The Fire Truck Story

As I previously mentioned the rules of the road at the Isle of Man are not the same as in the USA. There are no speed limits when you are outside of the city limits and where it’s not posted as a speed zone. Plus if there is room to pass, then you just go for it – no matter what the lines on the road say. Not sure how legal it was, but everyone did it as long as it was safe.

So on our last day on the Island, Lord Denbigh (Rollo) has offered to take us to lunch. He made reservations at some little “French restaurant” on the other side of the island. He said it wasn’t anything fancy. I think he only said that because he had never been there. The place was very nice and I think it cost him a small fortune for all of us to eat there.  Interesting thing about this little village was that it was the only place on the island I saw a Manx cat and the 4 horned Sheep that are unique to the island.

4-Horned Loughtan Sheep

Manx Cat

Anyway, getting back to my story. So the race was over and we were all suited up, on our bikes, and ready to pull out in traffic from the church just past Quarter Bridge.  We wait as we hear sirens and then a fire truck goes by.  Shortly after that more sirens and a police car goes by. It just so happens that we are going the same directions as the two emergency vehicles.

As we get out in the countryside we start to gain on the fire truck and are soon right behind, lights and sirens blazing. He is doing about 45-50 mph and Allen (remember Allen and the police story from earlier?) passes him, after all no speed limit right? So we all pass the slow fire truck and get a nod from one of the fireman. At this point I’m saying to myself this is crazy, who passes a fire truck with lights and sirens going?  It’s obvious the police car had passed the fire truck, so what’s the harm in us passing him?  

The Rover SD1

Then we started to close on the police car. I’m running third in line and we are closing fast on the cops who have lights and sirens going as well. This is NUTS. Are they going to try to pass the police car as well? 

Passing a fire truck is one thing, but passing the police is a whole different story. I did not sign up for a night in jail. The good news was the police car turned off the main road just as we caught up to them.  Luckily, they weren’t going to the same restaurant we were!

Until next time. . .