Stay Safe Out There - A PSA from Wu!

WuLabsWuTecH

Forum Deputy Chief
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I just saw this happen today when driving home from the library.

A Medic and a flycar are coming hot down a 4 lane street with a left turn lane (5 lanes in total).

3 lanes in the same direction of travel as the Medic are occupied at a red light. Medic crosses over, goes to "wail," sounds horn through intersection. Crosses back, continues on its way. No problem.

Very close behind it the flycar changes to "hyper" crosses over, and ends up almost on the left sidewalk narrowly avoiding the car in the first left turn lane turning left.

What went wrong?!

So the problem was multi faceted (as are most things that cause accidents, very seldom does one thing going wrong cause an accident)

Problem 1 was that the green left arrow came on while the medic was clearing the intersection.

Problem 2 is what I want to really address though.

The medic I noticed, had high sirens, but also low sirens. When it came closer to me, all I heard were the low tones since it was so much louder than the high ones. Also, I didn't hear the flycar's sirens until it was just abeam of me since the medic's low tones drown out the flycar's high tones. (The flycar did not have low tones) The medic and fly car did everything right in respect to the fact that they used two different sirens (yelp and hyper) to go through the intersection. What I think happened, was that the first car saw the medic but not the flycar since the flycar would have still been farther back, and when the medic cleared and he heard the high tones fade into the distance, he went to turn left as the low tones were still being heard by him and were still drowning out the high tones of the smaller, quieter flycar.

In any case, I don't know of these sirens, and perhaps they don't exist that frequently, but please try to be careful out there on the roads. Always assume that they have not seen you. And if your department has these sirens, keep a longer following distance between you and the apparatus in front of you.

This has been a public service announcement from WUTV.
 

karaya

EMS Paparazzi
Premium Member
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Sounds like good advice!
 

Seaglass

Lesser Ambulance Ape
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I've noticed that too. When I'm driving on the highway and I see an engine with a really loud siren, I know to look for other vehicles with sirens that are being drowned out. Although I know they have to be there, since it's very rare to see an engine responding alone here, I often don't see or hear them until they'd be too close to avoid.

On top of that, responses aren't always well-coordinated. Sometimes you'll get an engine coming down the center lane, and a cop or whatever coming up the shoulder, so that anyone who pulls over too far to get out of the engine's way is risking being hit by the cop. I've heard of it causing accidents.
 

JPINFV

Gadfly
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This is why Police escorts are such a bad idea.

....That's why if you're being escorted, the escortee vehicle needs to stay in the intersection until the escorted makes it through. There's a reason why funeral processions have more than one officer and why it isn't just one emergency vehicle followed by all of the other cars in the procession.
 

Seaglass

Lesser Ambulance Ape
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This is why Police escorts are such a bad idea.

It's not just the cops. Sometimes you'll have people responding from one station going down the middle, and people from another on the shoulder. It's more likely to happen when you have multiple agencies, stations from different jurisdictions, or both.
 

wyoskibum

Forum Captain
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....That's why if you're being escorted, the escortee vehicle needs to stay in the intersection until the escorted makes it through.

That is fine until the next intersection, and then the next. You are always going to have more intersections the cops for an escort to be safe.
 

wyoskibum

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It's not just the cops. Sometimes you'll have people responding from one station going down the middle, and people from another on the shoulder. It's more likely to happen when you have multiple agencies, stations from different jurisdictions, or both.

I agree that it can be a problem. I will pull over and let the cop car or flight car pass since they maneuver better than the ambulance, even if I'm running L&S.
 
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WuLabsWuTecH

Forum Deputy Chief
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escorts are only useful in my opinion in rush hour. People tend to not want to move over as they fear "losing their spot" and not being able to get back into the fast lane. Then you got people tailgating you to take advantage of a clear lane. With the police there, people will usually not do it as they know they will get pulled over and ticketed (and possibly charged with obstructing emergency response and sent to court if the officer is having a particularly bad day).

In that case you're not going too fast down the highway, so stay close to the cop in front of you lest someone try and pull out behind him.

I find cops really help get you through that morning gridlock.

Also, for an officer down call, you can bet your jumpkit on the fact that you'll find a cop car already having stopped traffic at every intersection between your station and the scene! It's a shame they don't do that for all calls! :D

In response to one going on the shoulder and one going down the center, aside from getting close to your exit on the freeway, does ANYONE still go down the right? We were taught almost never to pass to the right. The exception being if all the lanes are blocked except for the right turn lane, then proceed very slowly in the right turn lane.
 

Grady_emt

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Also, for an officer down call, you can bet your jumpkit on the fact that you'll find a cop car already having stopped traffic at every intersection between your station and the scene! It's a shame they don't do that for all calls! :D

And from the scene to the hospital. Last officer down call I ran, there were 3 lights to the interstate all of which were blocked, every on-ramp was blocked to the interstate, and the 3 lights off the exit were blocked. There were 5 motor units infront of our unit and 2 cars behind.

In response to one going on the shoulder and one going down the center, aside from getting close to your exit on the freeway, does ANYONE still go down the right? We were taught almost never to pass to the right. The exception being if all the lanes are blocked except for the right turn lane, then proceed very slowly in the right turn lane.

IF traffic is gridlocked, I'll drive down the breakdown lane/right shoulder as it is typically wider than the left shoulder and allows a little extra wiggle room to get around cars.


As fro the OP, when I'm in a fly car or smaller vehicle, I try to get infront of the ambo and clear the intersection and wait until the ambo is pulling into it before I pull out. Not only does it hold the intersection for them, but the smaller, less visible vehicle is before the bigger ambo with the louder siren.
 
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WuLabsWuTecH

Forum Deputy Chief
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And from the scene to the hospital. Last officer down call I ran, there were 3 lights to the interstate all of which were blocked, every on-ramp was blocked to the interstate, and the 3 lights off the exit were blocked. There were 5 motor units infront of our unit and 2 cars behind.



IF traffic is gridlocked, I'll drive down the breakdown lane/right shoulder as it is typically wider than the left shoulder and allows a little extra wiggle room to get around cars.


As fro the OP, when I'm in a fly car or smaller vehicle, I try to get infront of the ambo and clear the intersection and wait until the ambo is pulling into it before I pull out. Not only does it hold the intersection for them, but the smaller, less visible vehicle is before the bigger ambo with the louder siren.
Maybe it is around where you are. They are about the same size in most places around here.

Yeah, they could probably get the fly car to respond ahead of the Medic if they just parked their vehicles most strategically. I know their station and have been in it a few times and the problem is that they medic is parked in the right most position of the bay and the front most position of the bay so it is ALWAYS the first out of that station when multiple units are going out of that station. The medic is used too frequently to put it in the second row (and I believe that parked behind the Medic is the second medic anyway) but they have a bay that's 7 vehicles wide with 7 doors so I'm sure if they got a game of rush hour and diagrammed it out first they could figure out what to put where.

Also in thinking about this, I just realized the astronomical amount of units they have. 3 engines with two of them Engine-rescues, an EMS fly car, a Fire Fly car, 2 Medics, A Ladder, A Hazmat, and a 3rd reserve medic. Perhaps they already got it worked out!
 

dmc2007

Forum Captain
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On top of that, responses aren't always well-coordinated. Sometimes you'll get an engine coming down the center lane, and a cop or whatever coming up the shoulder, so that anyone who pulls over too far to get out of the engine's way is risking being hit by the cop. I've heard of it causing accidents.

Isn't that why it is never advisable to pass on the right?
 
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WuLabsWuTecH

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What grady said makes sense though, that if there is not enough room down the center, you HAVE to go right. I'll only go right if my exit is close on the highway or as described above aobut the right turn lane stuff.

If there IS enough room in the center though, I'd go there as should everyone else and that way, everyone is either going center, or if no room down the center, everyone is going down the right.

Also, if the guy in front of you is already going right, follow the leader. It's better to be consistent than to confuse people and have 1 on the right, the next on the left, the next 2 on the right. Etc.

I actually can't see any time around here that responding agencies would "fall in line" when responding except with those from your own station. Chances are you're not the same distance away from the scene in the same direction right? Or otherwise your two stations would be really close to each other!

And it being never advisable to pass on the right is usually true, but i WOULDN'T say NEVER. We say that because people are (suppossedly) trained to slow down and pull right, so if that instinct kicks in, you don't want them pulling right into your path of travel.
 

Grady_emt

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Let me just say that I was only speaking on the interstate with the larger right hand shoulder. On surface streets I go left, or if there is a raised median, then may split between the two lanes down the middle.
 
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