Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)
Copyright 2007 Anchorage Daily News
All Rights Reserved
The recent rash of accidents involving emergency response vehicles suggest that some fire and police drivers seem to need refresher courses in defensive driving.
Certainly the public as a whole needs to smarten up, slow down and avoid all manner of driving distractions, especially cell phones. But emergency response drivers need to be aware that the streets will still be filled with motorists who are going too fast, not paying attention and are unlikely to behave appropriately when the flashing lights and blaring sirens come on.
Drivers know they are supposed to slow down and move to the right, but often that’s only possible if the cars behind and beside them do the same thing.
When the sirens sound, the first thing every driver should do is figure out where the emergency vehicles are and find a way to give them safe passage.
In the city, that’s not always easy. An ambulance or police cruiser could be behind the civilian drivers, or on a side street. Without being sure where the source of the siren is, it’s difficult to know what to do.
Emergency responders also need to be aware that startling civilian motorists can also create an unsafe situation. That apparently happened on the Alyeska Highway in Girdwood when an Anchorage Fire Department ambulance was in a wreck while transporting a victim from a car crash.
A driver in the oncoming lane tried to obey the law by slowing down and pulling off the highway, but his Pathfinder collided with the ambulance.
That smashup happened just a day after three paramedics were injured, one seriously, in a rush-hour wreck on the Glenn Highway.
Many people report seeing incidents when police cruisers flew through intersections at what appeared to be extremely high rates of speed. Such speed might well have been necessary for the situation, but department supervisors should make sure that is the case.
The Anchorage Fire and Police departments, and the Alaska State Troopers, all do a fine job and we hesitate to criticize them. But the recent incidents suggest that a review of safety procedures may well be in order for drivers who must respond to emergencies.
Defensive driving is not just for civilian motorists.