Ignoring the siren song

Drivers often can hear the siren wail of an emergency vehicle before they see its flashing lights. However, they don’t always react to the situation as they should.

Several Charlottesville-area emergency responders say an increase in traffic congestion and cell phone use over the years has made it harder for emergency vehicles to maneuver through traffic. Others believe local drivers don’t remember their training.

“Now that you have so many lanes, you see people doing lots of different things,” Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner said. “You will see people go left and right.”

Once drivers know an emergency vehicle is in the area, they need to get out of its path as soon as it is safe to do so. Drivers are required to pull to the right side of the road or change lanes to allow emergency vehicles through. Under Virginia’s Move Over law, drivers also must change lanes or slow down when approaching an emergency vehicle pulled to the side of the road.

Sometimes drivers don’t even realize that an emergency vehicle is behind them. Michelle Hallahan, a city firefighter, said loud radios and cell phone conversation can make drivers less alert.

“Some people never even look over,” Hallahan said. “They’ll have their radio up too loud or will be talking on a cell phone. … It’s just complete inattention to what is going on around them.”

Distracted drivers who don’t see the lights or hear the siren may get one clue that an emergency vehicle is nearby. If a bright white light mounted near the traffic signals turns on, an emergency vehicle is about to come through the intersection. The light is an Opticom traffic controller, which can turn the traffic signal green when it receives a signal from an oncoming emergency vehicle.

Some drivers may feel anxious because they’re unable to get out of the way of a fire truck or ambulance immediately, Hallahan said. She said she will let the siren die down and stop hitting the air horn if the truck is stuck in traffic.

“If there is nowhere for the cars to go, there is nowhere for us to go,” Hallahan said. “If we have to slow down for 20 seconds to get to a call, it’s much better than to force someone out into an intersection to get T-boned and killed.”

Albemarle fire Capt. Bernard Hewitt said emergency responders appreciate it when drivers make an effort to show they are trying to get out of the way.

“Something as simple as cutting on a signal light to show that you see us and you’re trying to get over, that can give us a hint,” Hewitt said.

However, Charlottesville police Sgt. Tito Durrette said sometimes drivers will stop in the middle of the road instead of pulling over.

“We’re trained to drive tactically, but it’s so hard to predict what [drivers] are going to do,” Durrette said. “They slow down but they don’t move over all of the way. They assume we will move around them.”

In the Charlottesville area, there are certain roads that emergency responders know will take more time to get through. Local responders say Emmet Street, the U.S. 250 Bypass, U.S. 29 and Rio Road, U.S. 29 and Airport Road, Pantops, Ridge/McIntire, West Main Street and the Corner are the more difficult spots to maneuver through because of traffic and/or road design.

Rural roads can be tricky, too. Albemarle Fire-Rescue Chief J. “Dan” Eggleston said it can be hard for drivers to find a place to pull over on roads such as Route 20 south toward Scottsville. In the case of Route 20, the curvy road doesn’t have a shoulder.

Local emergency responders said they have not had problems with drivers willfully refusing to move out of their path. However, a state trooper was injured May 13 after a tractor-trailer slammed into his car on the side of Interstate 81 in Botetourt County and drove away.

Authorities are still searching for the driver and truck that hit Master Trooper J.H. Rasnick’s unmarked car, which was parked behind another tractor-trailer he pulled over for speeding.