NATIONAL NEWS - Earlier this morning, ER24 and other emergency services had difficulty responding to an incident on the N1 highway near the William Nicol offramp due to motorists using the emergency lane.
ER24 urges all motorists to please refrain from using the emergency lane and make way for emergency vehicles.
Those of us who drive regularly will experience at least one instance a day where a big red ER24 ambulance is trying to scream past you with lights flashing and sirens blaring. You may have wondered to yourself, “Where are they are going?”, and others may become annoyed and think, “Why do they have to drive so fast and push through the traffic like they do?”
Yes, it may seem like emergency vehicle drivers are reckless, impatient and rude, but we are only trying to do what we can and do best: Get to the scene of an emergency as quickly as we can, as mere minutes may mean the difference between life and death.
We urge the public on our roads to consider being more forgiving towards us; we really are only tying to help those people in a medical emergency who are unable at that point in time to help themselves.
A general rule to follow when you notice an ambulance in free flowing traffic is to move into the left hand lane and reduce your speed. Also be considerate to those drivers around you, allowing them to move into your lane where you can and if it is safe to do so. If traffic is at a standstill, the ambulance driver will generally indicate where he finds it best to pass. If you notice that the other vehicles have been moving over to either side of the road, simply follow their leads! If there really is no option for you to move out of the way, try and stay calm, the driver of the ambulance will be one step ahead, and once traffic starts to move forward he will continue on.
We also request that you try and avoid driving in the shoulder lanes of the road if there is traffic; it makes it very difficult for us to get to the scene of the accident. The sooner we get to the scene, the sooner the patients and wrecked vehicles will be removed and traffic will flow freely once again. We do apologise for blocking the roads, but somebody needs us because they are hurt.
So next time you see an ambulance on the road, please let us pass you in traffic and try and make way for us to get to our intended destination.
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