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Safe Emergency Responses in Traffic
Recently, I've witnessed emergency vehicles (mostly private ambulances and Police cars), passing other vehicles on the right side. From day one I was always taught to pass on the left, because according to the law, vehicles yielding right of way must pull to the right and stop. I witnessed these emergency vehicles come close to being struck multiple times as motorists reacted to the lights and sirens by pulling to the right, into the path of the emergency vehicle! Some of these incidents happened on straight stretches of roadway, while others happened at an intersection.
What's your policy on this? Ours is to pass on the left whenever possible.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mark Oomkes on
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I have one EO that likes to do this despite me telling him over and over and over again that he is not to do this. Others have told him as well, if he does it again, I'm going up the line with it. Scares the crap out of me.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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"stop at all intersections before proceeding"
A few weeks before this incident, I saw another ambulance roll right through an intersection, and to top it off, they had the RED light! The day before that, I saw a police car do the same thing!
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Laws do not apply to the popo Brian. lol
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Permalink Reply by Mike Cox on
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If you do not make it to the scene you are no help to anyone! Pass on the left when safe, proceed through the red light AFTER you ensure it is safe to do so. There are cases when it may be necessary to pass on the right but usually only when traffic is stopped and that is the only open route. Then do so slowly with lights but no siren. The siren is what causes the traffic to be startled and pull to the right.
Just my 2 cents.
Be safe,
Mike
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Permalink Reply by Brad MacMillan on
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There was a story about a guy in Ontario that was charged with failing to stop at a red light while he had lights and siren on. He ended up hitting a vehicle and killing the driver. He plead guilty and was fined $500. Here's the story.
http://bmacmillan.blogspot.com/
find and click on the story.
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Yes it does, although sometimes they don't believe that!
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Permalink Reply by Firefighter30 on
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Our policy here is same thing, stop at all intersections, stop at all red lights and proceed only when all traffic has stopped and is allowing you to procede throught the intersection, and only pass on the LEFT when it is safe to do so....
We had an incident up here a few summers ago, we were called out around 6am for a report of playground equimpent on fire, and while our first pumper was on it's way to the scene, it was involved in an accident. Now let me give you the details, the pumper had it's lights and sirens activated, they came upon a red light at an intersection, stopped, and when all traffic had stopped only then did the driver of the fire truck procede throught the intersection, but as he was doing so, some young punk decided he was going to blow past all the stopped traffic ON THE RIGHT SIDE (driver didn't see him due to this car being blocked by a semi hauling a tanker) and just as the kid came though the intersection he was T-boned by the fire truck. The matter was taken to court, but the driver of the fire truck was not conviced of anything, and i believe the kid in the car was charged with passing on the wrong side of traffic, and some other charges...not to mention the time he had to spend in the hospital.
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I agree completely Ralph. There are times when there is no option but to pass on the right. However the instances that I witnessed were not one of those times.
@ Firefighter30: That young punk actually had the right of way. His light was green and he was screened from seeing the fire engine by the semi truck, just as the engineer couldn't see the "punk" because of the semi. That being said, if the kid was charged with passing on the wrong side of traffic, I'm assuming then that he was passing on the shoulder and not in a traffic lane. If that's the case then the "punk" was in the wrong.
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There are actually quite a few firefighters and Medics in jail for that all over the country.
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Michigan left turns are the stupidest traffic "control" device ever engineered. Whoever came up with them ought to be shot, hung, tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Or worse.
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No, I stay away from there after moving east, thankfully. We cover a few miles of the new M-6 Autobahn though.
Had many a fun time out there before it was widened and a center divider was added. That's where I learned to go cross-eyed. One eye on what I was doing and the other on traffic.
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It's been awile since I've been in Michigan. What's a Michigan left turn device?
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