Ambulance and firetruck crash

[josieposy]

Video here:

www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Video-Released-of-Miami-Fire-Rescue-Rollover-Crash-321683792.html


Looks like both had lights going, but you can't tell if one or both had sirens on as well. The ambulance hit the back end of the truck. Several injured.

[elleblue]

How awful. I'm sort of surprised the ambulance didn't slow down at all as it approached the intersection since it had a red light. That's what they do here, even with sirens blaring.

[decemberwedding07]

I was sitting at an intersection waiting to turn left on green yesterday. I always have a really hard time hearing where sirens are coming from. I heard a siren, looked around frantically, saw an ambulance down the street to my right with lights flashing and thought, "Oh, there it is! I'm clear to turn." I started to turn left and a fire truck emerged going the wrong way down the street I was about to turn onto (in my lane), to get around two 18 wheelers that were in the lane next to it (and were blocking my view of the fire truck). It was pretty scary! The only thing that stopped me in time was that they honked their horn just before emerging from behind the 18 wheelers. I'm sure they thought I was a dumbass. I wanted to go, "There was an ambulance! I didn't expect two emergency vehicles heading opposite directions!

My point is, if it was hard for me to hear the sirens, maybe when you're in the emergency vehicle, it's hard to hear anything other than your own siren.

[pixy0stix]

Aug 13, 2015 17:32:25 GMT -5 decemberwedding07 said:

My point is, if it was hard for me to hear the sirens, maybe when you're in the emergency vehicle, it's hard to hear anything other than your own siren.

I'm just curious, do you have a newer car? Maybe one that has noise cancelling stuff in it?

[Deleted]

A few years back there was an accident where two fire trucks collided going through an intersection and I believe one of the firefighters was killed.

That had to be scary witnessing that one, especially with the fire truck overturning like that. Yikes.

[foodiemom]

The ambulance barely tapped their breaks and had a red light (meaning the fire truck had a green light). I find it odd that the article reads : fire truck hits ambulance. To me the ambulance is completely in the wrong and obviously didn't even look as it approached that red light.

[dropitlikeitshott]

DH is a firefighter and driver in our city. They are required to stop and "ask permission" before running a red. This is to ensure that any cars see them and they see if anyone is not paying attention to them.

edit: to fix typos. Sleeping meds and gbcn don't work for me. 

[decemberwedding07]

Aug 13, 2015 17:34:14 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Aug 13, 2015 17:32:25 GMT -5 decemberwedding07 said:

My point is, if it was hard for me to hear the sirens, maybe when you're in the emergency vehicle, it's hard to hear anything other than your own siren.

I'm just curious, do you have a newer car? Maybe one that has noise cancelling stuff in it?

No, it's a 2007. I think there might be something wrong with me, since it's always hard for me to tell where a sound is coming from. It takes me a while to figure it out. It's not a problem when it's a sound in your house and you can take 20 min to find it, but it's difficult when you're driving and you need to figure it out right away. I've had my hearing checked and it's fine. I hear fine, I just can't tell well where it's coming from.

[dropitlikeitshott]

They do a rolling stop and blow the air horn several times, and check to make sure others have stopped/are stopping.

eta: whattheheck

[elleblue]

Aug 13, 2015 19:53:43 GMT -5 dropitlikeitshott said:

They do a rolling stop and blow the air horn several times, and check to make sure others have stopped/are stopping.

eta: whattheheck

In this case the fire truck had the green light and the ambulance the red. I wonder if there's similar protocol for ambulances driving against a red? And if not, there obviously should be as I can only imagine that each of their respective sirens (assuming both were being used) were loud enough to drown out the sound of the other. So sad.

[dropitlikeitshott]

Aug 13, 2015 20:04:01 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Aug 13, 2015 19:53:43 GMT -5 dropitlikeitshott said:

They do a rolling stop and blow the air horn several times, and check to make sure others have stopped/are stopping.

eta: whattheheck

In this case the fire truck had the green light and the ambulance the red. I wonder if there's similar protocol for ambulances driving against a red? And if not, there obviously should be as I can only imagine that each of their respective sirens (assuming both were being used) were loud enough to drown out the sound of the other. So sad.

They do have the same rules for all emergency vehicles in our city. 

[Deleted]

Aug 13, 2015 17:32:25 GMT -5 decemberwedding07 said:

I was sitting at an intersection waiting to turn left on green yesterday. I always have a really hard time hearing where sirens are coming from. I heard a siren, looked around frantically, saw an ambulance down the street to my right with lights flashing and thought, "Oh, there it is! I'm clear to turn." I started to turn left and a fire truck emerged going the wrong way down the street I was about to turn onto (in my lane), to get around two 18 wheelers that were in the lane next to it (and were blocking my view of the fire truck). It was pretty scary! The only thing that stopped me in time was that they honked their horn just before emerging from behind the 18 wheelers. I'm sure they thought I was a dumbass. I wanted to go, "There was an ambulance! I didn't expect two emergency vehicles heading opposite directions!

My point is, if it was hard for me to hear the sirens, maybe when you're in the emergency vehicle, it's hard to hear anything other than your own siren.

Was the ambulance headed away from you? Or was it coming towards your intersection ? (I know it wasn't in your path) because here I am pretty sure everyone is just supposed to stop if sirens come no matter which direction. Then the don't have to worry about movement in the corner etc.

[decemberwedding07]

Aug 13, 2015 21:09:23 GMT -5 @hannymaren said:

Aug 13, 2015 17:32:25 GMT -5 decemberwedding07 said:

I was sitting at an intersection waiting to turn left on green yesterday. I always have a really hard time hearing where sirens are coming from. I heard a siren, looked around frantically, saw an ambulance down the street to my right with lights flashing and thought, "Oh, there it is! I'm clear to turn." I started to turn left and a fire truck emerged going the wrong way down the street I was about to turn onto (in my lane), to get around two 18 wheelers that were in the lane next to it (and were blocking my view of the fire truck). It was pretty scary! The only thing that stopped me in time was that they honked their horn just before emerging from behind the 18 wheelers. I'm sure they thought I was a dumbass. I wanted to go, "There was an ambulance! I didn't expect two emergency vehicles heading opposite directions!

My point is, if it was hard for me to hear the sirens, maybe when you're in the emergency vehicle, it's hard to hear anything other than your own siren.

Was the ambulance headed away from you? Or was it coming towards your intersection ? (I know it wasn't in your path) because here I am pretty sure everyone is just supposed to stop if sirens come no matter which direction. Then the don't have to worry about movement in the corner etc.

When I saw the ambulance, it was headed towards me, but slowing down to turn onto a side street, so I thought, "Oh, that's where the siren is coming from, and I don't need to worry about it."