There was a traffic accident outside Gothenburg today. This happened soon after, giving rescue personel easy access to the site. Awareness is spreading.
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this is taught in Sweden, that during an accident, people pull off to the sides of the road to allow for emergency vehicles, unlike places like the US or Australia, where people just crowd the road and prevent access
In Germany, since April this year you will be fined at least 200€ and get your drivers licence withdrawn for a month if you're blocking the rescue route.
In the US it’s taught that you pull over to the right. Ambulances legally aren’t allowed to pass on the right, so you’re meant to leave the left open for them. However, that means little to fucking nothing to Americans and even less than that during rush hour
@jokur_and_batmon I think that must depend on where in the US that you live and the circumstances. 99% of the time I see people pull over like they are supposed to. There is always that one time where someone is stupid or a jerk, but I guarantee you that isn't just in the US. Also, there can be extenuating circumstances. Once I was on a small (practically alley) one way/one lane street in a major city in bumper to bumper traffic. An ambulance was trying to come down the street, but there was literally no place to go (forward, backward, or to the sides).
In general- US law states that a person is to yield all right if way to emergency vehicles with lights on. All traffic is to pull to the right of the road as closely as possible or parallel to in such a way as to leave room for the emergency vehicle. All vehicles are to stop until the emergency vehicle has passed and clear all intersections. When an emergency vehicle is on the road with lights on and stopped- all vehicles are to pass the emergency vehicle leaving one lane of space between them and the emergency vehicle. As has been already said above me- how often people follow these laws and how well depends on factors like where in the US you are- as does enforcement.
The things that foreign drivers have to understand about the US is that 1. Our drivers usually suck. It is VERY easy to get a license here and very hard to lose it. If you lose it it’s usually pretty easy to get back. You can drive as young as 16 (sometimes younger) and the only real requirements are insurance and passing a little test that can be finished in 10 minutes or less. When you first get your license you will have to take a “behind the wheel” test which is usually 10-30 minutes and is not standardized. You generally never have to do this again- every decade or so you may have to take the written test again. It’s multiple choice quiz style. For reference my first driver test I drive over a sidewalk with people on it and they passed me.
The second thing is the us is VERY big- it’s bigger than basically the whole EU and we have MANY roads and massive highways. You can drive hundreds of miles and never see a police officer on the road. In major cities people can often do “burnouts” and “donuts” and even shut down freeways or bridges to do such things without an officer on hand to issue a citation. Because our roads are so expansive we just don’t have the man power to enforce every driver follow the rules, and if we did- it would cause an outrage as a sizable chunk of America would no longer be able to drive because... we have a lot of bad drivers.
Ah I get it @changetheworld I’m mostly speaking from my experience in Texas with the bigger cities here. @punchedwinter2 is an emt here and is often very vocal about problems surrounding driving the ambulances
Well, the new law wasn't passed because people here were understanding and following the rules...
The law of going to the right if a car with blues and twos is coming from behind isn't the problem, the main concern is when there is traffic jam due to an accident. In that case the rescue route has to be left open between the lane farthest to the left and the next one to the right
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(TITLE FROM KONTRABAND)
The law of going to the right if a car with blues and twos is coming from behind isn't the problem, the main concern is when there is traffic jam due to an accident. In that case the rescue route has to be left open between the lane farthest to the left and the next one to the right