When the siren is blaring and the lights are flashing ...

[Snuffy]

You're supposed to get out of the way ...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532498,00.html?test=latestnews

[Daveroo]

oh my...at first i was thinkin..this reminds me...then i read the story....man..never had that happen....lol....not funny but...wow...

what happened to me was..i was driving a 1953 american La France fire engine with a detroit desiel in it..it was loud and made a super cool rapping sound when you down shifted or went down a hill as the engine retared...lol....anyway...was responding code three,,lights (a single round wigwag on the roof)with 2 solid red lights on the cab front,and siren with a 12 inch brass bell for the intersections....

pulled up to an intersection,,,siren went from wail to hi-low and capt was ringing the bell and an 85 year old woman just slammed on her brakes in front of me and i hit her sqaure in the rear at about 20 miles an hour...may not seem a high speed but that HUGE steel n chrome bumper was sittin in the back seat of that lil nash rambler.....

[cheezyflier]

it's jersey, that's why:wavey:

[Gramps]

oh my...at first i was thinkin..this reminds me...then i read the story....man..never had that happen....lol....not funny but...wow...

what happened to me was..i was driving a 1953 american La France fire engine with a detroit desiel in it..it was loud and made a super cool rapping sound when you down shifted or went down a hill as the engine retared...lol....anyway...was responding code three,,lights (a single round wigwag on the roof)with 2 solid red lights on the cab front,and siren with a 12 inch brass bell for the intersections....

pulled up to an intersection,,,siren went from wail to hi-low and capt was ringing the bell and an 85 year old woman just slammed on her brakes in front of me and i hit her sqaure in the rear at about 20 miles an hour...may not seem a high speed but that HUGE steel n chrome bumper was sittin in the back seat of that lil nash rambler.....


Luckily I've never had that happen to me in the truck I drive...YET!!!!!!!!!

But I have had some people do that when in my POV...........which has lights an siren also. Luckily, sofar I've always had time to stop.

[Brian_Gladden]

Luckily I've never had that happen to me in the truck I drive...YET!!!!!!!!!

But I have had some people do that when in my POV...........which has lights an siren also. Luckily, sofar I've always had time to stop.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt...

The best one to happen to me was I was running code on an emergency transfer to another hospital (trauma center) 60 miles door to door.

I'm on the interstate, in the ambulance doing about 85 mph (speed limit is 65. In VT we can bust that) Red Lights on, I'm in the passing lane...

And this idiot actually passes me... on the right... In front of a state trooper who was sitting in the crossover running radar...

I could see the grin on the troopers face as I went by. Guy never saw the cop... until he got pulled over...

Got a call from the trooper later in the shift. Said he wrote the guy for the whole boat. Speeding, passing an emergency vehicle, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle...

In VT, you get suspended when you hit 10 points on your license. That guy had over a grand in fines and 12 points on that one stop.


It was a good day :guinness:


Brian

[Daveroo]

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt...

The best one to happen to me was I was running code on an emergency transfer to another hospital (trauma center) 60 miles door to door.

I'm on the interstate, in the ambulance doing about 85 mph (speed limit is 65. In VT we can bust that) Red Lights on, I'm in the passing lane...

And this idiot actually passes me... on the right... In front of a state trooper who was sitting in the crossover running radar...

I could see the grin on the troopers face as I went by. Guy never saw the cop... until he got pulled over...

Got a call from the trooper later in the shift. Said he wrote the guy for the whole boat. Speeding, passing an emergency vehicle, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle...

In VT, you get suspended when you hit 10 points on your license. That guy had over a grand in fines and 12 points on that one stop.


It was a good day :guinness:


Brian
lol..thats just funny....what an idiot.....:ernae:

[Snuffy]

About 6 months ago there was an accident involving rescue vehicles and the public outside of my office.

Apparently the lady who lives across the street felt she had a right to turn into her driveway at the same time that the rescue vehicles were trying to pass her ... (both vehicles were going the same direction and she was in front of the rescue vehicle ... rather than just getting on the shoulder of the road to the right like she should have by law, she made a left turn into her driveway and into the path of the rescue vehicle ...

Both vehicles ended up in her front lawn, the mailbox got taken out and at last report, rumor had it she was going to sue the city ...

[n4gix]

Years ago (back in the 70's) I worked as a Paramedic for Beacon Ambulance in Raleigh, NC. My driver was responding code 3 to the scene of an accident in the early evening, when he came up behind an older Chrysler land-boat being driven by a little old lady...

Said little old lady driving about 35 in a 60 mph zone, 2 lane road, and totally oblivious to our presence directly behind her...

...despite 14 visible red lights washing the interior of her car, a Federal Q2 siren screaming* (for those that don't know, that's a mechanical siren about the size of a battleship), and a Federal PA20 "Interceptor" electronic siren in "Yelp" mode...

...She simply kept on driving until my driver tapped the regular horn twice...

...of course she heard the silly little beep-beep of the horn, glanced in her rear view mirror, and got so frightened that the ran off the road and hit a tree.

We of course had to then stop, and call for another unit to respond to our original call. :173go1:

* Federal Q2B screaming:
jL6rWw2GyAQ

[aeromed202]

Im a medic in minnesota and seem to get nearly t-boned once a week. People do the STUPIDEST things when they finally realize what I am. I do some emergent runs code 2 just so these dips don't crash. What really burns me lately is my company has stopped maintaining our air horns saying they aren't really necessary. Course some of these management types either have no medical background or haven't talked to a patient in years. Wish I could be smart like them.

We really need a DOH! emoticon.

[Gramps]

don't have an airhorn on my pov,lol, but believe me , I blow the cob webs outa the one on the ol truck I drive every time I go out with it.

Seems like folks hear it better than the siren screamin at em :isadizzy:

[cheezyflier]

my intruder had twin air horns on it. i sure got people's attention in a hurry that way

[djscoo]

A friend of mine put a train horn on his truck...he had to remove the spare tire to make room for the air compressor, but the look on people's faces when it goes of makes it all worth it. :monkies:

[stansdds]

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt...

The best one to happen to me was I was running code on an emergency transfer to another hospital (trauma center) 60 miles door to door.

I'm on the interstate, in the ambulance doing about 85 mph (speed limit is 65. In VT we can bust that) Red Lights on, I'm in the passing lane...

And this idiot actually passes me... on the right... In front of a state trooper who was sitting in the crossover running radar...

I could see the grin on the troopers face as I went by. Guy never saw the cop... until he got pulled over...

Got a call from the trooper later in the shift. Said he wrote the guy for the whole boat. Speeding, passing an emergency vehicle, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle...

In VT, you get suspended when you hit 10 points on your license. That guy had over a grand in fines and 12 points on that one stop.


It was a good day :guinness:


Brian
:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause: :applause:

[Brian_Gladden]

That particular stretch of Interstate 89 was a good one for driving fast... behind my ambulance.

On more than one occasion, while doing a red light transfer (my local hospital to Dartmouth Hitchcock in Lebanon NH) as I go by doing 80-85 mph, cars would then settle into my wake, using me to go faster, probably thinking that any cop would think thay are the family following the ambulance.

Wrong answer...

If family was going to follow. I explicitly told them not to follow and only drive the speed limit. I'd even have the Emergency Room or ICU staff delay them so they wouldn't be right behind us.

Also since these were cars I had already passed.. well, you get the point. My usual procedure when I realized I had someone "Drafting" (fifteen feet off my back bumper at 85 mph was pretty common) I would calmly pick up my radio mike and call my dispatcher. who also dispatched one of the local police departments. The dispatcher then called the next state police barracks down the interstate. if the car drafting had a front plate, my partner would look out the back windows and get it for me.

That accomplished, I would drive a steady rate and when passing cars, gave plenty of room for my "trailer" to stay relatively safe.

The troopers usually waited at the exit ramp for me to go by. Since the car behind could only see the back end of my ambulance, they couldn't see the cop.

Then, as it was a down hill stretch, I would accelerate and go by the cop at just over 90... with Mr. Moron still fifteen feet off my bumper.

I then would slow down gradually to about 70 so the trooper could catch up...

You can guess how the rest of this ends :173go1:

The moral of this story is don't tailge me when I'm in an ambulance... you won't like it. :applause:


Brian

[GT182]

Bill, I used to imitate that siren on the PA system in our department when I worked at Eastman Kodak back in 72-74. On the midnight shift only. Sure woke everyone up and kept them on their toes. The shift foreman made me do it. ;) :d