In ANY situation where you need to take someone to a hospital in such a manner that they are in danger for their lives it is always faster to call an ambulance. Don't be that family member that tries to do it on your own. Its stupid and its dangerous.

They get clear driving space, you never will. No matter what the traffic conditions.

:D

SI

(yeah, I know I'm a bad person for laughing at this...)

This will not end well.

I laughed out loud

I'll just say, Who carrys stuff like that, just to wash a car?
Still funny though.

Totally wrong. I'm 25 minutes from the nearest ambulance dock station and 35 from the hospital...if I wait on the ambulance it's an hour at minimum.

If I drive straight there I get treatment 10 minutes faster. Please don't throw out generalities like that.

I also hate the lane blockers. I'm a volunteer fireman and met, and I can't tell you how many times I've been responding to a call and since I'm in my personal vehicle often with no lights, some jack ass blocks half the lane because they are scared someone is getting ahead of them.

In personal vehicle with no lights and you expect everyone to submit to you violating the rules of the road?? If you are so entitled, then get a lawfully equipped vehicle with emergency lights.

That actually does raise a question on something that I suspect might vary from state to state. Here in Georgia, my dad (volunteer fire for, good grief, 20+ years) had a permit for a red dashboard light for a long time. I remember there was an application process, had to be signed off on by (IIRC) the local sheriff, approved by the state dept of public safety, yadda yadda yadda.

Do they do those in SC?

How is it a random person's job to enforce the rules of the road? Pretty sure "driving to the emergency room" qualifies as urgent and unplanned action.

When the National Highway Transportation Safety has published rules and many states have laws protecting and encouraging the reporting of aggressive drivers.

So report a person driving in the breakdown lane. Blocking the lane to stop a jerk from getting ahead of you results in you also entering the breakdown lane. The solution to somebody breaking traffic rules is not more people breaking traffic rules.

I actually both driving in the line and blocking the lane are dick moves and leads to nothing positive (other than your own selfish pleasures I guess

English please.

I actually (think) both driving in the (breakdown) l(a)ne and blocking the lane are dick moves.

I think blocking some asshole who thinks the rules don't apply to him is perfectly acceptable.

My wife and I rented a car in Florida...drove it to South Carolina and then were beginning our long trek across America back to Los Angeles (where we used to live). Just for fun...anyway...

In Alabama, on I-20, we unfortunately hit Talladega at the same time one of it's big races had concluded and we found ourselves in stopped traffic. The car started overheating. I needed to get to a gas station quick, so I jumped in the emergency lane and drove that shoulder for about a mile to the next exit. People in the backs of pickup trucks were cursing us and we even had a couple of empty beer cans thrown at us. I find that sort of vigilantism better now, because I'm glad nobody blocked us.

this

Sorry for your perceived inconvenience, but in fact I am not violating any rules of the road, and I can and have taken tag numbers of people who block an unmarked emergency response vehicle and they can be ticketed for obstructing or even reckless endangerment if the Leo is in a particularly fould mood ( or the drivers attitude dictates)

In SC you can run red or red and white provided you are a VfF, rescue squad, or other. You are NOT in fact required to run the lights. While I have a light kit on one of my trucks, there are often times when I am not in that vehicle. For example when I owned my elec business there were numerous times I'd be in a work truck coming from or to a job site and have a page come across. Or he'll just Tuesday night we were on the way home from a little league game in the wifes e350 when we got a call, I was first on seen and actually started blood loss mitigation. Sorry but I can't imagine cutting the dahs out of a car I ride in twice d a month.

But I guess Lathum and bucc would have preferred I let the 10 year old bleed out instead of breaking their self appointed "rules of the road"

Therein lies the diff in the light I was thinking of/remembering. It wasn't permanently mounted, just plugged into the cigarette lighter & basically lived on the passenger floorboard side of the car until needed (you know, in the floor but shoved up toward the engine compartment as much out of the way as possible).

Hadn't really thought about that light in ages, which is probably why this made me curious enough about them in "modern times" to ask.

So, for those of us familiar with this and living in large cities, we've all seen this happen dozens if not hundreds of times, right? We're not talking about somewhere that's not a population center but a metro area of 1M plus.

Of the times we've seen this behavior, how many times does each person think it's for a "legit" reason from unmarked emergency vehicle (as people would move out of the way for a marked emergency vehicle) to pregnant woman going to hospital to something like "car overheating" (where there are other courses of action other than drive on shoulder but we'll assume the best of people)? Just give me a ballpark percentage. I'm going with sub 1%.

SI

I wouldn't doubt that you're right.

But the whole pull-into-the-lane-to-block thing just stumps me, tbh.

I mean, I would think I'd be considered one of the grumpiest old bastards at FOFC but it's never crossed my mind to risk a life for that 1 in 200 case of "real" just to annoy the other 199 assholes.

If someone is in an emergency situation they would gesture accordingly.

Sorry Lathum, in the right situation, I'd do more than gesture.

I consider you lucky that someone hasn't fired a couple of rounds in your direction (feel free to consider that the royal "you" for anybody doing this). And what you're doing is exponentially worse than what those assholes - who are absolutely incredibly annoying without a doubt - are doing.

Because humans hate to think of someone getting away with something that we're not. We know full well that those people aren't getting pulled over, and taking down their tag info wouldn't do anything (assuming you could even get it in the split-second a car rides by you). And the assholes that do it know they won't get caught and there's nothing anyone can do about it. That's why we get pissed off enough to want to block the lane. You decide to follow the rules, and you lose. Same thing goes for people speeding (faster than you are speeding) or weaving across lanes.

Not a bad description of a huge portion of life.

By gesture I mean honking horn, flashing lights, waving hands, etc. in my experience people just slow down and deal with it. The odds of encountering an actual emergency are extremely low. And I used to live in one of the worst traffic cities.

Heh. Truth.

By what indication should we believe that you are an emergency vehicle instead of a typical reckless driver? While I won't block you (I don't do stuff like that), I or anyone could and should report you and keep reporting you until you learn provide visual evidence that you are an emergency vehicle. Your inconvenience does not excuse the inability to plug in one spinning light into the charger or provide a siren (or even side markings). Most states require one or both. California, for example, the minimum would be a steady red light. Otherwise, we are not obligated to move over, yield or stop.

People shouldn't be in the lane unless it's emergency so he shouldn't have to show other wise. Do most people really care what others are getting away with that much. I actually feel sorry for people that are over there that aren't in an emergency.

Report away. When (if) they follow up, he provides material indicating he was legitimately in the shoulder. Case closed.

No what they and I would prefer is that you do the job you "volunteer" to do, yet expect everyone to provide you courtesy for, by maintaining the proper equipment so that you can be recognized while driving to the scene.

Get a fucking battery powered light and keep the thing with you, when you get a call USE the light so that you might better respond to the emergency in a timely manner since people SEEING the light will actually get out of your way. As a far more important LAW of the road stipulates.

Don't be a whiny bitch and complain about people who can't possibly know who the fuck or what the fuck you are. When you in fact don't have enough interest in DOING the job to properly outfit your vehicle in a way that makes yourself known.

100% agree - that's what I don't get. How does CU Tiger think that others are supposed to realize that he's responding to an emergency rather than just driving recklessly if he doesn't provide some visual signal??

We could assume that someone in the emergency lane, hopefully using their emergency/hazard blinkers, is probably in the middle of an emergency.

I think that's a better way of putting it. We would want all emergency vehicles to get there as safely as possible - that means drivers would have to pull over, move over, yield, stop, slow down, whatever, to allow better passage. But if you are not identified as an emergency vehicle (no lights, no sirens, no markings, etc.), then no one should expect to give you the right away and some would treat you as a nascar nut by preventing you from doing the above.

Here's the info for South Carolina:

http://www.iafc.org/files/downloads/...thCarolina.pdf

and to think, you all thought this thread sucked before

Geez, I wondered why I was reading all this stuff about firefighters and driving on the shoulder. Had long since forgotten that the discussion originated from a GIF.

Exactly. I've got zero problem with pulling over, stopping, etc. when there's identification that it's an emergency vehicle.

As the son of a volunteer f.f. for years, the uncle & brother-in-law to a current pair, the friend of more first responders & volunteers than I even want to try to count, I'll just mention that the number of cases involving them in the broad topic here is probably an awfully small percentage.

Regardless, the ol' block-the-lane move is still just as improper as what it's presuming to prevent. I figure I'm pretty capable of being a petty person but that's one that just makes me think "damn".