Letter: Emergency safety concerns

lettereditorA few days ago, while I was coming home from work at around 4:15 p.m., I was driving down 100 Ave at the east entrance to Morinville. I was doing the speed limit (50KPH) and heading to Sobeys. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, but suddenly, there were two vehicles behind me that seemed to be in quite a hurry. They didn’t honk their horns or anything, they just seemed a bit aggressive and trying to get where they were going. I didn’t speed up, nor did I slow down, but just proceeded on my way. I turned in to Sobeys parking lot and noticed that the two vehicles turned north at the light. A few minutes later, I saw the fire trucks heading out with lights and sirens blaring and I can only assume that the vehicles that were in such a hurry were our volunteer emergency responders going to the fire hall to get their gear and equipment to go to a call.

My question to those who may have some insight or control over this is: can we not designate that our volunteer emergency responders, when responding to a call, may use their 4 way flashers and flash their headlights to indicate that they are on their way to the fire hall on an emergency call?

Had I known that these gents were responding to an emergency call, I would have pulled over and given them the right of way! I realize that it only meant a few seconds delay for them to get to the fire hall, but seconds count in an emergency! I don’t mean that these individuals should speed, however, if they are on their way to the fire hall, at least they should have a clear, unobstructed path to get there. It’s the least we could do!

Bill Graham, Morinville

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1 Comment

  1. Many jurisdictions within Alberta use a flashing green light for volunteer first responders.
    It’s an effective way to notify the public that they are responding for an emergency, however it does not allow them to speed to go through traffic signals like the lights and sirens of an emergency vehicle.

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