seifert@ihuxl.UUCP (07/18/83)
I sent this out Friday, but I think it fell in a black hole. If it
is a duplicate, sorry.
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<<< warning, put nomex on now! >>>
Hello, fellow net.auto readers, today I did something unusual, I
went home for lunch. Not in any big hurry, I turned into a blind
corner, and SURPRISE! there is an ambulance coming right at me,
lights flashing, but making about as much noise as your typical
librarian. Fortunately, the collision was avoided. This may be
attributed to: (a) the grace of God, (b) skill, (c) luck, (d)
some combination of the above.
<< flame on >>
HOWEVER, I thought the whole incident to be a little bit
unnecessary, considering that all the IDIOT had to do was flip
the little toggle switch and turn on the siren. Flashing lights
on emergency vehicles don't show up too well in bright daylight.
Yes, I realize that sirens make noise and may bother people.
Isn't that the idea? Hearing a siren warns you that there is an
emergency vehicle nearby which is in a hurry and therefore may
not be following all of the normal "rules of the road", such as
stopping at signs/lights, staying on their side of the road, etc.
Then you can watch out for it and stay out of the way. Right?
This isn't an isolated incident. I have observed other close
calls do to idiots running around without sirens on. In fact,
hearing a siren around here is an extremely rare event. Why? I
suspect there is some official 'leave the sirens off' policy. If
so, I would like to see this policy changed.
<< flame off >>
possible improvement: if they don't want to run a hyper-loud
siren all the time, how about a two level siren? The first level
would be say 100 db and would be on whenever driving in
"emergency mode". The second level would be extra loud, say 130
db, and used only when needed, on demand.
Survey time:
(1) is this stupidity going on in other parts of the country?
(2) do you vote for or against sirens?
mail replies to me, I will summarize to the net.
yours for the elimination of 'stealth' emergency vehicles,
Dave Seifert
Windy City BMW Club
ihnp4!ihuxl!seifertbdot@hogpd.UUCP (J.BARRETT) (07/19/83)
In my home town, the ambulances will use the sirens only when there is
enough traffic to warrent it and ALWAYS as approaching major intersections.
Since you are supposed to look both ways when pulling out onto another street
this should pose no problem. The same thing hapopens when cars pass other cars
in a similar situation. How many times have you almost been in a head-on due
to a regular car doing the same thing you described the ambulance as doing?
I may be a bit biased, I used to live directly across the street from a police
station and hearing sirens all night drove me crazy. The police no longer
use their sirens unnecessarily.
John Barrett
American ? Inc.
Lincroft, NJpurtilo@uiuccsb.UUCP (07/22/83)
#R:ihuxl:-44600:uiuccsb:5800001:000:2399
uiuccsb!purtilo Jul 21 13:42:00 1983
Concerning ambulances and the (un)necessary use of sirens ...
>From my experience, there is just as much danger in the over-use as in
the under-use of "running hot".
The danger in the under-use of sirens is the obvious traffic problem
that started this sequence of notes. Well, that certainly is a danger,
but any chauffer that would be all over the road to the point of risking
such a head-on sounds like he is a menace with or without sirens.
But how about the over-use: emergency personnel are taught that sirens only
ask for the right of way, only the other drivers can give it. That's the
theory. But clearly there are the jerks who enjoy asserting themselves
at every opportunity when behind the wheel of a vehicle which has lots
of noise makers. I know of towns where sirens are over-used to the point
that folks on the street don't bother to pay any respect to them; the
citizens (perhaps justly) figure the crew is just off to dinner. This
is dangerous because there is that rare run when you really do need to
run hot and no one is in a hurry to give you right of way.
There is also the (very small percentage of) towns where hearing lots of
sirens (usually of just one particular type, say, the "high-low" kind)
is the only way to alert the village of natural threats, tornados and
such. I worked in just such a village; any big fire we had would routinely
illicit calls from folks out in the boonies wondering whether the sirens
were a warning.
But the most important situation in which we would avoid the use of sirens
was with the ambulance in transportation of certain cardiac and stroke
patients. In some of these situations, the patient is partially conscious
to what has been going on, and their (very understandable) fears about
what nasties have befallen them are many times amplified by the enzyme and
oxygen instabilities which in themselves induce symptoms which resemble
anxiety. This is the touchiest kind of shock to deal with. Now, years of
TV shows have programmed the public into believing that a trip in an
ambulance which feels more like a roller coaster, coupled with loud sirens,
is a sure sign that they're gonna die. In this kind of situation, it is
better to run quiet and let a smooth tongued paramedic talk a patient
into surviving. I have seen it done.
Just to let you know there are a couple sides to things ...
Jim Purtilo
...!uiucdcs!purtilo