If you or someone you love is in need of emergency assistance, you want help to get there as quickly as possible! Did you know that there’s one thing everyone can do to help EMTs, firefighters and police provide this emergency assistance as quickly as possible? It’s as simple as Moving to the Right for Sirens and Lights!
Every year in the United States, there are almost 16,000 collisions involving fire department emergency vehicles alone while responding to emergency calls. These collisions result in over 1,000 injuries and almost fifty deaths.
Many people panic or simply don’t adhere to the rules of the road for approaching emergency vehicles. The law is very specific, drivers must yield to an approaching emergency vehicle operating it’s emergency lights and siren. To yield means to come to a complete stop until the emergency vehicle has passed. Failure to do so may cause serious delays or accidents with ambulances, fire apparatus or police cars en-route to the scene of an emergency.
There are some simple rules to follow when you’re on the road and encounter an emergency vehicle operating in emergency mode- Lights and Siren.
DO:
Stay calm
Pull to the right and come to a complete stop
If you are in the left lane, pull over into the right lane as traffic in that lane to your right moves over.
If you cannot move to the right because of another vehicle or obstacle, just stop. Your action will let the emergency vehicle operator know what you are doing and allow the operator to anticipate where to drive.
When you are at an intersection and an emergency vehicle operating in emergency mode approaches you from behind, stay where you are unless you can pull to the right.
On a four lane highway or a street without barriers both sides of traffic must pull to the right.
Be extremely careful when driving by an accident or any scene where emergency personnel are working, many of them are injured by secondary collisions, caused by drivers watching the scene instead of where they are going!
Drivers must stay at least 500 feet behind fire apparatus.
Wait and insure that all emergency vehicles have passed, before you pull back into traffic. Many emergency vehicle collisions happen when drivers get impatient and pull out into the path of another emergency vehicle!
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