A friend of mine, who is a great dad, a responsible, practical, and generally careful person, was broadsided by a fire truck last year. He was hit going through a green light, but he was at fault because he should have been aware of the truck’s lights and sirens. Perhaps he was too tired to be driving, since he was a nursing student who had been working 12-hour shifts. He’s always blamed himself and been very thankful that it happened after he dropped his little girl (my daughter’s best friend) off at school. He suffered very little injury, only some pulled muscles and bruising.
Somehow, even though it was all his fault, I’m still pretty glad he wasn’t more seriously injured.
Don’t be so quick to judge the police, many might be responding code 2, no lights and sirens, priority. Sometimes used to catch theives in the act, etc.
I was taught to always pull over for an emergency vehicle, even in the opposite lane, and around here that seems to be the norm too. I think it’s because it’s safer for everyone if the emergency driver can see where everyone is, and if it’s a 2 lane road, they have more room to manuver around people. Even on a multiple-lane road, people can’t always all get over if there’s traffic, or at an intersection people can be stuck where they are. If both lanes pull over, quite often the vehicle can go down the middle of the road or into oncoming traffic lanes to get around the jam.
I found one law (for New York State) stating that any time an emergency vehicle can be seen displaying 1 red light, that all vehicles are required to yield right-of-way and pull to the curb or edge of road. I would guess that the law is at least similar in other states. But I do see many people who don’t pull over, or follow the vehicle. Personally, I pull over as soon as possible and safe.
It happened in Esko, along I-35 a little outside of Duluth. An inattentive driver hit 3 firefighters and a police officer, killing one of them
Around here, if an emergency vehicle runs a red light and hits someone, the driver of the emergency vehicle is at fault, lights and siren, or not. The law requires other drivers to yield the right of way, but does not excuse the emergency vehicle operator form driving without due regard for others. Running a red light and hitting someone clearly does not demonstrate due regard for the safety of others.
Personally, I’m willing to make a rolling stop through a red light or stop sign, but blowing through them full speed is simply negligent.
Also, one time I was on a light-rail train that rammed a fire truck. The truck went through a busy intersection through a red light. All the car traffic had stopped, but I guess the truck didn’t see the train, which was already in the intersection. And there’s no way to stop one of those trains that fast.
The impact knocked the front of the train off the tracks and breached the water tank on the truck, so water went everywhere. Amazingly, no one was hurt, and there were other trucks responding to the nearby house fire the truck was headed to. But it made for an interesting afternoon for us train passengers.
New York drivers seem to be particularly bad about pulling over. Even pedestrians will continue to cross in front of an oncoming emergency vehicle.
A while ago my mother was in a serious accident in Seattle, where the drivers are (or at least were) pretty good, and the aid car that saved her life arrived in less than a minute. Now I get very upset whenever I hear a siren in Manhattan, because I keep thinking If my mother had been hit here, she’d be dead. Sometimes I’m tempted to go out into the intersection and stop the oncoming traffic, but I know I’d just get myself killed.
On the other hand, a lot of times it really is difficult to tell if an emergency vehicle is trying to get through or not. They’ll sit in traffic for a while, bloop the siren once, turn it off, then turn it on again a little, then turn it off. It’s impossible to tell what they’re trying to communicate, but they’re certainly making the problem worse by creating confusion. (Ambulances seem to be the worst about this.)
There’s a story I heard, I think on the radio, reported as true, although it sounds way too neat not to be an urban legend. A man driving in Brooklyn took advantage of other cars pulling over to dart in front of an ambulance, and then discovered that the vehicle he had slowed down was on the way to his mother, who had had a heart attack. If the story ended with his mother dying because of the delay, I’d be sure it was apocryphal, but since it didn’t I wonder: does anyone know if it’s true?
Around here, the law also states that cars on both sides of the street are to pull over, unless it’s a divided road (with a median strip). Doesn’t matter if the fire engine is coming towards you, you pull over anyway.
And blowing through a stop sign or red light without stopping is also against the law. We’re required to stop, check for oncoming traffic, and then proceed through the red light or stop sign. Of course, more often than not, it’s a rolling stop, with the air horn going like crazy so people know we’re coming.
I just like the look on people’s faces when they realize it’s a girl driving the fire engine.
This is off-topic, but I’m too much of a geek to let it alone: the Doppler shift cannot tell you how far away they are, only how fast they are traveling relative to you (and in fact only the component of their direction toward or away from you).
A fire truck doing 60 mph toward you will have the same Doppler shift if it’s a block away or a mile away.
Back on topic, a few years ago I watched a fire truck in Manhattan that couldn’t move because no one got out of the way. I can honestly say it was one of the most infuriating moments in my life. I wonder if anything has changed there since last September?
This is off-topic, but I’m too much of a geek to let it alone: the Doppler shift cannot tell you how far away they are, only how fast they are traveling relative to you (and in fact only the component of their direction toward or away from you).
A fire truck doing 60 mph toward you will have the same Doppler shift if it’s a block away or a mile away.
Back on topic, a few years ago I watched a fire truck in Manhattan that couldn’t move because no one got out of the way. I can honestly say it was one of the most infuriating moments in my life. I wonder if anything has changed there since last September?