I think this ties in nicely with the previous thread here about the
couple rushing to hospital to have baby get ticket.
I would like to state that I believe the majority of accidents involving emergency vehicles are a result of OTHER DRIVERS FAILING TO YIELD THE RIGHT OF WAY to the emergency vehicle. Most ambulance drivers do not want to have or cause an accident (primarily because of the paperwork involved
), but unfortunately, they are blamed if they get into an accident because someone else failed to yield the right of way.
I think the laws should be changed so that in an accident involving an emergency vehicle using appropriate warning devices (lights, sirens), it would have to be proved that the driver of the emergency vehicle was GROSSLY NEGLIGENT in causing the accident. Otherwise, it should be the fault of the people that don't stop for the flashing lights and sirens.
The state of South Dakota instituted a program a few years ago that I think is fairly good. First of all, EVERYONE is required to sign a form when the renew their driver's license stating that they understand they must yield to ALL emergency vehicles using warning devices, and that failure to do so may result in them receiving a citation. The second half of this is that any law enforcement agency in the state will issue a citation to anyone that you say failed to yield to your emergency vehicle, as long as you fill out a statement about it.
As long as we continue to treat the failure to yield to an emergency vehicle as no big deal, we will continue to have serious accidents. Make failure to yield a big deal, and people will pay a lot more attention to their driving.
Thus endeth the rant.
