Rescue alley on the highway?

[Hardy Heinlin]

In some countries, in case of an accident on the highway, there's this tradition where all car drivers slow down and pull over to the left or right to make a rescue alley in the middle for ambulance and fire trucks.

I'm wondering, how do they get to the accident in countries where there's no such tradition? Why do they have sirens if they can't get through the traffic jam anyway?

I thought this method is used everywhere in the world.


| |ardy

[Will]

I've seen situations when cars can't pull over... not so much on on highways or major streets, but on one-way side streets where there's only room for one car to drive at a time, so the cars can't pull over to the right or to the left. If the traffic is so bad that they can't move forward either, then the emergency vehicle (e.g. ambulance) will turn off their siren and just use their flashing lights. They'll turn the siren back on again when the cars have the option to move out of their way.

But if cars can pull over and get out of their way, then the requirement here is that they do.

[Hardy Heinlin]

I've seen "culture shock" videos by Americans about their visits in Europe and they all seem surprised about these rescue lanes in Europe, as if they had never seen this before in the USA.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

My experience in Miami is that everybody seems completely oblivious of an approaching fire/rescue vehicle with lamps and bells and sirens and ship horns until it is at their rear bumper, and then there is no way to move in three lanes of stopped packed traffic.

Hoppie

[voipmeister]

In The Netherlands, the concept of a 'rettungsgasse' as you have in Germany is kind of unknown. IF (capitals, yes) everyone cooperates, it's used on secondary roads with just one lane in each direction so emergency vehicles can pass in the middle. On highways, the hard shoulder/emergency lane is used by emergency vehicles. Use of the lane is forbidden unless you car breaks down.

But as Hoppie wrote, a lot of people are oblivious of what's happening around them... Not paying attention, wearing headphones, radio too loud, plus modern cars have good sound isolation which is not helping either.

It's about time that cars/car radios get smarter and alert drivers and mute the music/sound temporarily. We have an app here that does that, but you need to have it started on your mobile while driving and have the mobile connected to the radio via Carplay or Android Auto.

[Andrea1]

Hi, in Italy is the same than in the Netherlands: on highways we too have the right hard/shoulder-emergency lane that can be used only by rescue veichles, ambulances, police, fire brigades etc. the use of this lane by the other veichles is stricly forbidden except in case your car breaks down.

Best Regards

Andrea Buono

[andrej]

Having spend 7 years as an EMT in New Jersey and Maryland. In the many states of the USA, you simply pull to your right. Ambulance, firefighters, and police should move to the left most lane. This is also part of the curriculum during the driver's school. Move to the right.

In practice this works well, but sometimes/occasionally, especially when approaching motor-vehicle-collision, we simply used empty service lane (either left or right). This was I did not have to push anyone out of my way (them moving to the right).  In some instances, you are stuck, until everyone sorts it out on their own (think Manhattan during rush hour).

But I prefer to move to the right. Everyone knows where to move, and emergency vehicle has a clear path. However, the emergency/rescue alley works, it has its drawbacks. For example, lorries/trucks do not move sufficiently to the right and it slows down responding unit. Also, sometimes, people zig-zag between lines. Finally, some people just don't know what to do.

Cheers,

[Hardy Heinlin]

Here are two examples from Germany -- a bad one and a good one:

Bad: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xm_ISNfy3Ug

Good: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7kPT7VHVTb8


|-|ardy

[Robert Staudinger]

In Austria we shoud make it as in your second example.

On a two lane highway we open the alley in the middle.
On a three or more lane highway the most left moves to the left side and everybody else moves to the right.
So stuck cars on the service line don't block the rescuers.

If police see you to use the free alley there are expensive fines and it takes hours to continue your travel.

Robert

[SwissMark]

When visiting New York back in 2013, the 90 plus old lady on the tour bus said that she is beyond sad, that the FDNY trucks can not get through at all. I found it also more sad, that a 90 plus year old lady needs to work to compensate for her budget to make a living "Getting old is not cheap in this town" she said.

Rescue lanes (Rettungsgasse in German .... one of the easier words in German) ... it has gotten better and better now in Germany (and also here in Switzerland) where people adhere to this life-saving rule/regulation.
I recall many years ago, many folks simply did not care about allowing for a rescue lane when I drove from Switzerland along the main highway A7 towards Hamburg.

Yes, I have seen the videos from US folks admiring the way the rescue lanes happen now on the German autobahn. On the highway it is easier, if you are in downtown New York, Hamburg, Konstanz, Frankfurt or Munich for example, adding construction and bicycle lanes, good luck trying to squeeze a few fire trucks through standing traffic. It takes time until the lane of cars moves ... a few folks are also hesitant when they are standing in the front row of a traffic light to cross it when a car with blue lights needs to pass behind.
When I was in Hamburg a Special Ambulance Doctor car (Notarzt) was behind me, I was at a red light waiting.
The ambulance car suddenly turned on his blue lights and siren (made me jump!) and I pulled slowly into the crossing .... the driver of the ambulance quickly raised his hand when passing me as a thank you.

The idea of the CarPlay is a good one, providing aural alerts via your car speaker or audio devices that an emergency vehicle(s) are approaching and gives you somewhat of an instruction on "how to" .... ie. move forward with caution, move to the left etc as the Google or Apple Maps can pick up the other vehicles around you and calculate / clear path for the emergency vehicle approaching from behind.

[B747-400]

Same in Austria. It took many people a long time to understand this new regulation. Unfortunately, some still can't / will form the emergency lane.

Every one of us can overlook something sometimes. But I have absolutely no sympathy for people who intentionally block emergency vehicles. Every one of these id.... must be aware: one day, one of their loved ones, or they themselves, will urgently need help from one of these emergency vehicles ...

Regards
Hans

[Will]

I don't understand why the Americans are stunned at the Rettunsgasse, perhaps it's executed with more precision, but it's a traffic law here that people must pull over to the side when a rescue vehicle is approaching. I see it all the time here. As I described in my post above, there are city streets that are too narrow, and in that case, the rescue vehicles turn off their sirens (but leave their lights on) and wait for traffic to make way. Those streets are the exceptions; most streets can accommodate cars pulling over to let an ambulance through.

One other note here. Let's say you are parked at a red light and an ambulance comes up behind you. The ambulance is not allowed to force you into the intersection. They can go in themselves, with their lights flashing, but they can't require a non-emergency car to go into the intersection against traffic. So once again, they turn off their sirens and wait until the car ahead of them goes through when the light turns green. This law is widely ignored however; if the waiting car has no opposing traffic and there is an ambulance behind them, they will often drive through the red light. But they're not supposed to.

[andrej]

Will,
actually, we were strongly advised to turn off lights and siren, and just wait until lights turn green.

But even that does not guarantee safe passage. For example, there was an instance, when a crew approached intersection with lights & siren on, and as traffic lights turned red, they turned off their lights and siren. Yet, there were drivers that had green light that refused to move on, waited, and got hit from the back. So instead of responding to one call, the crew started to take care of new patients and a second crew responded to an original call. These things are not fail proof.

Personally, I would turn of lights and sirens on a busy intersections, but depending on a traffic as well. But always, the driver of responding vehicle has an ultimate responsibility of entering into intersection, and if there is an accident, the driver is presumed guilty first (at least in NJ and MD).

This law is widely ignored however; if the waiting car has no opposing traffic and there is an ambulance behind them, they will often drive through the red light. But they're not supposed to.

Go to the NYC and see what drivers do. :-) They jump in-front of responding vehicle, in order to cross the intersection. I have seen it and experienced it many times. NYC is maybe too specific, but things are done there differently. Just look at the FDNY and how they deal with blocked fire-hydrants.

These Rettunsgasse are common in Central Europe as well (not only Austria/Germany), but also Slovakia, Czech Republic. Drivers, mostly, know what to do now. But still, it was a learning curve.

[CarlBB]

I recently volunteered at an event in the UK - https://under17driver.co.uk/
We showed them a blue light light demo and the main theme is make room by pulling over when safe to do so - even better if you can make a corridor for the emergency responder when on a single/dual carriageway. If the emergency responder cannot make progress e.g. at red traffic lights they will cancel the sirens. They will rarely extinguish the the lights. An emergency responder will never encourage a drive to contravene driving laws e.g going forwards of a red traffic light as the onus would be on the driver should something bad happen as a result of doing so, e.g. knocking over a pedistrian or causing another collision. Among other things - you are not insured to contravene normal traffic signals and certainly not excempt from prosecution. There are road users of many abilities, so when it is right for you, move over and let them by - worst thing is just to stop without giving the responder any room to make progress.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

While here...

Suppose you drive on the crossing road that has green light and is moving steadily, and you see the lights of the stalled emergency vehicle in the side road, stuck behind the red light stopped traffic. If your road is dual carriageway, and you're not driving too fast to become a danger for the cars behind you when slowing down, would you just cause terrible confusion when you attempt to stop and give way to the red light stuck cars?

Judging that fine line between "easy to deviate from standard procedure and help out" and "dangerous to deviate." With three cars involved, probably ok. With 30, not ok.


Hoppie

[andrej]

Hoppie,
if you have a green light, your path is clear from stopping you (e.g. traffic, other responding emergency vehicle, etc.), then just continue driving.

You must/should yield only, once the responding emergency vehicle is attempting to cross the intersection (using lights and sirens). Otherwise, as you said, you can cause confusion that might eventually turn into a collision/accident. I have seen this. Some people try to help and get hurt.


When we were attempting to cross a busy intersection, we turned of lights and sirens. Once our lights turned green, we re-engaged all and continued on our way. This was to avoid any confusion form the crossing traffic. Imagine, attempting to cross 3-line road (one way), then island, and 3-line traffic (opposing way). It adds to the challenge.

For a reference:


Obviously there are many combinations how to go about it. At the end of the day, as an ambulance driver/EMT, I was held to a higher standard and in case of an accident/incident. I would be initially held responsible. I had to prove that other driver's actions lead to this accident/incident. I never had such experience, but my colleagues did. I am lucky not to experience this scrutiny on my own skin.

[B747-400]

Different rules, different people: professionals and fellow citizens. And even professionals can make mistakes!

It happened yesterday in the heart of Vienna: police and ambulance were deployed with lights and sirens ... six people were injured, some seriously.