By Kevin Flynn
Rocky Mountain News
DENVER — Ambulance driver Jay Neumann was running east on the Sixth Avenue freeway, lights flashing and siren blaring, rushing an 8-year-old boy with a life-threatening illness to Denver Health Medical Center.
As he neared the end of the freeway, where the viaduct reaches Kalamath Street, the traffic signal went from green to yellow. Neumann slowed. Under state and city laws, he is permitted to go through a red light on an emergency run, but he must use every caution.
There was no traffic ahead of his American Medical Response rig. By the time Neumann reached the intersection, the signal had been red for 31/2 seconds. He slowed to 20 mph and instinctively looked both ways, though there would be no traffic coming from his right on the one-way street.
Seeing that drivers on Kalamath were waiting for him to cross, Neumann went through the red light and on to the hospital seven blocks away.
We know that all of this happened at exactly 3:37:55 on the bright and sunny afternoon of Oct. 23 because it was all duly recorded on the photos that came to Neumann — along with a notice of violation and $75 fine he received from the automated red-light ticket camera that Denver has installed there.
The city’s policy is to issue red- light-running tickets to authorized emergency vehicles such as AMR’s ambulance fleet, Denver’s own paramedics and firetrucks, and even the Denver police department’s traffic unit cars when they are photographed going through the intersections against a red light with their emergency lights flashing.
“We’ll still send the pictures out even if the emergency vehicle seems to be following state statute,” said Lt. Ron Saunier of Denver police. “We will send to Denver Health Medical Center paramedics, even our own police cars. A supervisor would have to send a letter on official letterhead that this was a lawful emergency run.
“With our own police cars, we will pull the log sheet and make sure.”
Saunier said the city has the same policy for the photo radar speeding cameras that pick up emergency vehicles going in excess of the speed limit.
“It’s not something that’s automatically dismissed,” he said. “We have to find out if there was justification for it.”
That means Neumann must get a letter from his supervisor attesting to the nature of the trip and take it to the city’s traffic ticket adjudicators. It’s a hassle that is prompting the city to at least discuss, if not yet alter, the policy.
“It’s been happening more often than we would have thought,” said Cynthia Wentworth, a spokeswoman for AMR.
However, the city says the process is easily dealt with.
“Basically, all they have to do is respond with a letter from their supervisor that yes, this was an emergency,” said Kory Nelson, an assistant city attorney who works on the red-light program, which started enforcement at four intersections this summer.
Two of those — the Sixth and Kalamath camera and one on westbound Eighth Avenue and southbound Speer Boulevard — are on main routes to Denver Health’s emergency room.
Because it is against the law for emergency drivers to abuse the privilege — a cop can’t just flip on the siren to get through a red light, for instance — the city sends out the violations and makes the drivers prove it was a bonafide emergency.
Denver hasn’t separated any figures for how many emergency vehicles have been sent the violations. Nelson said the city is planning to revisit that policy, but no decision has been made.
“They’re trying to be uniform in how they handle these cases,” he said. “An officer can’t just turn on the siren and lights to get through an intersection.”