For not driving through red light with ambulance behind me

[User34445566677]

Stuck at red lights in 3 lanes of traffic. I was in right hand lane to turn right, at the front of white line and railings to my right so couldn't pull to the side. Middle lane for straight on. Left hand lane (towards hospital) is always allowed to filter through first via green light to the left, then after a while, the forward and right turn green lights come on. Ambulance comes up my lane whilst red traffic lights on. Blue lights and sirens on, all while the ambulance is indicating left (I am the only car in this lane, other lanes have several cars in). Ambulance leaves sirens on, and even beeps while lights are on red ( though i am not 100% sure this was the ambulance, but don't know who else it would have been?). From what I have read, you should not cross during a red light even for an emergency vehicle, I would have been entering a box junction? Was I BU to not cross the red light? And I think the Ambulance would have been quicker going in the left lane which filtered through first? Very confused. TIA

You are wrong, you cannot go through a red light to let an emergency vehicle past

You can be fined for avoiding an ambulance | RAC Drive

🤦🏻‍♀️

If theyre listening to their colleague losing the patient in the back and can see one car which can safely move between them and the hospital I can imagine they would beep.. they are still human with emotions despite training.

Oh I hate this. I’ll always always do my best to get out of the way but sometimes there is simply no place to go 😣 I feel your pain OP. It’s so stressful.

But but.. the law!
MNetters are increased with the letter of the law especially when it comes to driving and incapable or rather terrified of making a personal judgement call.

If you are at the front of the queue then there’s nowhere to go - it’s illegal and dangerous to go though a red light, even if an ambulance is behind. There could be multiple deaths caused by going through a red so don’t make the OP feel guilty for doing the correct thing.

I don’t personally know anyone who’s been arrested for murder either, but I’m fairly sure that doesn’t mean that I can risk stabbing someone 🤷🏻‍♀️

Incorrect...... lights and sirens are irrelevant. Its against the law and they do not have the authority to run red lights either UNLESS its safe to do so. People just panic all traffic will.stop at junctions/roundabouts when they see/hear an emergency vehicle.

YANBU. Ambulances etc. are able to go through red lights, let them do that if needed, but don’t go through a red yourself, end up being in trouble, or end up causing an accident.

www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/fined-for-moving-out-of-the-way-of-an-ambulance/

Report it to the ambulance trust as that is dangerous.
No you definitely should not go through a red light & the ambulance driver should have turned off the siren (but left lights on) until they were able to overtake.

A similar incident happened locally & an 80 year old pedestrian was seriously injured by the car driver. The ambulance driver was also charged with dangerous driving because he left the siren on & pressurized the car driver into doing a dangerous move.

If ambulance drivers can't manage their emotions when driving they shouldn't be driving on blue lights. The arrogance of alot of them locally is quite shocking.

There has been cases reported in the press

Wow what an unfair comment! I'm a nurse I understand every minute counts, if I had moved forward enough I would have been right in the middle of a box junction with multiple lanes of traffic in multiple directions. I have had it drilled into me to never cross a red for an emergency vehicle.

the roads would be a LOT safer if drivers stuck to the letter of the law than making personal judgement calls

Absolutely not. If you get caught by cameras you’ll have to pay the fine

You did the right thing.

They shouldn't be beeping at you though to change the siren they beep the horn, which is what you might have heard.

Cars in the middle should have squeezed to one side enough to get them through.

There's enough room in 3 lanes of traffic to get an ambulance through. I was in a v similar situ the other day, the left most lane squeezed up against the barrier and the two lanes to the right jiggled around so the ambulance could slalom through.

Yes, it happens.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pensioner-fine-red-light-ambulance-b2260018.html

I'm a blue light trained driver.

Our siren system works off the horn, so they could have beeped the horn to change the siren tone, or double beeped to cancel the siren.
Sometimes a double beep doesn't register properly and you end up accidentally beeping at people.

They shouldn't have been beeping you to get through a red light but as others have said sometimes in a dire emergency it is so frustrating (but totally understandable!) when people don't move over, budge to the side, see us earlier on etc, and it feels as though they are just sitting there while you're watching valuable seconds tick past...!

Don't worry about it, you can't change anything now.

No you don’t!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pensioner-fine-red-light-ambulance-b2260018.html

There was a thread on here not so long back by a poster who had been fined for going through a red light for an ambulance. IIRC she appealed it but it was upheld.

@User34445566677 You did the right thing. My step-dad was an EMT for 25 years in both a major city & a rural area & was always very clear that as professionals they are trained to get round vehicles & that people who try & manoeuvre out of the way often cause more hindrance than help. Ambulances are not supposed to have sirens on at lights & they certainly should never beep at other drivers to encourage them to break the law. He tells two stories of tricky manoeuvres in his career that he made to get two critically ill babies to hospital but has always been clear that he never broke the law or intimidated other drivers & never lost a patient due to traffic issues.

There is a European country (Denmark?) where as default, when there is heavy traffic the lanes keep to the sides creating a third 'lane' in the middle for emergency crews. Whenever traffic builds up everyone just shoves over. No one cuts down the middle.

It was excellent, such a good civic system.
I immediately thought it just wouldn't work in Britain, there are too many shits who would just push down the middle.

I won't do it any more either OP. I used to, if safe, just get out of the way enough to let them through not go straight across. But in a world with cameras everywhere I'm not doing it. The monitoring people (police?) don't let you off if you drove through a red light for an emergency vehicle. They'll still fine you and put points on your license if a camera catches you doing it. So now I sit there until the lights turn green.

In that situation, I can understand maneuvering your car to allow them to pass without putting anyone else in danger, so moving forward slowly and to the side if possible, usually if they are full on lights and sirens, most people at lights would be hesitant to move forward until they have passed by ?

Completely agree. The ambulance may have also been beeping thr car in the middle lane to live over and make room for- it isn’t all about you OP it’s about the ambulance finding a way through to potentially save a life.

And just for reference you can hear and see an ambulance with light and sirens on from a way off so maybe you shoukd have prepared to move over before they were on you?

Thank you, I am generally very aware of ambulances because I drive that stretch of road often and its direct to the hospital and I'm constantly checking for blue lights and moving in good time. This time was unavoidable and I felt pretty awful after because I had done everything that I've been told to do by ambulance staff themselves! To not cross red. There was no where for me to go.