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I am on the paramedics side on this one. If you have a problem with the ambulance driver take it up with him at the hospital. Also, if you are running with lights and siren you are not looking in back of you to see if someone wants to pass.

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I've never understood why some states legislate which emergency vehicles have priority over others. If I'm transporting an emergency patient in an ambulance or en route to an EMS call, I think it's silly to have to pull over for a cop on his way to an alarm or other "property" call.

Thank God that Wisconsin doesn't have such laws. If a fire truck is on its way to a fire, I'll voluntarily pull over my ambulance (with MY lights and siren on) and let it pass. Likewise if cop is on his way to a violent domestic or officer assistance call. This common sense approach has worked out well. Not that cops haven't tried issuing tickets to EMS and fire vehicle operators. They always get dismissed or thrown out of court. In the one instance I was involved in, the judge actually made the issuing officer apologize to the EMS driver on the record.

Regarding the video, it's stupid for a cop to stop an ambulance that has a patient onboard. No matter who's at "fault," it's just going to make the officer and his department look very stupid.

The race card will be pulled regardless of the situation...if it hasn't already. That short-haired white guy? He's done.

I am trying to think of a good reason to pull over an ambulance running its lights and siren...


Nothing is coming to mind.

Wait til they're done at the hospital if you have a problem. HP really screwed the pooch on this one.

Mark is spot on in his analysis. If they were at highway speeds, in an ambulance, the probability that the driver would hear the HP behind him is almost 0. And it's hard to see directly behind the ambulance. Seems like a trooper just had a burr on this one. I have an cousin who was a cop responding code to a shooting in progress. A HP actually pulled him over and tried to ticket him. He got his number, took off, and reported it.

Sometime people are freaking stupid.

Of course, I've seen ambulance drivers do stupid things, too, but if a patient's onboard, unless someone's going to get killed, just freaking wait.

Wouldn't the ambulance driver need much more concentration of the cars AHEAD of him as well?

captoveur wrote:I am trying to think of a good reason to pull over an ambulance running its lights and siren...


Nothing is coming to mind.

It seems strange that a police officer would try to pass a large vehicle without making sure the driver of that vehicle has confirmed acknowledgement of the officer's presence. I know that I never tried it in an ambulance, a smaller EMS administrative vehicle, or my personal vehicle (with lights and siren) until I saw the truck driver's eyes in the mirror or saw it trying to pull over and/or slow down.

Sounds like the OHP trooper failed that test.

captoveur wrote:I am trying to think of a good reason to pull over an ambulance running its lights and siren...


Nothing is coming to mind.

Let's take a deep breath here, folks. Remember that this video doesn't show everything that happened. First of all, are we certain the ambulance was running Code 3? That's the fundamental question, and until that is answered you can't fault these cops for making what would otherwise be a routine traffic stop with what they believed was a failure to yield.

Even if the ambulance wasn't running code 3, it's nothing that can't be dealt with later after the ambulance returns to its station.

captoveur wrote:I am trying to think of a good reason to pull over an ambulance running its lights and siren...


Nothing is coming to mind.

Perhaps it was stolen. Remember the Cannonball movies or my favorite when the EMS left his partner and patient behind at the scene...damm rookies

Queso wrote:

captoveur wrote:I am trying to think of a good reason to pull over an ambulance running its lights and siren...


Nothing is coming to mind.

Let's take a deep breath here, folks. Remember that this video doesn't show everything that happened. First of all, are we certain the ambulance was running Code 3? That's the fundamental question, and until that is answered you can't fault these cops for making what would otherwise be a routine traffic stop with what they believed was a failure to yield.

OK

Cop "Where are you going in such a hurry"?

Ambulance Driver "hospital"

Cop "Let me escort you"

Queso wrote:Let's take a deep breath here, folks. Remember that this video doesn't show everything that happened. First of all, are we certain the ambulance was running Code 3? That's the fundamental question, and until that is answered you can't fault these cops for making what would otherwise be a routine traffic stop with what they believed was a failure to yield.

I would love to give the police the benefit of the doubt here.. However, the fact there is a medical emergency in progress should be established upon making contact with the driver.. Which should terminate the stop at that point.

There is a whole lot that doesn't seem right... But it is Oklahoma

I must be missing something important... why was the trooper trying to arrest the EMT?

Click Click D'oh wrote:I must be missing something important... why was the trooper trying to arrest the EMT?

Emt is on his way to the hospital, not sure if the lights and noise were going. Along came a Cop with all his shit on and blinking. The EMT didn't get out of the way fast enough for the cops tastes. So the cop pulls over the EMT (disregarding whatever was so important in the first place that the cop had to be at) Looks like someones ego needs taken down a few notches.

Airfoilsguy wrote:
Cop "Where are you going in such a hurry"?

Ambulance Driver "hospital"

Cop "Let me escort you"

Don't know about the rest of the country, but in Wisconsin, EMT's are taught to turn down escort offers. One of two things usually happen with escorts. One, the cop drives likes bats out of hell leaving the ambulance so far behind that the original concept of an escort is totally lost. Two, people pull over for the police car and, assuming it's the only emergency vehicle in the "parade," pull out right in the path of the ambulance. Not only that, I've never saved any more time getting where I'm going with the police officer who insists on escorting (the dreaded "hostile escort"). Ambulances have four times as many lights and the sirens are twice as loud as a police vehicle.

Airfoilsguy wrote: Looks like someones ego needs taken down a few notches.

Sounds about right.

Remember what I keep saying about falling standards... People are becoming police now who wouldn't have even been considered just a few years ago.

Here's the OHP dashcam video and audio of the whole situation.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7a5_1244912671

Mark wrote:Here's the OHP dashcam video and audio of the whole situation.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7a5_1244912671

Cop is in trouble. How fast do you think he was going when he came up on the ambulance. I am betting 110. He was a bit overzealous I am guessing a rookie.

The car that was already pulled over may have heard the siren and assumed it was coming from the ambulance. And/or, the ambulance passed that vehicle thinking that it had done a "courtesy pullover" for it. From experience, some drivers pull over for an ambulance even if the lights and sirens aren't on. You can see the ambulance brake lights light up and its driver attempt to pull over once he realized the trooper was behind him. Apparently, it wasn't fast enough for the trooper.

Mark wrote:The car that was already pulled over may have heard the siren and assumed it was coming from the ambulance. And/or, the ambulance passed that vehicle thinking that it had done a "courtesy pullover" for it. From experience, some drivers pull over for an ambulance even if the lights and sirens aren't on. You can see the ambulance brake lights light up and its driver attempt to pull over once he realized the trooper was behind him. Apparently, it wasn't fast enough for the trooper.

Was the ambulance running his lights? I didn't see it in the video but sometime strobes don't show up well in video.

Airfoilsguy wrote:

Was the ambulance running his lights? I didn't see it in the video but sometime strobes don't show up well in video.

Nope. No warning lights.

When I've been driving an ambulance, my focus has been on the road ahead of me. I can understand how and why the ambulance driver didn't see the police car. He was concentrating on avoiding the car that was pulling over ahead of him.

I know our county's DA won't prosecute failure to yield for emergency vehicle situations unless we've run the gamut of siren tones, air horns, and PA announcements for at least a mile.

One thing that occurs to me is that if the trooper took the time to pull the amubulance over and attempt to arrest the driver, the call that was so damn important must not really have been.

captoveur wrote:I am trying to think of a good reason to pull over an ambulance running its lights and siren...


Nothing is coming to mind.

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When my brother joined the local VFD a few years back there was a fued going on between them and the Alaska State Troopers. It seems the ones in Homer had thrown a couple of drunk passed out car wreck drivers with possible back injuries into the back seat of their cruisers before the medics arrived.

The standing threat at the time was that the next time that the trooper that did this, they where going to loose the roof of the car rather then fish the guy on a backboard out of the backseat.

L-188 wrote:

captoveur wrote:I am trying to think of a good reason to pull over an ambulance running its lights and siren...


Nothing is coming to mind.

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When my brother joined the local VFD a few years back there was a fued going on between them and the Alaska State Troopers. It seems the ones in Homer had thrown a couple of drunk passed out car wreck drivers with possible back injuries into the back seat of their cruisers before the medics arrived.

The standing threat at the time was that the next time that the trooper that did this, they where going to loose the roof of the car rather then fish the guy on a backboard out of the backseat.