Get Out Of Their Way
This is a full-blown rant post with one mission: Remind you to get out of the way of emergency service vehicles with their lights flashing.
I get it - you see an accident and our human nature tells us to turn our necks and look at everything as we drive past. You see someone pulled over and you crane your neck to get a good look at the driver, simply to make assumptions about what they must have done so terribly wrong. You see an ambulance or firetruck and become so entranced in the thoughts of “what if...” Well, you’re right to think what if? What if it was your family member who was fighting for their life, waiting for a fire rescue vehicle to arrive to use jaws of life to get them out, while a police officer held their hand on the side of the road where traffic was flying by? What if it was your son, your daughter, mother, or father who maybe went just a touch over the speed limit they should have? What if their brake light was simply out and the officer was letting them off, but had to run through the formalities during the traffic stop? What if the ambulance was on its way to your home to save your child who had been hit by a vehicle while playing outside of your home while the babysitter was watching them? What if that fire truck was on its way to save your home because your neighbour saw smoke while no one was home there?
What if it was your son, daughter, mother, or father driving the emergency vehicle, or standing on the side of the road, assisting a victim, saving a life? What if those lights meant someone you loved was involved and needed help or what if those lights meant your loved one was saving that person? Would you move over then?
Red, blue, white, and orange flashing lights are used on emergency vehicles because of their high level of visibility at a long distance. Green flashing lights (and in some regions, even purple) are used to signify someone who is on route as a volunteer to do the jobs of those in the red-blue-white-orange flashing light vehicles - yes, they are volunteering and running out of their family dinner, their son’s second birthday, their daughter’s graduation, because they want to help.
All of these lights are high visibility. All of these lights are a signal to you, the civilian driver, to move out of the way. They can be seen at a distance, and they can be seen in these magical things called mirrors, windshields, and driver side windows. They are visible.
The least you can do is get out of their way.
Get out of their way so they can pass you. Get out of their way so they can go home tonight, tomorrow, and every day going forward. Move over one lane, just one. A single lane switch could save the life of that officer, that paramedic, fire fighter, or volunteer. A single lane switch, as soon as you see those lights in the distance, creates a ripple effect and more people will move over, more people will see the lights and work together to protect our emergency services and those they are helping.
You are not more important than saving a life. Your meeting, your appointment, none of it is more important than saving someone.
Can’t move over? Stop, and I don’t mean a stop where you keep inching forward or you coast at a slower speed. I mean stop, fully and completely, the way they teach you to stop at a stop sign in driving school. Don’t remember those courses? Okay, than put the car in park. That’s the type of STOP you should make when a vehicle with flashing lights appears - I don’t care if they are 5K, 10K, or 2 meters away. STOP. Again, you have the power to make a ripple effect and silently create a team of drivers who are working together to create a safe path for the emergency vehicle to travel. The faster they arrive at the scene, the faster mine, yours, or someone else’s loved one can be protected.
It is simple. Move over, stop, and pay attention.
Today, I watched two different traffic stops take place on the 401 west-bound between Cambridge and Woodstock. In one of these incidents, the police vehicle was protecting a vehicle that had come to a stop and had their four ways on. This police vehicle had bright orange (”caution”) lights flashing. Not a single vehicle moved over. A single vehicle hitting that police vehicle or the civilian car ahead of him could have cost someone their life.
A later traffic stop involved a police vehicle with their red and blue flashing lights. Again, very few vehicles slowed or moved over one lane. This put every party at high risk for fatal collision.
It would have taken less than five seconds to move over and to help ensure those individuals go home today.
Please, move over. Please, slow down. Please, stop.
There are children who want their mother or father to come home. There are mothers and fathers who want their child to come home. There are spouses, partners, friends, who are relying on that person making it home to them today. Nothing about your schedule is more important than those people making it home.
