At least in this town, fire trucks and fire fighters are the first responders. They are all trained in CPR and rescue so if someone is trapped or unconscious they can handle it. And you are more likely to get out of the way with a fire truck roaring up behind you that a police car or a paramedic truck or an ambulance. Once the fire fighters assess the situation, they will often call in the Paramedics and Ambulance. But the trucks come out every time. Sometimes they don't bother to call the paramedics and just call the ambulance. I guess it depends on how much of an emergency the call actually is. The Paramedics are advanced life support, they can administer drugs if your heart stops or you are having an anaphalatic reaction, they can shoot you full of epinepherin, whereas the fire fighters and ambulance people cannot, all they can do is maintain airway and CPR to maintain heart beat.
And you are more likely to get out of the way with a fire truck roaring up behind you that a police car or a paramedic truck or an ambulance.
That strikes me as so odd. Here in Ontario, it's the law that you have to pull over and stop your car when an emergency vehicle comes. They test for that on driver's examinations, too. If you don't notice, they'll honk at you until you get out of the way, and you may get a citation in the mail a few days later.
In any case, it's no big deal to do, doesn't slow anyone down by much, and cuts down on the noise, since the emergency vehicles don't have to lean on their horns the way I've seen them do in the US.
I believe it's the law here in the States as well - but where a police or medical emergency is commonly seen as affecting "those other people", a fire emergency is seen as "could affect me". It's a sad statement that among the advice that kids are given to prevent abductions is to yell "Fire!" instead of "Help!"
Oh yeah, it's the law here that you are supposed to yield for emergency vehicles. But I have actually seen cars pull out of side streets and cut off ambulances so that the ambulance had to hit it's brakes hard enough for the tires to squeal. I guess the risk of being hit by an ambulance and surviving is not as great as being hit by a huge ladder truck or something. I have seen people make illegal right turns on red lights in front of moving police vehicles. People are stupid, or maybe they are hoping to get hit so they can sue the town and make some money, I don't know.
Yes, it's the law here in the states. However, I have been in the car with a panicking driver who started to move in one direction and then in another and then said he didn't know what to do. The opposite lane was clear so I told the driver "Don't move!" because the ambulance, even though you are supposed to move out of their way, would much rather go around you if you are sitting still than have to slow down and/or wait because you are still moving and they don't know what you're doing.
My mother was a volunteer EMT for several years and while she never drove, she was often shotgun and she witnessed some radical shit by drivers.
Yup, It's pretty scary what some people will do in front of an emergency vehicle. I usually try to get as far out of the way as I can. If I can't do that safely I just stop as far to the side as I can get and don't move and then the emergency vehicle can hopefully get around me. I figure if I'm not moving they will not have to worry about me and just deal with all the other people who don't understand to get of the way.
It's the law. And when I took driver-ed, it was presented as a pretty fucking important one. Alas, it is so oft ignored 'round here that when I see an entire line of cars get out of the way I am surprised. Pleasantly surprised, but ideally 'twouldn't be surprising at all.
And that's before getting to the folks who get all flustered and confused (tempted to write "conflustered") trying to figure out what to do.
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That strikes me as so odd. Here in Ontario, it's the law that you have to pull over and stop your car when an emergency vehicle comes. They test for that on driver's examinations, too. If you don't notice, they'll honk at you until you get out of the way, and you may get a citation in the mail a few days later.
In any case, it's no big deal to do, doesn't slow anyone down by much, and cuts down on the noise, since the emergency vehicles don't have to lean on their horns the way I've seen them do in the US.
Merkins are weird
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My mother was a volunteer EMT for several years and while she never drove, she was often shotgun and she witnessed some radical shit by drivers.
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I usually try to get as far out of the way as I can. If I can't do that safely I just stop as far to the side as I can get and don't move and then the emergency vehicle can hopefully get around me. I figure if I'm not moving they will not have to worry about me and just deal with all the other people who don't understand to get of the way.
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And that's before getting to the folks who get all flustered and confused (tempted to write "conflustered") trying to figure out what to do.
Maybe some enforcement might help.