WTF is wrong with people these days!?!?!?! So I am driving to work and I am stopped at a red light. An ambulance with it lights and sirens on is coming down the street from the opposite direction, and as the ambulance approaches the intersection where I am stopped, the left turn light arrow turns green. Now mind you there is an ambulance coming towards the intersection at a high rate of speed.
The fuckwad nimtwit at the FRONT of the turn lane turns left IN FRONT OF THE AMBULANCE!!! The ambulance had to practically stop on its way through the intersection. It wasn’t like he couldn’t see them coming. I could see them and I was the second car in the straight lane!
Why is it that some people think their time is so fucking important that they have to impede emergency vehicles!!! I mean HELLO everyone else at the intersection was aware of the ambulance except for the reject.
I see this all the time and it just boils my blood to see people blocking the way or impeding the travel of fire trucks or ambulances en route to an emergency.
Hopefully Karma will catch up with them and teach them a lesson some day.
Yeah, it really boggles my mind as well.
Even if I am in a hurry, or want to get somewhere, if I see an emergency vehicle, I always get out of the way, cause they are in way more of a hurry than I am.
I’ve always advocated arming ambulances, the way stage coaches used to be. The shotgun guy would have license to kill.
You can bet people would hustle out of their way, then.
I blame non-enforcement. I believe in Europe they have “blue light runs” in which police ride behind an abulance and tag people who don’t pull over.
I have never in my life heard or anyone being ticketed for blocking a firetruck or ambulance (or even police cars). People act like stupid sheep when they drive. Even with my music blasting I can always see an ambulance and I always move over (either to the center of the road or the right side, depending on where the emergency vehicle is going).
I am a very nervous driver and would doubtless panic and ram right into an oil tanker or driver over a cliff if I saw an emergency vehicle heading my way . . .
As a former EMT I can state that yes, if a cop saw you not stop for an emergency vehicle you would be ticketed. There wasn’t always a cop car around, though.
Luckily, there would be an emergency vehicle right there…
[Minor nitpick] Rather than stop, I’d prefer people to yield-pull to the right, turn right, get the f**k outta the way. Having approached people from the rear, they sometimes panic and stop. right. there. Yield is not part of their option list, and so I have to wait until other operators with a better mental OS provide a hole for my firetruck or ambulance.[/Minor nitpick]
Truly, the party in the OP should have been made to eat their driver’s license, without peanut butter, and walk home while wearing signboards proclaiming, “I Am an Asshat.” 
We’re supposed to yield and get out of the way when you’re coming up behind us. Doesn’t everyone know that? 
OK, here’s my stupid question of the day. (I limit myself to one stupid question per day. Stupid comments are still in infinite supply.) If you’re coming up behind a wall of cars at a red light, and don’t have a path through, can the cars run the light to get out of your way? I’ve never had this happen, and I’ve always wondered what I should do.
This is why I really like the idea that ambulances and firetrucks turn traffic lights into four way reds.
Right, except you can’t trust that some asshole will run a red light anyhow. I’d arm the passenger EMT guy with a camera and photograph the asshole’s license plate to be sent to the cops for subsequent action. Who in the hell needs to be in THAT much of a hurry?
- PW
When I’m in my POV, and I see an emergency vehicle approaching from the rear, I will pull forward against a standing red (if safe to do so) and move to the right, and hope that anyone behind me will follow suit.
To add to danceswithcats post, if you are unable to do what he suggests, STAY WHERE YOU ARE! I’m sure the EV drivers would rather know where we are than try to guess where we are going whilst they dodge and weave their way through the mess of cars. I’d rather STOP than move to what I think is out of their way but may actually be thier next path of least resistance.
Along the same line, is when you do pull over to let the ambulance etc by, the idiots behind the vehicle will not let you back in traffic.
No one around here will move out of the way at a light because they’ve put those damn red light cameras at every intersection. They don’t want that $80 ticket.
Maybe it’s just me, but I figure if an ambulance has its lights and siren on, somebody is in bad shape in there and needs to get to a hospital ASAP. That person could even be me someday. Who am I to get in their way?
I hate hate hate when I’m stuck in traffic and an ambulance is trying to get through but I have nowhere to move to. I feel bad for everybody inside it.
Here in Las Vegas, if the ambulance/firetruck need to get through an intersection in high volume traffic (i.e., all lanes are blocked at the light- which is the majority of the time here) in the direction they are coming the EV jumps the median and goes down the other side of the road. Even then people are a bunch of brain donaters and think tey do not have to stop. In seven years of living here in Vegas, I have never seen/heard of anyone ticked for not yeilding to an EV en route.
I’ve always been taught to not force a car through a red light. If I come up to an intersection and there is no way through, I will shut down the siren, leaving the emergency lights on, and wait a considerable distance back until the lights turn green.
My thought process is that it is dangerous to force the other driver through a red light–it is already dangerous enough with emergency lights–and if they get hit then we have another patient to take care of, delaying care for the first patient.
When I started working as a driver locally, I was forced to watch a video that stated that all vehicles must move to the RIGHT side of the road when emergency vehicles come up behind or in oncoming traffic. I have yet to see a law that is so explicit, but it stands to reason that pulling to the right is the safest thing to do.
I saw an instance about a year and a half ago where a vehicle was making a left hand turn while a fire truck came up behind him. I guess he figured he would get out of the way by moving into the left turn lane while everyone else was moving to the right (except the one car that was sitting at the stop-light in the left hand lane). When he made his move, the fire truck was already moving to the left to pass him with horns honking and siren blaring. After already committing himself to the move, the driver of the fire truck was forced to move to the left even further into oncoming traffic. As there always is, one of the oncoming cars didn’t think he had to yield to the emergency vehicle, and they were less than three feet away from getting into a head-on collision. As it sits, the fire truck lost control on the ice and hit the ditch. No one died from the incident, which is extremely lucky. The fire truck was summoned on a false alarm. There was one squad car trailing the fire truck, and he stopped the person who pulled to the left to make sure he didn’t miss his left hand turn. The other guy (oncoming) who didn’t yield got away.
I didn’t see the importance of moving to the right before, but I do now. Rule of thumb: if you see emergency vehicles, pull to the right and stop. If you are already stopped, stay stopped. Just get out of the way. Cars criss-crossing across a center turn lane does not constitute “getting out of the way”.
In defence of the idiots who do not move out of the way, of which I am NOT one, sometimes although it may be glaringly obvious to everyone else that an emergency vehicle is coming it is possible that not everyone sees it. I myself have been driving along and notice everyone in front of pulling over and acting what I consider at the time to be very wierd. I then look in my rear-view mirror and two cars back see an ambulance. I think shit how did I not see or hear that? It does happen, and I guess if it can happen to me it can happen to others.
Without trying to hijack, what about those who jump behind the ambulance to get a good run through traffic? What goes on AFTER the vehicle has gone past is more scary!