By Ruby Gonzales
Whittier Daily News
WHITTIER, Calif. — When a firetruck or police car appears with lights flashing and sirens blaring, a driver is supposed to pull over to the right, stop and let them pass.
That is the law.
But local law enforcement and fire departments say they’ve been delayed by motorists who keep driving or even stop in front of their vehicles. Officers and firefighters are forced to find a way to maneuver around the offender, sometimes resorting to using the opposing lanes.
Drivers have offered excuses from not knowing the law to not hearing the siren. Some have been seen with ear plugs in both ears.
No one was killed in Los Angeles County last year from a crash triggered by a driver who failed to yield for an ambulance, a firetruck or a patrol car.
But out of 29 counties last year, Los Angeles County had the highest number of collisions at 108 and the most number of people injured, 75, in crashes caused by such drivers, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Drivers who fail to pull over and stop are a problem for deputies in the sheriff’s Industry Station. So far this year, Sgt. James Beamon said they cited 36 drivers for violating vehicle code 21806(a)(1).
That may not seem a high number but Beamon said they don’t have the time to stop and write a ticket when they’re rolling Code 3, which is the term used when responding to a call with lights and siren on.
“Because if we’re going to an emergency, we can’t stop and cite people,” Beamon said.
And he estimated their deputies respond Code 3 three times a day.
In West Covina, Cmdr. Mark Dettor said officers issued 27 citations for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle from Oct, 7, 2007 to Oct. 8, 2008.
“When you’re rolling lights and siren, you don’t have time to stop and cite. Your primary focus is go to the call,” Dettor said.
He said the officers don’t complain about such drivers all the time.
“You deal with it. It’s part of when you roll with lights and siren,” Dettor said.
In Los Angeles County, a first violation will cost drivers $150. Subsequent violations means forking over as much as $2,800.
Beamon has seen drivers just stop in their lane, pull to the center divider or keep on going.
“We haven’t had any accidents but it’s terrible to drive Code 3 around here. I would say all the major roads around here,” Beamon said.
He said Hacienda Boulevard is the most problematic street for the station followed by Valley Boulevard, then Amar Road.
On Sept. 30, Beamon was on Valley Boulevard heading to a call about an assault with a deadly weapon when he encountered 14 cars that didn’t give him the right of way.
“One stopped in front of me and I had to go around. Four kept going,” he said. “I could have cited all of them.”
Two months ago, a robbery suspect ran into a commercial strip near Amar Road. Beamon was rolling to the call but got stuck in traffic because no car pulled over. He had to turn off his siren.
“I got there eventually but not rolling code. Where it normally takes me three minutes to get there, it took me 12 minutes,” Beamon said.
Whittier police spokesman Jason Zuhlke said drivers who don’t yield to emergency vehicles are a problem.
“It’s been getting worse. I don’t know if (there is) a particular reason,” Zuhlke said.
He pointed out that drivers have a lot more technological devices in their cars and newer vehicles shut out more outside noise.
Officer Joe Zizi of the Santa Fe Springs CHP station said the majority of their officers encounter these types of drivers as well.
While they can’t ticket these drivers while they’re heading to a call, he said they cite people they see not yielding to ambulances and firetrucks.
“It helps us if drivers pull quickly and safely to the right regardless of where the emergency vehicle is. ... We could be responding to your house for a family emergency,” Zizi said.
Firefighters also contend with the same issue but, unlike police, cannot ticket the offenders.
“We have no control over the other drivers,” said Capt. Tony Duran, safety officer in the Risk Management Division of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
He said they sometimes get help from police who cite the drivers. But he said their department deals with the issue by educating their drivers that other motorists may not yield because they don’t know the rules of the road or they can’t hear the fire truck.
“We educate (our) drivers to be careful. We’re the ones going through red lights, making right turns from left lanes, going on opposing lanes,” Duran said.
“We train our drivers we’re asking for the right of way. It is not an automatic right.”
He said they’re pretty much exempt from everything if they’re responding code. But he said having the exemption doesn’t release them from driving responsibly.
While the county Fire Department keeps statistics on its accidents, it doesn’t specifically track collisions caused by drivers who don’t yield.
Pasadena fire Capt. Dan Serna said these drivers have never stopped them from getting to calls.
But they do encounter them. Some even stop in front of the firetrucks.
“Believe me, it gets frustrating for us,” Serna said. There were times he wished there was a cop there to cite the driver.
“Depending on the circumstances, if we’re blocked (at an intersection) we stop the siren, wait for the light to change and move,” he said.