By Shannon Harman Kerr, EMT-B
Driving along our wild and wonderful roads is an exhilarating experience. Every season brings its own unique beautiful and magical landscape. People come from all over the world to experience it. Even everyday errands can be a delight. Then, suddenly, there are lights and sirens out of nowhere, blaring through the magic of the moment. It’s disturbing and scary, perhaps even irritating. Driving can elicit some of our most passionate and irrational responses.
Once the surprise is over, it’s time to act. It seems we all have different thoughts about what to do next. It is easy to be confused, especially if the beautiful country road has now turned into a seemingly endless one lane without a shoulder. The West Virginia Department of Transportation Driver’s Licensing Handbook (revised in 2014) states,
“You must yield to any emergency vehicle (ambulance, fire, or police vehicle) that is sounding a siren and flashing warning lights. Pull over to the right edge of the road, clear of the intersection, and stop until the emergency vehicle has passed. Keep your foot on the brake so the emergency driver knows you are stopped. Watch for other emergency vehicles before proceeding.”
The absolute best thing to do is keep calm and pull off the road (to the right), completely, as soon as possible. If the ambulance is coming from behind you, keep calm and pull off the road (to your right), completely, as soon as possible. If the ambulance is coming towards you, keep calm and pull off the road (to your right), as completely as possible, as soon as possible. No one, absolutely no one, wants you to wreck or damage your vehicle in an attempt to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle. So, if the ambulance is coming from behind and you don’t see a safe place to pull over, continue driving the speed limit until you do see a safe place to pull over completely.
So, what if the ambulance has its lights flashing, but no siren? What does that mean? It can mean a myriad of things, but it doesn’t change the way you should respond. It is so very important to completely move out of the way and completely stop. What if the location of the accident is the turn off right in front of you, but you are still moving? What if there is a family of deer walking across the road? What if a fox runs out suddenly? Driving any vehicle on our lovely roads requires awareness of many, many factors. Add the additional responsibility of trying to provide the smoothest ride for the patient and follow any directions from the medical personnel on board, and it is easy to understand how difficult the job is.
The reason this topic is brought up over and over again is because it is important and, yet, the best response is difficult to remember. We all panic about different things. One person may panic about an ambulance approaching, while others panic about shopping. Just like shopping, there are a few important what-not-to-do’s. Common choices drivers make that endanger everyone include slamming on the brakes to stop, stopping halfway in the lane, stopping in a curve where the passing emergency vehicle cannot see the road ahead, pulling out in front of an oncoming emergency vehicle (trying to beat them out of the intersection), “racing” the emergency vehicle by speeding up, and the all time worst idea is actually pulling over into the oncoming lane (to the left) and stopping. These ideas should be overridden by other ideas as soon as they are born.
Emergency response vehicles have the lights and sirens to alert you that there is an emergency. Even though most of us at Tucker County EMS enjoy the fact that we are helping the residents and visitors to our county, we also know that our Tucker County people oftentimes wait until the last possible moment before admitting they need help and calling 911. Most of the time, when our lights and sirens are blaring, it is because someone is beyond scared and does not know what to do, so please remember the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Imagine how you would like the drivers on the road to respond to an ambulance trying to get to your house. So, as they say, help us, your Tucker County EMS, help you.