By Stacey Becker
Telegraph Herald
Copyright 2007 Woodward Communications, Inc.
DUBUQUE, Iowa — The sirens of an emergency vehicle scream at the vehicles around them to get out of the way, but the cars are stuck at a red light with seemingly nowhere to go.
Suddenly, the screams of the sirens are accompanied by the complaint of the emergency vehicle’s horn:
Move!
The lanes are full. What are drivers suppose to do?
According to some officials, drivers usually do the wrong thing and either recklessly speed through the intersection or pull to the left.
“Some drivers need to get back to the basics,” said Chuck Uskavitch, executive director of Heartland EMS.
Dubuque’s city code section 32-218 states, “Upon the immediate approach of an emergency vehicle 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.”
“People are supposed to pull to the right,” Dubuque Assistant Fire Marshal Mike McMahon said. “We just can’t go around everybody.”
Pulling to the right seems like a simple maneuver, but what happens when the sirens blare at an intersection with bumper to bumper traffic?
“In those situations there’s no hard and fast rule,” Uskavitch said.
Although there isn’t a code stating what to do at intersections, McMahon said the last thing to do is run a red light.
“We need everyone to err on the side of safety,” McMahon said.
When an emergency vehicle is stuck at an intersection the best thing for drivers to do is to squeeze to the sides. By doing so, McMahon said emergency vehicles have a better chance of safely getting through the intersection.
Only after cautiously approaching the intersection could drivers go through a red light to allow emergency vehicles through, Uskavitch added.
“In some instances there is not going to be clearance,” Dubuque Assistant Police Chief Terry Tobin said.
To decrease intersection confusion, emergency vehicles in Dubuque are equipped with preemption devices. Tobin said when officers activate their vehicle’s emergency lights the preemption device turns on and sends a signal to the stoplights which theoretically turns the light green.
The lights go green for emergency vehicles on roads such as Dodge Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, Kennedy Road, and the Northwest Arterial.
Not playing by the rules can be costly. The ticket for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle is $116.
“Emergency vehicles are only asking for the right-of-way,” Uskavitch said. “We don’t want to cause another accident.”