Emergency Vehicles and Traffic Laws

[Berzerker]

I gotta a gripe, the last 3 times I came (relatively) close to accidents it was the result of drivers over reacting to ambulances. I dont get it, why do people insist on slamming on the brakes? The law says pull over and stop SAFELY! That doesn't mean pull over regardless of who is there and slam on the brakes. Jesus, today I was in the far right lane of a 5 lane divided road and the guys in front of me in both lanes saw an ambulance coming, so the guy to my left pulls in front of me and hits the brakes hard because the guy in front of both of us was hitting his brakes hard. Its like a race to see if they can stop before the ambulance passes them

Even cops aint immune to this insanity, the last time something like this happened it was a highway patrolman who nearly caused an accident. There were 4 of us on a 4 lane divided highway, 3 of us in the right lane with me last and the cop in the left and just ahead of us. An ambulance with lights but no sound came up from behind us in the left/fast lane, this process took several minutes since the ambulance wasn't moving real fast and we were going ~70. So no one pulled over, even the highway patrolman stayed in the left lane until the ambulance got right on him - and then he pulled over and hit the brakes doing ~70 in front of 3 cars. No ****! I couldn't believe it, I saw the cop swerve in front of us and brake lights started flashing in my face. I hit the brakes and pulled into the fast lane behind the ambulance and passed everyone. I've never seen such a boneheaded move by a cop, or by anyone for that matter...

[SlowwHand]

Pretty bad. People either do as you say or don't pull over at all, in many cases. We need to tighten up on driving privileges.

[Lorizael]

A few years ago I was waiting to make a left turn at an intersection. Am ambulance comes through from the opposite direction, lights and sirens blazing, and turns onto the road I was waiting to turn onto. Everybody gets out of the way as they should. Then, when things have settled down, I go ahead and make my left. That's when the ambulance, now in front of me, suddenly shifts into reverse and backs up into the the intersection. I am forced to do the same, which halts the traffic behind us, and leaves me sitting in the middle of the intersection like an idiot. After backing up, the ambulance then turns left and continues on its way. If it wanted to go that direction, fine, but why the **** couldn't it have just made a u-turn?

[rah]

Up around Chicago it seems a bit different. Except for a few oldsters that get confused and will do the unexpected, most drivers really don't want to get out of the way of emergency vehicles because they feel their needs are more important. As a result they take their time getting out of the way so it's actually less dangerous.

[Felch]

Sometimes I slam on my brakes just to **** with tailgaters.

[loinburger]

What drives me nuts is when people slam on the brakes when they see a cop who has pulled somebody over. The cop is already occupied you nitwits, no need to slow to 55 in a 65 zone.

[Spaced Cowboy]

What gets me is the tendency of the local municipalities here to outfit all city vehicles with flashing lights.

While it might get more awareness of garbage truck and landscaping crews, the flashing lights are desensitizing me for actual emergency vehicles, that is, I am tending to ignore all flashing lights.

[Main_Brain]

Only the Blue Flashing Lights are important.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_vehicle_lighting#Usage_by_country