Failure to yield adds risk to runs
By Jim Brooks
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
Copyright 2006 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
An ambulance, its lights flashing and sirens blaring, slows as it approaches a red light on Geyer Springs Road at Interstate 30. A white truck on the access road apparently sees the approaching emergency vehicle and stops to allow it through.
However, as the ambulance gets halfway through the intersection, a red sport utility vehicle slams into the side of it, injuring one of the medics inside and seriously injuring the SUV’s driver.
The entire event, captured by the video camera of a Little Rock police car following the ambulance on its emergency run Nov. 13, illustrates what authorities say is a growing problem in Little Rock: drivers who don’t yield to emergency vehicles.
“I don’t know if it’s a lack of respect or a lack of awareness,” said Jon Swanson, executive director of Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services. “But people need to realize that we’re going with lights and sirens because one of their neighbors has asked for help.” In the Nov. 13 accident, one member of the ambulance crew was hospitalized for injuries suffered in the crash and was released later in the week. The driver of the oncoming SUV was more seriously injured but still received a ticket for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, according to a Little Rock police report.
An accident a week earlier involving a police cruiser on a call and an SUV seriously injured both drivers. In that case, the patrolman driving the police car was unable to avoid hitting the SUV after it turned left across his path.
“A lot of times, people don’t know what to do when they see an emergency vehicle,” said Little Rock Police Department spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings, adding that the department averages “one or two” accidents a month. A small percentage of those involve injuries, he said.
Nationally, the problem is significant. According to a national study by the U.S. Fire Administration, 20 percent to 25 percent of firefighter fatalities are vehicle-related, making accidents the second-leading cause of firefighter deaths.
And a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study completed in 2000 found an average of 30 fatal crashes involving ambulances each year, resulting in nearly 10 deaths of ambulance occupants and approximately 30 deaths of occupants of other vehicles and pedestrians.
Arkansas state law requires motorists to yield to every emergency vehicle.
Arkansas Code Annotated, Section 27-15-901 states: “Upon the immediate approach of an authorized emergency vehicle, when the driver is giving audible signal by siren, exhaust whistle, or bell, the driver of every other vehicle shall yield the right-of-way and shall immediately drive to a position parallel to, and as close as possible to, the right-hand edge or curb of the highway clear of any intersection and shall stop and remain in such position until the authorized emergency vehicle has passed, except when otherwise directed by a police officer.” But emergency officials say they rely more on training than the law to protect themselves when they are responding to a call.
Swanson said extensive driver training and electronic monitoring of ambulance drivers’ behavior behind the wheel is responsible for a low number of MEMS accidents, six to eight per year. That, he said, is a small number when you consider that MEMS drivers log more than 1.5 million miles annually.
“We have received international recognition for our safety record and as a result there has been a 32 percent reduction in our insurance costs,” Swanson said.
“We’ve made 60,000 runs so far this year, with two-thirds of those being emergency runs,” he said. “If you think that each emergency run goes through 10 to 20 intersections, that means that we’ve safely avoided 99.99 percent of the accident potential.” “It’s been more than 5 million miles since we’ve had an at-fault accident,” he said. “And that was a minor fender-bender with a parked car when the ambulance was leaving a scene.” Capt. Edwin Woolf, spokesman for the Little Rock Fire Department, said one firefighter was injured - not critically - this year in an accident when a motorist failed to yield to a fire department vehicle on an emergency run.
“The main thing is people need to know that when they hear the sirens, they need to pull to the right because our policy is to pass on the left,” Woolf said. “Our main problem is with people either not stopping or not paying attention to us.” Woolf said the fire department has made more than 21,000 runs so far this year, so the single injury is a low number.
“But that was an injury that could have been avoided,” he said.
Woolf said that in addition to motorists failing to yield, some drivers think they can outrun a firetruck.
“We have people trying to go fast and get away from us,” he said. “And we’re going to catch them.” Ascertaining the intent of the other driver, whether it is to outrun or outmaneuver the emergency vehicle, is a key to avoiding an accident, Hastings said.
“The officer might have to just guess at what a motorist is going to do,” he said.
Swanson said ambulance drivers are trained to pull up to an intersection and make eye contact with the drivers of every other vehicle in oncoming lanes.
“The appropriate response at an intersection is to come to a stop, regardless of whether you have the light or not,” he said. “Our driver will pull up to the intersection and make eye contact with the drivers at the intersection.” The eye contact is sometimes misinterpreted, resulting in accidents, Swanson said.
“We do that to make sure that the person sees us, but they might interpret it to mean we’re waiting for them to go ahead and pass through the intersection.”