat piece of ground that acted as a kind of run off area for all the rain falling on the grass all around it, and which would therefore be pretty much like a bog!
She said “I’ll try backwards”.
Immediately the wheels span and the car did not move an inch.
I said: “Stop there I’ll push”, as I feared that this was going to be difficult to get out of, the car having not felt like it had any chance of moving when she had spun her wheels.
I looked at the front. Already both of the wheels were in a deep trench. In front of the car the ground was even wetter and more boggy. I went around to her side and opened her door. I told her to try backwards, whilst I held her door open.
She said: “You get in”
I said: “No I’m already dirty, you may as well stay there”.
I pushed on her door and I saw her legs working the pedals as hard as she could, whilst rocking in her seat willing it to get out. I could hardly stand up it was so muddy. I went round the front and tried pushing her backwards. I could not move her at all by rocking. I went round to my passenger door to have a better look at her legs. I shone the torch on the front near side wheel. It was in a deep muddy crater. She tried backwards again. I told her to turn left a bit to straighten up wheels in trench, as she still had them slightly pointing to the right to start to make the turn back to the golfing hut. I shone the torch on the spinning wheel and watched in spin round and round hopelessly in the muddy trench. I asked her to go forward a bit and then have another go in reverse. This time she got back a bit more.
Without asking she went forwards again, but not enough. She desperately tried to move forwards a bit more, so that she could have more of a run when she then tried backwards again. Her wheels were spinning hopelessly in the deep rut. There was no way that it was going to come up over the pile of mud at each the end of the rut.
I went round to the driver’s door and opened it again and told her to go forwards. I watched her front offside wheel. This appeared to be up on the edge of the mud, right at the front of the rut. To begin with this wheel did not spin, only the near side one, which was still down in the rut. Then it also started spinning.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
Blue dashes - - - wheels spinning
Blue -> Intended route
I looked in at her legs, which I could now see, as the interior light was still on. She was wearing her thick regulation skirt (this was pre trousers being issued to women officers). Her right foot was encased in a nice looking black shoe. It had a small wide heel, and was therefore an improvement on the completely flat shoes that many women officers used to wear. She was quite short and so I reckon that she wore shoes with a small heel to make her appear slightly taller. Her skirt was level with her knees when sat in the car, but longer than that when stood up. She had black tights or stockings on her legs. I had looked for tell tell suspender bumps when at the station, but the skirt material was too thick to see any signs. However, as she got into the car at the start of the shift, I had seen her reach down to the side of her leg and appear to try to move something under her skirt. It looked to me as though she was trying to pull her rear suspender around to the side of her leg a little, maybe to stop it digging into her leg.
Said: “Having trouble”.
She said: “No, just making a little adjustment”.
I can’t think what else she might have been trying to do if it was not a suspender adjustment! I had therefore spent the shift assuming that she was wearing suspenders, but was not brave enough to ask!
Her right foot was pumping the accelerator up and down, and her left leg was hard at work going up and down repeatedly on the clutch. Every time she pressed the accelerator she leant forward willing the car to start to grip.
I gave her one last big push from behind. She moved forward to the front of the rut and span to a complete halt.
She turned and looked at me and said: “Its no good, I am really bogged down. Whatever I do does not help. I have tried rocking like my husband told me to, but I can only move forwards or backwards for a few feet and then I am stuck again. What can we do?”
I told her that I would call up for assistance and get another officer to deliver the Landrover to the park.
I started to walk off back down the slope towards the car park.
As I left her I said: “Keep trying while I’m gone, you may find you suddenly get some grip if you keep trying”.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
Blue -> Intended route
She seemed to wait for me to get quite a way away before she suddenly started trying to move forwards again. Her wheels were immediately spinning at top speed. After about 15 seconds, she suddenly changed into reverse by immediately letting up the clutch very quickly and then tried a ‘high speed’ get away. Of course the car got totally bogged down by doing this, and so now it did not even move at all. It was obvious to me that there was no way that she would be able to get out like that, as the ground was so wet. All she was likely to do was dig her wheels down into the mud even more. As I walked further away she again tried it to move forwards.
I could now see the car right in the middle of the grass area, with her all on her own, whilst being totally and utterly stuck.
Still she did not give up! As I walked down between the line of trees, she tried yet again, this time in reverse, which surprised me. It was obvious that she was totally bogged down, but she seemed very determined to try and get herself out whilst I was not there. She used much higher revs than when I was instructing her, probably in the mistaken belief that this course of action had worked 15 minutes ago down by the canteen, and so she hoped it would work again now!
The sight of that car sat in the middle of a boggy grass playing field, with its reversing lights on, and the engine revving it nuts off was very very exciting. The thought that the lovely lady was trying desperately to get herself out, to avoid humiliation from her workmates was the icing on the cake. I wish I could have heard what she was telling the car. I bet she was pleading with it to get some grip!
I received the Landrover from another officer back in the car park. He did not even ask what I wanted it for, but I expect he guessed! As I approached Mandy, she was still sat in her car, but was no longer trying to get out of the mud. The car was tilting down towards the front, due to the front wheels now being low down in the ruts.
I stopped some way back from her, as I did not want to get stuck as well, so I made sure I was stopped on the steeper part of the slope just after the line of trees. Luckily there was a long tow rope which I attached to the rear of her car. I then pulled her out of the ruts, but stopped with her not that far back from the flat boggy area, with her car still facing up the hill.
I took off the rope and as I walked away, she immediately tried to go forward. Her wheels span and she did not move. I quickly went towards the Landrover, to turn off the engine, so that I could hear her wheels spinning. She must have then reversed about five feet. Even doing this caused her wheels to spin, even though she was trying to move backwards down a slight slope! Mind you, her tyres were absolutely caked in mud and there was no tread showing.
I didn’t realize this at the time but when I later checked, there were two lots of ruts - both facing forwards and to the right. She must have therefore reversed a second time as I was getting into the Landrover, which I did not see. The strange thing was that both ruts showed that she was trying to turn to her right. This mean that she was trying to pull away up the slope and still facing towards the golf hut, which was located at the highest point of the whole area. Why did she do that? Was it because she just wanted to get back onto the path that was on that side? But then she already knew that there were trees beside the path and therefore there was not enough room to drive along it. If she had tried to turn to the left, the slope was much less and she would have only had to travel a shorter distance, before she started heading down the slope.
Anyway, as I got out of the Landrover and came back round the front of it, she had already started to try and pull away again. Immediately her wheels began to spin, and she did not move at all.
I went up to her door and she said: “Its no good, both my wheels are spinning, I’m stuck”.
She reversed a little way and I pretended to push. Her wheels span but she did manage to move back about 20 feet. I told her to stop and to drive forwards to the left. She let up the clutch and started to move. Her wheels then began spinning, but she just managed to keep going. I even tried to hold onto the back of the car to slow her down and hopefully to stop her for one last stuck. Although wheels were spinning a lot she kept creeping forwards and continued going round to her left and did not stop. She was then onto the downward slope and was able to drive off normally. I followed her back to the Police Station but then got called away and so I did not see her again that day.
Key:
Black -> Route taken
Blue dashes - - - wheels spinning
Blue -> Intended route
Red -> Reversed
The next day, I bumped into her in the corridor.
The first thing she said to me was: “I should have kept going when the wheels started to spin instead of stopping. I might not have got totally stuck then”.
I was not able to stop and discuss it with her at that moment but two days later I saw her again.
She said: “I have had nightmares about being stuck. I kept thinking that you were going to leave me stranded out there”.
I told her that I would not have done that, then I said: “Did you try and get out when I was gone ?”.
She said: “Oh yes, I tried for a while, but then I stopped because I was sinking. I managed to get forward but I couldn’t get back and I felt the car getting deeper in the mud. I was totally stuck so I turned off the lights because I thought I saw someone coming, but it was just the trees”
Since the incident in the Sports Park, she again got stuck when patrolling with me, this time in a Children’s Play Park (details to be added later)
Four months later we were crewed together again. She mentioned this incident again. She said: “I was really worried about being stuck in the Sport Park. I was okay about the Children’s Play area, but I was so stuck at the Sports Park, that’s why they put the bollards up”
The next time I was free, I went to the car park next to the Sports Park and she was right. The Council had re-instated the bollards where the path into the field started. It was therefore impossible to drive a car onto the field. I wonder if the Groundsman ever realized who had made the ruts at the side of his rugby pitch?
I reckon he should have called in the Police to investigate. I know a particular woman officer who it would have been interesting to send! Call for officer Mandy!
Google Sites
Report abuse