Details are sparse (sub judice) but it apparently set off southwards towards Skipton, Keighley, Leeds / Bradford with police in hot and noisy pursuit, soon joined by the West Yorkshire Police helicopter from Carr Gate.
Settle really is a barmy place from which to escape by road - connectivity is not its strong point, distances being great whichever direction is chosen. Tractors, cows and sheep form de facto routine road block risks.
The noisy convoy went through Long Preston, disturbing the natives according to social media reports, then presumably on to Hellifield which since last winter has been pot hole hell, as I well know as an ambulance passenger with a sore neck. I am surprised its suspension survived.
Then on to Skipton (15 miles) and presumably down the by-pass and on towards Keighley. At Kildwick there is a big roundabout where the Aire Valley dual carriageway starts so the naughty men would have had to decide between that (and near certain risk of detention) and the old road towards Airedale Hospital. Maybe the ambulance had homing instincts because that is the route it took.
Maybe the naughty men were strangers to the area and were unaware of the railway level crossing at Kildwick but that is where their joy ride ended in what could have been a terrible disaster if a train had been passing on the very busy Airedale railway line.
They were arrested thanks to the eye in the sky directing ground units. I do hope 'my'*ambulance did not suffer undue damage. I hope not to travel in it again but I do owe it, and its crews, an awful lot.
* footnote. It turns out that this was not in fact 'my' ambulance but a predecessor. "my' ambulance is still going strong - see posting of 7th September 2018.
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