During my career in the Fire Service, I was a driver for all but the first five years. We had to learn in a manual vehicle, and take our HGV test in one, although all the actual appliances were automatics.
One fire call I remember was a call out to a downed aircraft. That was all the information we had, and although the location was into West’s Yorkshire (I was stationed in South Yorkshire) we were the closest station to the incident.
For all we knew, it could have been a commercial aircraft, so we had to get there rapid fashion.
That particular shift, our Mercedes Fire Engine had gone in for repair, and we had an old Dennis for the day.
I was driving, and although old, it could motor a bit once it got going.
The guys in the back were shouting out directions wherever I wasn’t 100% sure, and very close to the incident, there was a right turn that was hidden and almost completely back on ourselves. It appeared without warning, and to a crescendo of “here” I hit the brakes with as much force as I could manage. The effect was so minimal, everyone continued shouting at me, not realising I was now literally standing in the brake pedal.
The old Dennis had an archaic abs system, where you could feel the rapid on/off application through the pedal.
We were probably doing maybe 50 mph ish when I first applied the brakes. I reckon we managed to stop in @ 100 - 150 meters. It was downhill, and we did weigh 12.5 tonnes, but, really ?!
The downed aircraft turned out to be a glider that had just run out of thermals, the two occupants were leaning against a fence having a smoke, and seemed quite bemused at our arrival. I sent the message to return any West Yorkshire appliances that were en-route, but before it could be relayed to them, from the opposite direction to us appeared a convoy of blue lights of mammoth proportion. This included @ 4 Fire Engines, Control Unit, Emergency tenders, water bowsers etc etc.
I did pass comment to the pilot, if You were surprised when we turned up, have a look over there
There was of course a pre-arranged initial turnout for that type of reported incident, just in case there was a Boing 747 in pieces somewhere.
Needless to say, the Dennis was taken out of service the moment we returned to station, I had pointed out that all I was trying to do was slow down for a sharp turn, but what if it had been a school bus that pulled out in front of us!?
Technology has indeed progressed since then, which is one of the points used when arguing for speed limit increases.