The number of civilian cars with flashing lights and sirens is increasing in our country.
No, I did not receive a Stop Police and it is not about the Kia in the photo above. The pica is for illustration purposes. Because if I had taken a photo of what happened to me this morning, I could have been fined more than 400 euros for holding the phone in my hand.
You probably remember Blik op de Weg with good ol' Leo de Haas. In an unrecognizable Golf R32 or a big Volvo with a five-cylinder engine, officers from the KLPD went to remove traffic signs from the road. In the other traffic police you also had Koos Spee, the conscience of the Netherlands, who explained how it should be done.
Entertaining television and in many cases good for road safety. The National Police Services Agency (KLPD) has not existed for 10 years. The National Police was introduced and nowadays you can simply describe it as the traffic police.
Civilian cars with flashing lights and sirens
Just like in the times of Look on the Road and Road Abusers, the traffic police are visible and invisible in traffic. Invisible by driving civilian cars with flashing lights and sirens. You see recognizable police driving an Audi A6 avant or a Mercedes B-class. However, the unrecognizable cars include a wide range of makes and models. Peugeot 508, a Kia Ceed, a BMW 3-Series, a Seat Leon and so on.
By always adhering to the traffic rules, you will have very little to do with the traffic police. Certainly the unrecognizable cars do not stand out among all the leasing people on the road. Unless you give yourself a helping hand. Or if we can give you a helping hand, with an overview of license plates of unrecognizable police cars
As you probably know, a BMW M2 Competition is part of the Autoblog Garage. My M2 is equipped with a Target Blu Eye 2. A legal device to warn you of approaching emergency services.
I had heard of it, but never looked into it further. Because the previous owner of my car had this system installed and I am now using it, I started reading up. After a thousand kilometers of tinkering, I have discovered that it is a nice tool. By the way, it costs about €1,800. With that price tag in mind, I don't think I would buy it myself. But it's nice that it's on my car.
A short summary. Target Blu Eye 2 maps all emergency services that use the digital communication system C2000. In the Netherlands this includes the ambulance, fire brigade and police. This means that if these emergency services are in the area, the system will notify you by means of an audio signal and lighting LEDs. The closer to the emergency service, the more LEDs are lit.
In addition to being a tool for road safety (nice marketing talk), it of course helps to see the police sooner than your eyes do. Which brings me to today's experience.
In the morning I was on my way to the Autoblog editorial office in peace and quiet. And contrary to what you think, we don't rush to the office at every turn. I dare to call myself a calm driver. Especially on the way to work, I enjoy some music and I don't worry so much.
Skoda Octavia combo police car
I was driving on a N-road in the direction of Rotterdam and quickly on the second lane a Skoda Octavia Combi squeezed in front of me, just in front of the expulsion plane. “Well, that's not very nice,” I thought to myself. But that's fine if you're in a hurry. You can see the road and situation in question in the Google Streetview image below.
The system in my car went off shortly before and with the Skoda in front of me all the LEDs came on. In front of me was a BMW E90 youngtimer and behind me was an old Volvo. The Skoda was the only 'new' car in the list. That is an easy filter to determine that you may be dealing with a civilian police car.
The Skoda had to take the same route as me and the LEDs stayed on all the time. At the next traffic light I stood next to the Octavia. Of course I took a look inside the car. There were two men in there and after we both took a different road the LEDs went out again. Confirmation that it was indeed a police car.
Exciting story, huh? Sorry, I didn't mean to write a great story here. The usefulness of a legal system like the one I have in my car. And no, we don't get paid a cent for saying this. Because secretly I'm quite happy with it. Of course I'm no more Catholic than the Pope and I sometimes step on the gas on my M2. If you know that there is a civilian car next to you, you will think twice when pulling away from the traffic light.
Now you can have a discussion whether such a system should be legal or not. In any case, you can use it in the Netherlands and in various other European countries as well. Anyone who uses it as a license to move through traffic like an idiot: bad, then your driver's license can be shredded as far as I'm concerned.
In addition to promoting road safety, civilian cars with flashing lights and sirens are an excellent inconspicuous addition to the government's treasury. It's easy to drive too fast and before you know it a Stop Police appears. The next cabinet has quite a financial gap to fill, so the treasury could use some help.
This article How I knew this was a police car first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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