THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
British road safety organization GEM Motoring Assist has assembled a set of tips for drivers to help keep them safe when making way for emergency vehicles.
The tips cover locations and situations where confusion can occur. These could be traffic light junctions, roundabouts, motorways without hard shoulders and stretches of road with solid white lines where overtaking is not allowed.
They’re also available as short animations (see below), and provide simple-to-follow advice, approved by the emergency services, on what to do and what not to do when helping an emergency vehicle. GEM chief executive Neil Worth said: “Every driver wants to help and do the right thing, but the approach of a blue light vehicle can take them by surprise. We hope that our tips will minimize confusion and reduce risk.”
An ambulance won’t want you to go through a red traffic light. So don’t break the law or take any risks by moving past the light. If you’re first in the queue at a red light, stay where you are, and leave the ambulance to find its way around you.
If you're approaching a roundabout or a junction and you see an ambulance, look at its position, as this will let you know where it wants you to go. If you’re already at the junction, be patient and wait for it to come past. There may be more than one emergency vehicle approaching the junction, so check before moving off.
On a road with a solid white line system, an ambulance will probably switch off its siren as it follows you. This is because overtaking is not allowed. So keep going – at the speed limit if it’s safe – until you’re clear of the solid white lines. When the siren goes on again, that’s your cue to let the ambulance go past.
On motorways and dual carriageways, move to the left to allow an ambulance to pass in the outside lane if it’s clear. In slow and stationary traffic, emergency vehicles usually use the motorway hard shoulder, so you should only go onto the hard shoulder if you have an emergency of your own.
If there’s no hard shoulder (just called shoulder in the States), make way for emergency vehicles by creating an ‘emergency corridor’ (as shown in the picture). When you’ve let an emergency vehicle through, stay where you are, as other vehicles are likely to be coming through.
On a smart motorway (sections of motorways that uses traffic management methods designed to increase capacity and reduce congestion), one or more lanes may be closed because of an incident ahead – you’ll know because of red X signs above the carriageway. Emergency vehicles will use these lanes if they can. Keep out of these red X lanes. If no lanes appear to be closed, be prepared to help create the emergency corridor.
GEM has set of short video animations, ‘Blue Light Aware,’ covering most of the situations where confusion can occur. The 10 animations provide simple-to-follow advice, approved by the emergency services, on what to do and what not to do when helping an emergency vehicle. Check them, out here: www.bluelightaware.org.uk. GEM also provides roadside assistance and vehicle recovery services – go to www.motoringassist.com.
