blues and twos

alternative blues-and-twos

1. IrelandUKinformalpluralplural onlyThe flashing lights and loud siren of an emergency vehicle.

   The new directive says risks associated with the use of so-called ‘blues and twos’ by coastguard vehicles “need to be mitigated”.

   2019 February 20, MacDara Conroy, “No More Blue Lights & Sirens For Irish Coast Guard Road Vehicles Under New Directive”, in Afloat.ie

   2 more examples

   Five minutes later, Bella, efficient as ever, radioed him back with an address near Hove station, about ten minutes drive away, going soberly, or ninety seconds with the blues and twos on.

   2006, Peter James, Looking Good Dead, New York: Pan, →ISBN, page 142

   “The hospital rang home and said somebody needs to get here quickly,” Coffey told the paper. “So my mum, who must have been in her eighties by then, came up and we did the flashing blues and twos down to King’s [College hospital] and I was operated on that night.”

   2023 December 2, Hayden Vernon, “Thérèse Coffey says she ‘came close to dying’ from brain abscess”, in The Guardian, London

alternative blues-and-twos

1. IrelandUKinformalnot comparable[of an emergency vehicle] with the blues and twos switched on

   If Mondo was alive, he'd be long gone, the ambulance hurtling blues and twos to the nearest hospital.

   2003, Val McDermid, The Distant Echo, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 304

   1 more example

   He glanced at his watch. “Blues and twos,” he said. “I want to get there before the train.” [...] They pulled out of the forecourt at the rear of the police office and drove straight across into Vauxhall Bridge Road, ignoring the one-way circuit, their siren and blue light carving a priority passage through the afternoon traffic.

   1990, Graham Ison, A Damned Serious Business, Ulverscroft Large Print, →ISBN, pages 351-352