What to Do When You Hear a Siren or Flashing Lights Behind You

When most people see flashing lights coming up behind them or hear a siren, they prepare to pull over to let the police, fire department and EMS pass. However, many people just stay on the road thinking these emergency crews can just pass them by going around. How full of yourself do you have to be to think emergency crews should have to go around you?

     When I was about 10, my mother told me of a story of a man who habitually would not pull over for emergency service vehicles. One day, an ambulance came blazing up behind him lights and sirens blazing, as always he did not move. He would come to find out that his wife and children had been in a horrific car accident, they died on the way to hospital because of some jerk that would not move aside. Can you imagine living with that guilt?

    You have to realize, if you are hearing a siren or seeing flashing lights, you are blocking these men and women from doing their jobs, or at least delaying them. If it was you that needed these services to arrive as quick as possible, you would not want to wait, would you? What if you or a loved one were having a heart attack, where ever second counted? What if you were being held hostage or being assaulted in some way? What if your home was on fire or what if your child is still in the house?

    I do not like what if game any more than the next person does, but I want to get across to everyone who reads this, it is not okay to make emergency services go around you. Next time you hear a siren or see the lights of an emergency service vehicle, please be courteous and pull over, after all, some day you may be the one waiting for them to arrive and I can promise karma has a sick way of teaching you a lesson.

What If They Want You and Are Not Just Passing?

      In this situation, it is best to pull over, you do not want to put your life or the lives of the other people on the streets with you, just to try to get away. Plus, when caught you will face the charges of alluding arrest and to be honest the officer might be pulling you over for a busted taillight and might not look too hard at your criminal history or anything, but if you run you give him or her probable cause to search deeper when you are caught.

   Do the right thing, just pull over and allow the officer to do his or her job. If you cooperate it looks better on your arresting report than speeding 90+ mph to get away now does it not?