Emergency services abusing their sirens.
gother
Posts: 14,699 Forum Member
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Time and time again i see ambulances and police using their blue lights and sirens to get through traffic or across traffic lights, once they're across they turn of their sirens and blue lights. This is not only annoying but also dangerous to other motorists who are using the road as they scramble to get out of the way a accident could happen, but do the police care no why should they aslong as they get their cup of tea.
It's worse at night when every single night at around about 11:30pm a police car will come wailing his sirens obviously not an emergency as he is going quite slow and there is no traffic around.
Should new laws be bought in to stop sirens at night or at least have the noise toned down?
Genuine emergencies i can understand as they need to get to the scene fast but idiots who abuse their sirens should be fired for endangering other motorists and causing noise pollution and startling pedestrians.
It's worse at night when every single night at around about 11:30pm a police car will come wailing his sirens obviously not an emergency as he is going quite slow and there is no traffic around.
Should new laws be bought in to stop sirens at night or at least have the noise toned down?
Genuine emergencies i can understand as they need to get to the scene fast but idiots who abuse their sirens should be fired for endangering other motorists and causing noise pollution and startling pedestrians.
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If the police car was on its way to help you would you care how much it annoyed other motorists ? As has been said they may need to get through that traffic at the lights so use them to do so, they may then switch them off as they dont need to move traffic the other side, also they may be nearing their destination and require a silent approach for the safety of the person they are going to assist or the call could be cancelled and they return to normal. Soemtime ambulances will need blue lights and sirens to get through lights but the case on board may require the ambulance to get to a hospital ASAP but also not travel at speed due to certain types of injury.
They don't have their blues and twos on until they get to the lights, as i said genuine emergencies i can understand but this is a blatant abuse of position.
Same energency service that took over 12 hours to arrive to a elderly neighbour who'd been assaulted in her own home you mean?
that`s surely to warn other road users that they`re going through?
Regarding ambulances, if they've got a sick or injured patient on, they're not going to go rushing about like they're in the Grand Prix. And they'll use the siren as little as possible, too.
they get prioritised by an operator.
Police stations, especially if they have holding cells, can be potentially very violent places.
Yes I though this was obvious!
If it was an emergency then surely their blues and twos or one would be on constantly during the journey?
Especially if the patient is having a heart attack
Ambulances i was a little harsh on i will hold up my hands to that and say i was wrong.
I only used my sirens and blue lights when I absolutely had to, and going through red lights was such a situation. If there was no need for them after that, I turned them off.
WHY, IF THEY ARE NOT NEEDED?
edit: with ambulances they keep the sirenage down if they have serious patients, not wind it up unnecessarily.
I would hazard a guess that you haven't seen it many times at all, and as mentioned earlier, there are times when calls for assistance are made at the station.
If you are trying to suggest they are doing it for a cup of tea, or some other similar trivial reason, there really is no need, because a shift spans a long time, and a couple of minute delay for a cuppa is no hardship.
Several weeks ago my 2yo had a febrile convolution, we were told by the ambulance crew that we would be transported as soon as possible because her temp was not coming back down and they were worried she would fit again. They said to us even though we were driving at speed the lights and sirens would only be used if we approached traffic or traffic lights. As it was 1.30am they did not use them.
Link
Emergency drivers are under some restraint on the use of sirens. Another article here.