🚒 🚑 🚓 Save a Life-Pull Over

     My husband and I stopped at a bakery to get a loaf of bread a couple of days ago. As we were leaving and neared the intersection to make our turn toward home, we heard the scream of a siren. It’s hard to discern, many times, from which direction the vehicle is approaching. However, the law is you must pull your vehicle over to allow safe passage for any emergency vehicle, whatever it might be; either a fire truck, police car or ambulance. In the intersection we were approaching there were turn lanes east and west to north and south. We were going south intending on turning east toward home. I watched as the turn light changed from red to green arrow, fully expecting no cars to attempt the turn, either heading south turning east or heading north turning west, in front of an oncoming ambulance. And yet not one, not two, not three cars but four floored it to turn west in front of the rapidly traveling ambulance. The ambulance which was heading east had had to get in the west bound (empty) lanes because the east bound ones were stopped for the light. I held my breath and waited for the head-on collision I was sure was coming. Only by the skilled maneuvering of the ambulance driver was a catastrophe prevented. My husband and I breathed a sigh of relief.

     It reminded me of a story I heard from a woman I worked with way back in the 1970s. This woman was a former stewardess (flight attendant) for British Airways. She told me of an incident in June of 1972 when a BEA Trident airliner slammed into the ground only a few yards from Heathrow Airport-London. There were 119 persons onboard, all were killed. Rescue efforts were hampered because word went out about the crash and hundreds of people crowded to roads to get a “ look-loo” at the crash. Emergency vehicles could not get anywhere near the crash site. Law enforcement personnel had to literally tear down fences to allow emergency vehicles and personnel access to the area around the disaster. Lives were lost because of the crowded roads.

     I think about that every time I see people not yielding to emergency vehicles whether they are police or fire or ambulance. These people who have to rush to get where they are going because their destination is so important they can’t yield, can’t pull to the side of the road for a few seconds to allow the safe passage of the vehicle with a siren blaring tick me off. I know it is sometimes difficult to discern where exactly the siren is coming from but that’s no excuse for not following the law. What if the reason the emergency vehicle needing clear access involves one of your family members or someone else you know who find themselves in a dire situation. How will you feel if the difference between life-saving actions or grave results is because someone didn’t pull over to the side of the road to allow that emergency vehicle to get to the destination in time? I’m sure you would want them to get to your family or friend quickly to avoid an unfortunate outcome. We should all think that way whenever we are on the road and hear a siren coming our direction. Follow the law. Slow down, pull over and stop until the emergency vehicle has passed. You might be helping to save the life of someone you know.