What happens if an emergency vehicle (fire, police, ambulance) were to come screeching through (sirens, lights) at the exact time that saw a schoolbus stopped on the side of the road, red lights flashing? I’d be likely to say that the emergency vehicle was supposed to stop – but what do I know?
For those of you not in the US, if a school bus is stopped with red lights flashing, you aren’t supposed to pass, unless on the other side of a divided highway. Emergency vehicles are generally allowed to speed, run lights and stop signs and the like, provided that they seem to be in an emergency. Those laws may or may not be the same elsewhere.
Comments
6 responses to “Two Immovable Objects”
Wow, great links, Dave. Thanks!
Looking at this analysis of school bus safety laws, I see that Vermont law explicitly forbids emergency vehicles from passing, which makes me think that the Uniform Vehicle Code does not. This Ohio district site notes that “it is legal for emergency vehicles, with sirens on, to pass a stopped school bus.” On the other hand, the New York state regs quoted here say that, “Every EMS response vehicle must stop upon encountering a stopped school bus with red lights flashing ….” and something similar shows up in this New Hampshire law (though it also makes it clear that, after stopping, the emergency vehicle can proceed).
This Detroit Free Press article indicates it’s a “gray area” in the law where common sense has to prevail. How quaint.
I would think the child crossing the street to get on the school bus would be top priority. I do believe that most drivers of emergency vehicles try to use common sense such as slowing down almost to a slow roll when going thru an intersection or not breaking the speed limit by much (ambulance & fire trucks). I take it that the emergency vehicle would stop for a stopped school bus.
The point of not allowing vehicles to pass a stopped/lit school bus is that kids may be darting around it, front/back, to cross the street.
I suspect that an emergency vehicle would slow, but not stop.
That would seem to be the logical choice. But as I pointed out recently, we (Americans, that is) aren’t always likely to do the logical thing. I suspect that in reality the school bus would take priority – that’s just the way many Americans seem to think. That child crossing the street would be more important than an apartment full of people who are in danger of being consumed in a fire.
As a European I have no idea what the reasons are you may not pass a school bus, so I’d say the emergency vehicle should continue. After all, there is an emergency, right?