Racing Ambulances

Fire Trucks (Photo credit: electrosiren)

We all have pet peeves.

Don’t worry, I won’t list all of mine right now but I have to share this one. Every time it happens it upsets me.

Why don’t people pull to the side of the road when an ambulance or fire truck or police car has its sirens blazing?

I was driving home from work and there was a black SUV weaving in and out of traffic trying to get where ever they were going a little faster. But it wasn’t really working. We arrived at every stoplight at the same time.

Each time I pulled up next to the vehicle or behind it, I laughed inside. Driving fast and cutting folks off wasn’t making a difference in shortening this person’s commute time.

While waiting on the third red light in a row to turn green, I heard the sirens. I didn’t know what direction they were coming from but when the light turned green I stayed put until I knew where the emergency response vehicle was. The black SUV on the other hand (along with a few others) floored it and went through the light.

Where’s the fire? Clearly the driver of the black SUV had some where to be. But is that some where more important than the place our emergency responders needed to be? Probably not.

If my family or friends were in need of such services or I was in need of a fire engine or ambulance or the police I wouldn’t want someone putting their arrival in jeopardy.

Now here’s the interesting thing … after waiting for the fire engine and the ambulance to pull into a local assisted living facility, I proceeded on my journey. Sitting there at the next red light waiting for it to turn green was the same black SUV. They hadn’t gotten any farther along than me by racing ahead of the sirens.

So what’s the point? It didn’t gain the black SUV anything.

Please make the choice if you don’t usually to pull to the side of the road when sirens are coming at you from any direction. If you already follow the rules of the road where this is concerned, I say thank you.

Drive safely!