CRISIS DEEPENS AS MORE PETROL THE 999 Emergency services at risk after panic buying
Forecourt fury as desperate drivers fill up jerry cans
EMERGENCY vehicles could be left without fuel after desperate drivers jammed filling stations and ignored Government calls not to panic-buy.
The warning from concerned ambulance bosses came on the second day of the crisis as…
ANGRY DRIVERS traded punches on a forecourt in a row over diesel.
SELFISH MOTORISTS with a load of jerry cans in the boot filled each one up while queues built up behind them.
POLICE were called to some jammed forecourts to prevent more fights erupting.
HUGE QUEUES built up on roads near petrol stations – like the one pictured right in Newmarket, Suffolk – and posed a hazard to other traffic.
The crazy scenes took place despite only 100 of the estimated 8,350 filling stations in the UK being forced to close because of fuel shortages caused by a lack of tanker drivers.
South Central Ambulance Service, which covers Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, said its 999 crews and patient-transfer volunteers routinely use petrol stations to refuel. But they had been forced to waste precious time in queues.
Student paramedic Jennifer Ward, 21, who works for Medicare EMS, which provides 999 frontline support to the East of England ambulance service, had to travel to five filling stations to get diesel for her ambulance.
Anxiety
She was eventually able to use the lorry pumps at a station in Chelmsford, Essex.
She said: “It was more the anxiety of not knowing where we can fill up when you’re on three-quarters of a tank, I could be sent anywhere and I could have had no fuel.”
An off-duty ambulance paramedic waited more than an hour to buy fuel to get to work – only to be turned away when stocks ran out with 10 other drivers ahead of her.
The woman said a colleague waited in a forecourt queue for more than an hour in a first-response vehicle on Friday night. She said: “The result was he was unavailable to attend very ill patients.”
Violence erupted on the forecourt of an Esso garage in Sidlesham near Chichester, West Sussex.
Two men started throwing punches beside the pumps as tempers flared.
Driver James Curry, who saw the fight, said: “Some of the pumps already had yellow ‘not in use’ caps on them to indicate stocks running low. There was still diesel and petrol available but obvi
ously a couple of the gents were a bit concerned that some people were taking the diesel, which they needed.
“There was a bit of shouting before punches got thrown and there was a scuffle.”
Another brawl erupted at on a forecourt in Essex, with two women
trading kung fu-style kicks. Officers had to be called in to manage queues at some forecourts to keep traffic moving and head off confrontations between the exasperated drivers.
In Lincolnshire, police urged motorists to be sensible about filling up.
The force said: “We have received reports of long queues. This is a potential hazard for vehicles making other journeys and may cause difficulties for emergency services.
“We would respectfully ask motorists to be sensible when making judgements about joining a queue. If it is too long, consider returning at a different time.” A South Wales police spokesperson said: “We are aware of drivers queuing at petrol stations. Keeping highways clear is essential for emergency services and other public services, and hindering them poses a safety risk.”
Horrendous
Former social worker Jackie Cohen said her husband Raymond missed his hospital appointment yesterday after queues blocked the road in Barnet, North London.
Mr Cohen, 75, felt ill and was told to visit Barnet General Hospital’s A&E by his doctor – a trip that should have taken 10 minutes by car but ended up lasting an hour. She said: “The queues are so horrendous for the stations that are open the area is blocked off.”
Drivers who filled up jerry cans were last night slammed as selfish by motoring groups.
Simon Williams of the RAC said: “There are a lot of people who will need fuel and other people selfishly taking it in jerry cans, which could be depriving drivers of fuel they need to get to work or carry out important jobs.
“There has clearly been panic buying which is going to cause more problems than were necessary because there is plenty of fuel. It’s important that
operational vehicles are able to get the fuel they need to carry out their work.”
London Lib Dem councillor Jon Ball said: “As London ambulances struggle to stay fuelled up, the Government must activate the Designated Filling Station scheme where emergency and critical service vehicles are given priority access to diesel and petrol.”
Haulage bosses say Britain is short of more than 100,000 drivers, partly the result of Covid lockdowns which cancelled the training and testing of tens of thousands of workers.
Sainsbury’s, which shut 20 petrol stations on Friday, said yesterday sites were reopening as deliveries turned up,
while others were closing until they received more fuel.
A spokeswoman said: “We’re experiencing high demand for fuel.
“We’re working closely with our supplier to maintain supply and all our sites continue to receive fuel.”
Limit
BP has shut 20 petrol stations and is rationing fuel at up to 100 more, while the EG Group, which has 341 petrol stations, is imposing a £30 per customer limit in a bid to stop panic buying.
Exxonmobil, the oil firm behind Esso, said that the forecourts it operates at some Tesco supermarkets have been
affected too. But Tesco said it was not rationing fuel and deliveries were continuing to arrive every day.
The supermarket said: “We have experienced minimal temporary outages in a small number of areas.
“We are ensuring supply is replenished as quickly as possible when this happens.”
Despite the reassurances, drivers on motorways were shocked to see signs saying services were closed.
A woman returning from France said: “You expect motorway services to be fine but we saw closures on the M2 and the M25. It was very worrying.”