Brisbane drivers driven to distraction by emergency vehicle sirens

[csv8]

Brisbane drivers driven to distraction by emergency vehicle sirens

Mark Hinchliffe From: The Courier-Mail September 13, 2011 12:00AM

BRISBANE drivers are mounting footpaths, driving on the wrong side of the road, making illegal turns and driving through red lights to get out of the way of emergency vehicles.

Almost one in three Brisbane motorists - 29 per cent - admit to illegal road use to make room for emergency vehicles, according to research by car insurer Budget Direct.

The worst offenders are males aged 25-34 (28 per cent), believing it is correct procedure to go through a red light.
Young females are just behind them on 26 per cent.

Roma Street ambulance station officer in charge Andrew Poli, 40, said he has seen motorists do "stupid things" to get out of the way of emergency vehicles in his 15 years with the service.

"On one occasion, I was driving up Sandgate Rd and a driver drove on to the median strip at speed and we had to back away in case he lost control," he said.

"People freak out and do stupid, dangerous things when they see us coming.

"They usually slam on their brakes and swerve. Over the years we've seen people get into little bingles every now and then - mostly sideswipes and nose-to-tails."

Mr Poli said the biggest problem was motorists not seeing or hearing an emergency vehicle with its siren wailing.

"Modern cars are designed to be sound-proof, so they can't hear our sirens. They don't even have to have the stereo cranked up to not hear us," he said.

"Generally it's people just not paying attention and not checking their mirrors."

The correct procedure for a motorist when approached by an emergency vehicle is to slow down, give way by moving safely and legally to the left, and let the vehicle pass.

"Keep an eye on your mirrors and don't react dramatically when you do see us," Mr Poli said. "Take your time and plan your route to get out of the way."

Budget Direct's Richelle Ward said that despite 95 per cent of Brisbane drivers claiming to be confident about giving way to an emergency vehicle, the survey results show the opposite.

"The biggest standout was the high number of people (34 per cent) who believe it's OK to drive on to a footpath to allow an emergency vehicle to pass," she said.

"This could potentially endanger pedestrians. We understand people just want to do the right thing and help emergency vehicles reach their destination but erratic driving behaviour could cause further accidents."

Comment : On talk back radio this morning, if you get pinged by a speed camera, getting out of the way of an emergency vehicle, thats no defence. You still have to pay the fine. Another example of speed cameras being revenue raisers. BUT if you go thru a red light, safely with the ambulance in the photo, no ticket is issued..

[Uncle Niceguy]

it doesn't surprise me what-so-ever cause most of the roads in brisbane don't have space for people to safely pull over with out mounting a curb. lil alone doing that safely especially on the gympie-arterial were the road works are happening try pulling over for emergency vehicles in that traffic.

[Jim Goose]

I can understanding pulling over onto a footpath and stopping... as some streets dont have a parking or bike lane you can pull into.

But driving on them?

[Coyote mk3]

I must admit I have moved so half the car was on the island (slowly when parked at lights)

But what I am wondering what about when you are stopped first in line at the lights, they are red and an emergency vehicle comes up behind you and cannot get past without you going over that stop line (essentially running red light?)

A few years ago this was the case and we had not realised an ambulance was behind us straight away as they had no siren going, but had flashing lights; and came up behind us and beeped at us to move. Nowhere to go except over that line and out of the way. (Which is what we did)

[Grunter]

As above. Had exactly the same thing happen, but I pulled left in front of the car stopped next to me so I wasn't blocking traffice flowing across. I have no problem doing so as long as I don't put my or others lives at risk. If 30 seconds could make a life or death difference to the person in the ambo, then I'm happy to take a fine (again only if it's safe to do so).

[Coyote mk3]

Originally Posted by Grunter

. If 30 seconds could make a life or death difference to the person in the ambo, then I'm happy to take a fine (again only if it's safe to do so).

This is what I say to people.

What I want to know is what to they expect us to do?

[graham7773]

Ipswich Road Bundamba traffic lights at red I am following the ambo, lights and sirens full noise coming up to the lights. Ambo goes on to the other side of the road nothing coming towards him. Lights change to green and the dopey woman at the lights does a snappy right turn directly in front of the ambo. You all know what a T-bone smash is? This was a classic as the ambo had about 5 meters to pull up from about 70kph. Not a chance. 2 more ambulances had to be called, one for the original emergency and 1 for the woman with the F350 parked in her lap. All she had was just stay put.

[my_gxl]

You can't ask a brisbane driver to look in the mirror to know whats around them, when a rising amount of them don't even know how to activate the indicators.

[2011G6E]

Of course, it goes both ways. I've seen ambulances in heavy traffic of multiple lanes of cars at a red light behind a couple of cars, leaning on the horn and flashing the lights. You can see the poor sod in the car wanting to do something, but he'd blocked in...you feel like getting out and saying to the ambo or firey "OK Sherlock...where do you suggest i go to get out of your fricking way?"

And yes, I've gone through a red light to get out of the way of an ambulance that was approaching at a rate of knots behind me, in Gympie some years back. I could see there was no other traffic at the other sides of the intersection, so I made the call and got out of his way. He didn't slow down much, which was pretty dangerous in itself...when I was in the ambulance, we used to run red lights, but we treated them as Give Ways and at least slowed down and had a look...
The red light camera went off, but I never recieved a fine. They would have seen what happened on the next couple of photos.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by csv8

"Modern cars are designed to be sound-proof, so they can't hear our sirens. They don't even have to have the stereo cranked up to not hear us," he said.

I call BS, we build the things at work and the sirens go FREAKIN' LOUD at 100%. You'd have to be fairly out of it to not hear it coming.

The Ambulance Victoria ones anyway, not sure if the Brisbane ones differ much?

[fangq]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I call BS, we build the things at work and the sirens go FREAKIN' LOUD at 100%. You'd have to be fairly out of it to not hear it coming.

The Ambulance Victoria ones anyway, not sure if the Brisbane ones differ much?

A lot of people only use car mirrors as an aid to apply makeup or pop zits.
( that also includes the inappropriately angled door mirrors for the real wingnuts )

Steve

[GS608]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I call BS, we build the things at work and the sirens go FREAKIN' LOUD at 100%. You'd have to be fairly out of it to not hear it coming.

The Ambulance Victoria ones anyway, not sure if the Brisbane ones differ much?

Siren brands differ all across the country as well as within different emergency services..QAS use an australian made siren i think, they are barely noticable with windows up and radio on imo..QFRS use federal sirens on most trucks and they are ******* loud!

[irish2]

Witnessed an ambo recently on the M1, stuck behind cars in the right lane, traffic was reasonably light yet nobody was moving out of the way to let him past. They really should put some "Keep left unless overtaking" signs on the M1.

[Coyote mk3]

There is some just as the gateway arterial starts going south.
Says the fine and demerit point losses on it too.

[my_gxl]

The last 2 posts confirm a majority of brisbane drivers are brainless morons

[Uncle Niceguy]

Originally Posted by my_gxl

The last 2 posts confirm a majority of brisbane drivers are brainless morons

Totally agreeing here alot of people when driving seem to put blinkers on (like horses do on raceday) and this alone sees a far few people get cut-off lil alone when they aren't even using there indicators which is even deadlier especially on the high way my saying for brissy and qld atm is "Queensland, the not-so-smart state"

[Ben73]

I have never seen any problems with ambulances here. If there is heavy traffic the pull up in the right lane and turn their sirens off, once the light goes green they put them back on and everyone moves over.

But if they are in a extremely critical situation where every second counts, they can choose to drive over the median strip themselves, I have seen it done before and I know they can do it again.

I would only make an illegal move to get out of their way IF it was safe and they were boxed in where there was no where for them to go and it looked like they were in a major hurry. But since they almost always drive in the right lane, they seam to almost always have an escape route around traffic.

[MAGPIE]

Originally Posted by graham7773

Ipswich Road Bundamba traffic lights at red I am following the ambo, lights and sirens full noise coming up to the lights. Ambo goes on to the other side of the road nothing coming towards him. Lights change to green and the dopey woman at the lights does a snappy right turn directly in front of the ambo. You all know what a T-bone smash is? This was a classic as the ambo had about 5 meters to pull up from about 70kph. Not a chance. 2 more ambulances had to be called, one for the original emergency and 1 for the woman with the F350 parked in her lap. All she had was just stay put.

Sounds like both parties were equally reckless here, 5m out from a red light intersection at 70kph on wrong side of the road is stupid even if you do have lights & sirens operating.

Although I'm not convinced by your story telling either, how do you know they were doing 70 ?

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I call BS, we build the things at work and the sirens go FREAKIN' LOUD at 100%. You'd have to be fairly out of it to not hear it coming.

The Ambulance Victoria ones anyway, not sure if the Brisbane ones differ much?

BS? so with the windows up on a modern car/ aircon and the sterio going a siren approaching from 100m away is gonna be heard?

I think not...

I have an old american SVP siren as well as a more modern Victorian made one and the differences in the loudness is very apparent.
Most Ambulances appear to use those slim line speakers which in reality are not very useful.

[kaniSS]

You don't get out of the way they give you hell, you get out of their way and they still give you hell.

[brismike]

Originally Posted by my_gxl

The last 2 posts confirm a majority of brisbane drivers are brainless morons

Disagree with you .. You are exaggerating. There are some useless drivers in Brisbane as there are in other places around the country. But the majority of them are good to average drivers who are courteous and carefull.

If you ever want to experience really crappy drivers take a trip in the southern part of Italy .. say around Naples in peak hour traffic. If you did that you would think that Brisbane and Australian drivers were models of perfection.

[2011G6E]

Back in the early eighties, I was an auxiliary a couple of nights a week in the ambulance, and later swapped over to do the same thing with the fire brigade for pay.
They used to say to us very clearly that yes, you can go through a red light, but treat it as a give way...slow right down to a crawl, make quite sure everyone has heard you, and go for it when clear.
I see a lot of ambulances now just back off a bit and fly through...makes me wince thinking about what could happen.

[my_gxl]

Originally Posted by brismike

Disagree with you .. You are exaggerating. There are some useless drivers in Brisbane as there are in other places around the country. But the majority of them are good to average drivers who are courteous and carefull.

If you ever want to experience really crappy drivers take a trip in the southern part of Italy .. say around Naples in peak hour traffic. If you did that you would think that Brisbane and Australian drivers were models of perfection.

We have to compare apples with apples though, ie in aust against australian road rules.
I was nearly sideswiped ther other day by a woman, who i then saw was texting. I blew the horn at her, and I got given the bird.
I was less than impressed as she nearly hit the side of the car my daughter was sitting in.

[brismike]

Originally Posted by my_gxl

We have to compare apples with apples though, ie in aust against australian road rules.
I was nearly sideswiped ther other day by a woman, who i then saw was texting. I blew the horn at her, and I got given the bird.
I was less than impressed as she nearly hit the side of the car my daughter was sitting in.

Sounds like she was one of the "Brainless Moron's" you described .. But still they are in the minority not the majority.

You do have to keep on guard against that type of driver all the time, so I know where you are coming from. You never know when you might come across one like that.

Back to what I said about Naples . . over there they all drive crazy so you kind of expect anything to happen and regularly. After a while you start to drive like them or you will be just wiped out, run over and spat out lol.

Take care - Mike

[Till_Lind]

Jeez, where's the appreciation for us all being so keen to allow them to help people whos lifes at a risk?
That said you usually don't need to mount anything if you have 2 lanes of traffic, if you squease you can fit three cars across in most cases.

[FTE72]

My most memorable incident moving over to let an Ambulance get past on the Gateway carpark still makes me wonder about what rattles around in the minds of some.
I saw the flashing lights in my mirror from a long way back and as the traffic was crawling at 0-5kph, I simply moved over to the shoulder(as the Ambo was splitting lanes) with the other sensible motorists, but the genius behind me thought "I must be Moses, the sea of traffic has parted for me, I shall now drive along in my ignorant bliss conveniently not wondering why this is happening or noticing the full lights and siren behind me"
And then other geniuses thought "That looks to be a good idea! I will jump in behind the Ambo and stop people from getting back on the road!, much faster for me"
I do not know if it is stupidity, discourtesy, ignorance, or all three motivating this idiocy.

[Road Games]

Originally Posted by my_gxl

The last 2 posts confirm a majority of brisbane drivers are brainless morons

[HenryFordJr]

Funny thread.. I do have to admit that Brisbane drivers are some of the worst in the country..

Here are some tell tale signs that you are driving in Brisbane...

- People will sit in the right lane of the highway doing 80km/h
- Bogan chicks in VNs will tailgate you even if you are well over the speed limit
- You will still get race challenges from Datsuns and Geminis
- Amber lights mean slam on your brakes
- 98% of P platers will have cannon mufflers on their cars, for no apparent reason

[malazn mafia]

Had a police car once put the sirens on behind and he was stuck behind me at a set of lights. I drove slowly through the red light to give him a gap to pass. He and his partner glance me a thumbs up, smile and a wave and continue on their way. Good to see some level of common sense and courtesy in the police force, but according to this article did I actually do the wrong thing?

[my_gxl]

Menace you are a goose.

Make sure we all
pull left
to let
it
through.