What do you do when you see emergency lights approaching or hear a siren in the distance? I am reprinting this because once again I have witnessed the negligent behavior of motorists who ignore the lights and sirens of an oncoming emergency vehicle...
Reprint from letter to the editor July 10, 2011
At the height of rush hour Lady Antebellum was blaring on the radio. The haze of the sky indicated that it was another hot afternoon and glancing at the digital temperature on my dashboard it displayed ninety-eight degrees. Above the moody rhythm of country song I heard the faint sound of sirens. I turned the radio down to a soft whisper and I looked down the highway on both sides of the approaching intersection and in front of me and saw nothing. Within seconds, I saw the lights of an approaching ambulance in my rear view mirror and prepared to pull over as far as I could to the right side of the road and wait for them to go by. As I pulled over, I counted eight cars pass me. Three vehicles pulled over behind me and people in both lanes were driving at the normal speed limit unaware or didn’t care if that an emergency vehicle was trying to get to their destination.
Two of the drivers eventually pulled over into the middle turn lane long enough to let the ambulance go by. Then I saw a young man dressed in a white shirt and tie, driving a black Honda. He proceeded to ride alongside the ambulance spewing obscenities, shaking his fist and eventually giving the ambulance driver the “flying finger” believing he must of had the right of way. My question to that young professional, as I refer to him inconsequentially is this, “What would you do if someone disrespectfully tried to do the same thing as you did today in traffic? Suppose, when the call was dispatched it was to provide critical care assistance to one of your family members, such as a parent, your wife, or your child? Or better yet, what if they did that in route to a life and death situation you were involved in? Would you be the first to complain to when it took longer than the normal response time of 12 minutes to get to the 911 dispatched call? Or, would you complain that the ambulance held you up from getting your 5 O’clock latte at the Starbucks I saw you pull into?”
This isn’t the first time I saw a similar situation involving an emergency vehicle on our state’s roads and I doubt it will be the last. I am fortunate enough to know several paramedics throughout our county and have listened to their frustrations concerning these daily encounters with disrespectful drivers. The paramedics I spoke to articulate that motorists and pedestrians represent the greatest threat to safe and efficient responses by emergency vehicles. When the EMS are dispatched on a call, they have to assume pedestrians and drivers understand their responsibilities to yield to the approaching emergency vehicles when they hear sirens or see the oncoming warning lights. The ambulance driver has to abide by the same laws that all drivers do, and they also have to factor in the potential risk for a collision when they are requesting the right of way to save a life. Many states have laws in effect that will ticket someone who unlawfully ignores or obstructs the route of an emergency vehicle; unfortunately, the state I reside in is not one of those who enforce such insolent behavior.
Many people have the preconception that a paramedic is a glorified ambulance driver with some basic Red Cross training, maybe thirty plus years ago that was true in some rural areas. Today’s paramedics are professionals with college degrees and have several years of intensive ongoing emergency training, which makes them prepared for most crises. They have to make immediate critical life-threatening decisions and are trained to perform rapidly in all situations to make sure their patient makes it to the hospital alive. One paramedic I know has delivered five babies in the last four years and proudly wears his three pink and two blue stork pins on his uniform. So, I asked him, “What one thing would you like the public to know about your job?” He and his partner chimed in unison the almost identical words, “Making the public aware of the differences between a taxi service and an ambulance service.”
When they saw my bewilderment, they went on to explain that many people who call 911 have non-emergency situations that could be handled in a doctor’s office, (i.e.) a cough, flu or cold symptoms, dizziness, headaches or the inebriated person who requests to be taken to the hospital instead of to jail. Then there’s the “professional” frequent patient who uses the ambulance service to obtain drugs when they get to the ER for another mysterious symptom. This is what they refer to as those who unknowingly use the 911 emergency services as a taxi ride. By requesting an ambulance to get to the hospital they assume they will have the best chance of getting into the ER quicker. Wrong answer. Triage, the French word meaning, “to sort” is exactly what happens and even those who were brought in by ambulance, may have to wait several hours to be seen on a busy night. It is by no means, a guarantee they will be attended to immediately.
There was a recent case where 911 dispatched an ambulance and when the medics arrived on scene, the patient was complaining of pain from an infected ingrown toenail and another was constipated. Meanwhile, less than two miles away a child who was pulled from a pool, may have been saved if it wasn’t for the blatant use of the Emergency Medical Services. Protocol dictates medics cannot leave a “taxi ride” patient even over a life and death situation. Disturbing, as it was for the two paramedics involved, they ended up transporting the insistent patient to the emergency room.
These are only two of the many senseless scenarios that haunt the minds of dedicated medics. Those same men and women, who are trained to save lives can’t always be there to assist actual emergencies if others continually abuse the system.
Reprint from letter to the editor July 10, 2011
At the height of rush hour Lady Antebellum was blaring on the radio. The haze of the sky indicated that it was another hot afternoon and glancing at the digital temperature on my dashboard it displayed ninety-eight degrees. Above the moody rhythm of country song I heard the faint sound of sirens. I turned the radio down to a soft whisper and I looked down the highway on both sides of the approaching intersection and in front of me and saw nothing. Within seconds, I saw the lights of an approaching ambulance in my rear view mirror and prepared to pull over as far as I could to the right side of the road and wait for them to go by. As I pulled over, I counted eight cars pass me. Three vehicles pulled over behind me and people in both lanes were driving at the normal speed limit unaware or didn’t care if that an emergency vehicle was trying to get to their destination.
Two of the drivers eventually pulled over into the middle turn lane long enough to let the ambulance go by. Then I saw a young man dressed in a white shirt and tie, driving a black Honda. He proceeded to ride alongside the ambulance spewing obscenities, shaking his fist and eventually giving the ambulance driver the “flying finger” believing he must of had the right of way. My question to that young professional, as I refer to him inconsequentially is this, “What would you do if someone disrespectfully tried to do the same thing as you did today in traffic? Suppose, when the call was dispatched it was to provide critical care assistance to one of your family members, such as a parent, your wife, or your child? Or better yet, what if they did that in route to a life and death situation you were involved in? Would you be the first to complain to when it took longer than the normal response time of 12 minutes to get to the 911 dispatched call? Or, would you complain that the ambulance held you up from getting your 5 O’clock latte at the Starbucks I saw you pull into?”
This isn’t the first time I saw a similar situation involving an emergency vehicle on our state’s roads and I doubt it will be the last. I am fortunate enough to know several paramedics throughout our county and have listened to their frustrations concerning these daily encounters with disrespectful drivers. The paramedics I spoke to articulate that motorists and pedestrians represent the greatest threat to safe and efficient responses by emergency vehicles. When the EMS are dispatched on a call, they have to assume pedestrians and drivers understand their responsibilities to yield to the approaching emergency vehicles when they hear sirens or see the oncoming warning lights. The ambulance driver has to abide by the same laws that all drivers do, and they also have to factor in the potential risk for a collision when they are requesting the right of way to save a life. Many states have laws in effect that will ticket someone who unlawfully ignores or obstructs the route of an emergency vehicle; unfortunately, the state I reside in is not one of those who enforce such insolent behavior.
Many people have the preconception that a paramedic is a glorified ambulance driver with some basic Red Cross training, maybe thirty plus years ago that was true in some rural areas. Today’s paramedics are professionals with college degrees and have several years of intensive ongoing emergency training, which makes them prepared for most crises. They have to make immediate critical life-threatening decisions and are trained to perform rapidly in all situations to make sure their patient makes it to the hospital alive. One paramedic I know has delivered five babies in the last four years and proudly wears his three pink and two blue stork pins on his uniform. So, I asked him, “What one thing would you like the public to know about your job?” He and his partner chimed in unison the almost identical words, “Making the public aware of the differences between a taxi service and an ambulance service.”
When they saw my bewilderment, they went on to explain that many people who call 911 have non-emergency situations that could be handled in a doctor’s office, (i.e.) a cough, flu or cold symptoms, dizziness, headaches or the inebriated person who requests to be taken to the hospital instead of to jail. Then there’s the “professional” frequent patient who uses the ambulance service to obtain drugs when they get to the ER for another mysterious symptom. This is what they refer to as those who unknowingly use the 911 emergency services as a taxi ride. By requesting an ambulance to get to the hospital they assume they will have the best chance of getting into the ER quicker. Wrong answer. Triage, the French word meaning, “to sort” is exactly what happens and even those who were brought in by ambulance, may have to wait several hours to be seen on a busy night. It is by no means, a guarantee they will be attended to immediately.
There was a recent case where 911 dispatched an ambulance and when the medics arrived on scene, the patient was complaining of pain from an infected ingrown toenail and another was constipated. Meanwhile, less than two miles away a child who was pulled from a pool, may have been saved if it wasn’t for the blatant use of the Emergency Medical Services. Protocol dictates medics cannot leave a “taxi ride” patient even over a life and death situation. Disturbing, as it was for the two paramedics involved, they ended up transporting the insistent patient to the emergency room.
These are only two of the many senseless scenarios that haunt the minds of dedicated medics. Those same men and women, who are trained to save lives can’t always be there to assist actual emergencies if others continually abuse the system.
