Move Bishe! Get out the way (for EMS/Fire)

CasterTroy

Faster'N You
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Wallburg
I'm constantly amazed at the lack of common sense, and or panic that occurs when an EMS vehicle is approaching an intersection. Why is this so hard?

I can't imagine the frustration the Fire/EMS/Police driver feels as he approaches a sea of sheep, so scared to step out of line at an intersections....the same sheep that will blast thru a stop sign, or destroy a speed limit, but GOD FORBID you change lanes to let a first responder thru o_O

I have to think the soundtrack playing in that engine drivers head has to be......







Oh no, the fight's out
I'mma 'bout to punch yo lights out.....




Anywho.....so Winston got a new ladder truck for downtown

l1.JPG


With the tiller driver

l2.JPG



It doesn't look that massive, but if you've been downtown Winston, you know the streets were designed for cars of the mid 70's (see also fuel crisis mobiles AKA tiny ass import cars) and were always ONE WAY until recently.

The roads that weren't one way have always been PAINFULLY tight. Lets take for example the road my office is on: Broad Street...note the utility poles less than 12" from the road

l3.JPG

l4.JPG


L5.JPG



What you CAN'T see in those pics is the crown of the road. It's quite high. So high that when city buses come up broad they are a good FOOT into the center lane so the top of the bus won't smack a pole. Same with dumptrucks and semi's. Makes for fun when I drive my truck :rolleyes:

I travel this road 3-4 times a day for the last 15 years, so I see a lot of drivers freak out over the poles.

Anyway...L-1 is 2 blocks over and 3 blocks down from my office, and at least once a day goes blasting by.

Today I was approaching the light at second street (see blue blob). Our light was red and the traffic crossing (left to right) 2nd street was blasting thru the intersection. The screen shot below has 2 cars in the right lane, but in this instance, there were NO cars there, and only a ford truck turning left in the left hand lane (see the red blob) who was stopped because our light was red.

l6.JPG


So I whip over on the sidewalk in front of what you see as the burgundy gmc yukon XL. So that leaves the right lane open.....but poles!

So L-1 continues to barrel up broad, hammer down directly behind the truck....then stops 3" from his bumper and blasts the train horn continually.

FINALLY the ford truck makes a hard right (turning INTO one way traffic coming up 2nd street) and clears the left lane, and L-1 goes on thru the intersection. Our light changes, and he now has to make a left turn from the middle of the intersection over on the 2nd street side and cross the whole intersection. This maneuver took a painful minute to watch, but also made me kind of giggle.

I'll never understand how a siren can turn everyone into "Lucy at the candy factory"
 
That's their new tiller. Rear steer! Very hard to drive. Cornelius rolled theirs a couple years ago.

So did Raleigh fire department. But they were speeding. I’m a paramedic for a local EMS agency. And one thing I can say for sure. Fire trucks go way too fast all the time, blowing intersections and what not.

You’re right. It is frustrating but it’s something you get very used to and go with the flow.
 
So did Raleigh fire department. But they were speeding. I’m a paramedic for a local EMS agency. And one thing I can say for sure. Fire trucks go way too fast all the time, blowing intersections and what not.

You’re right. It is frustrating but it’s something you get very used to and go with the flow.

Add to that a good Chauffeur and Co will anticipate the stupidity and work as a team to work around it.
Seeing a good team in action is like watching a dance.
I’ve seen a few of the Raleigh crews work it thru traffic. It’s impressive.
Raleigh has 4 tiller steer ladders now I think.
 
CasterTroy said:
Never witnessed that. Just "keystone cops" to the tune of the Benny Hill theme (here in WS)

Check YouTube for some cool tiller action, watching one change multiple lanes in traffic is pretty impressive.
 
It is painfully frustrating. I pity those who work in the city (Ive applied to wsfd, for better or worse lol). Almost as bad as city streets are barely two lane backroads with 2" of clearance either side and constantly ripping off antennas on trees. Also, There is a decent sized amish community in my district. They are some of the nicest "drivers" but those black buggies and bikes are hard to see with only one or two red lights on them.


When I took my EVD class, there was a group of cyclists who had a street shut down, just standing around. They refused to move until we were inches from them blasting the air horn. Cant lie, I had a blast blasting them though. Great for all that pent up frustration they have caused.
 
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Also, tillers are freaking awesome to see in action.
 
My biggest pet peeve is when I was running routine traffic and cars would hug the yellow line. Or when i was running emergency traffic and cars would stop in the middle of a blind curve.

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I drove a 1959 pirch 100ft ladder truck 1600 miles round trip to Wisconsin and back to ky . I tied the rear wheel straight and drove it like a tractor trailer. The sucky part was it had manual steering and only went 45mph and rode like a wagon. I drove it up there to get refurbed where it was built and drove it back when it got finished. It took over 16 hour each way. They are fun to drive when you get someone that knows how to drive them I like driving the rear.
 
I'll take driving emergency traffic in the city over driving it in the country any day of the week. In the city I have more options to maneuver around the dumbasses that are in the way. I regularly would hop curbs and medians and go against traffic to get where we needed to go. On a two lane rd there's only so many places for cars to move over and even less places for a fire engine to fit by them.

Duane
 
Not moving over for emergency vehicles is a huge pet peeve of mine. A little over a week ago I was in Austin TX and woke up to a bunch of thuds outside my hotel around 2am. Multi car accident out on i35 with a rollover. Next thing I knew it was an hour straight of first responders trying to battle thru traffic. I get that all lanes were blocked, but from a birds eye view 20 stories up, nobody attempted to get over and the responders just had to snake their way thru traffic.

Same shit a few weeks ago on the way home from Lincoln Theater. Get into Rougemont and an ambulance flys by going the other way on 501. Get a mile up the road and traffic is stopped dead and I see every set of flashing lights in northern Durham and southern Person County. They were escorting the ambulances southbound in the northbound lanes on 501 because the median was so wet they couldn’t cross over. People weren’t doing shit to move onto the shoulder to allow the escort car and meat wagon to pass.

In both cases, people were really fucked up with life threatening injuries. Seconds count, don’t be an impatient dipshit.

Thank you to our first responders who deal with this dumbassery every day.
 
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