When Did We Stop Pulling Over for Lights and Sirens?

I’ve been noticing lately that, for some reason, people aren’t pulling over for lights and sirens, whether it be police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, etc. And oftentimes when they do, it causes mass chaos; like the guy on Cedar Avenue the other day that obviously noticed way-too-late that there was an ambulance behind him, and jerked his car to the left.. into the lane of oncoming traffic. Really? Do you want to be in an ambulance too?

I feel like it takes a certain special amount of un-observance to not notice the emergency vehicles trying to get through. They appeal to sight and sound; really the only two senses by which they can alert motorists that they would like to get by. If you aren’t keen to the flashing red, white, and blue lights in 1 to 3 of your mirrors, you would think that you would hear the diabolical pitches of their sirens within a quarter-mile radius of your car.

Today, I was driving home on 94. There is no shoulder on parts of the freeway due to the added lane. There was a State Trooper trying to get through during rush hour and NO ONE was paying attention. Surely most of these peoples’ eyes work, as they did make it all the way to the freeway. I was monitoring his progress through traffic, and it took 3 1/2 minutes for him to pass the exit a quarter of a mile ahead of me. Don’t worry, there’s no emergency besides your need to get home.

I guess I just failed to notice the transition phase for this phenomenon. It seems all of a sudden that it is happening all over the city. Furthermore, it seems kind of asinine. We all should have learned some time way back that you pull over to the right side of the road as soon as possible, let it pass, and resume your trip. Really, it seems like a simple concept. No need to create hysteria and mass chaos. I mean seriously, we live in a rather large city and this is going to happen from time to time.. and there is no excuse for not knowing how to handle it.

It’s probably a good thing I don’t drive a vehicle with lights and sirens. I would surely run people over.