So now you find yourself out on a nice quiet drive and out of nowhere you see a vehicle with all kinds of lights flashing and horns/sirens going off either coming towards you or approaching you from behind…what to do?

How to Get Out of the Way

If they are approaching you from behind first don’t panic and just start the process of slowing down without slamming on the brakes. You are required by law to get the heck out of their way so when the first safe opportunity allows itself pull off the road and allow them to pass.

If by chance because of road conditions there is not enough room to pull over do the best you can to slow up and when they see a safe area to pass you they will. The same holds true for when they are coming towards you so just slow up and look for an area on the side of the road that you can pull off to thus allowing them to go by you safely.

Now another thing you must be aware of and we touched before in our article is having your radio/CD player cranked up to full blast or worse yet having a headset crammed in your ears. Doing this causes all kinds of potential problems that also includes not hearing these emergency vehicles coming.

Check your Mirrors

So this goes back to what I said earlier in the blog about always looking out of your rear view mirror, ideally every 10–15 seconds, so that you will be alerted to these vehicles coming up from behind you even if you can’t hear them! Whether you are a rookie or a veteran driver you need to be aware of a fairly new law that has gone into effect over the past several years.

Due to the high number of police officers getting hit by passing cars as they stand near the side of roads after pulling over another driver well something had to be done! It is now a law that when you are approaching a parked emergency vehicle on the side of the road with their flashing lights on you are required to either slow down or change lanes. Slowing down is defined by most states to mean 20 mph under the posted speed limit.

Don’t Break the Law

Getting caught not paying attention to this law results in a hefty fine as well as points against your driving record! Another subject I would like to touch on is that it is not just the police and ambulances that are on their way to an emergency that you have to be on the lookout for and that would be the fire department.

Now most of us think their only real job is fighting fires of some type but did you know they are often times the first responders to many medical emergencies. I experienced this first hand with my wife’s emergency so it’s so important when you see a fire department truck coming please as fast and as safe as you can get out of their way as every second counts!