Why did the police pull your ambulance over?

[Just Plain Ruff]

Why are you guys harping on the cop who failed to adequately deal with this situation? Shouldn't your attention be more pointed at the moron who blew the "stop sight" at 40 kph over the posted limit?

Yes. The cop was derelict in his duty. However, the problem in this case doesn't really lie with the cop. It lies with the bonehead who blew the traffic signal with no regard for himself or those around him (no matter the time of day). The cop's response is an ancillary issue.

Whoever posted that should have his license suspended and his membership in his local volly squad terminated. Catch me on a good day and I'd even suggest going after his certifications.

-be safe

I agree with you but I thought it went without me slamming the moron who did the busting through the stop sign at 90 miles an hour.

That driver should have been fired and lost their certs.

It's people like that that make a bad name for volunteer and career EMS.

I actually have to call Bullshit on the speed and the story. It's just not plausible but hey, it might have happened. But I still call BS.

AS for the driver in question, I'd have fired you on the spot if I found out about you driving like a stupid irresponsible moron. If you embellished the story to make yourself seem cool, it backfired and I am just thankful that I don't know you. It makes me feel bad for the people who entrust you to help them.

So the question remains, do you drive like a out of control moronic Whacker when you are in the ambulance? or is it just when you want to beat everyone else to the firehouse so you can drive the big red truck?

[lupinman]

This didn't happen to me put we had a truck pulled over for running a redlight. If we are in the area, most crews make it a policy to cruise through the local University campus, to say admire the landscaping. One crew was sitting at a redlight watching the scenery and not paying attention when the turning lane next to them got a green light, they proceeded through the light and was promptly pulled over by the LEO that was behind them at the light. They were let go with a warning though.

[FredG]

AS for the driver in question, I'd have fired you on the spot if I found out about you driving like a stupid irresponsible moron. If you embellished the story to make yourself seem cool, it backfired and I am just thankful that I don't know you. It makes me feel bad for the people who entrust you to help them.

So the question remains, do you drive like a out of control moronic Whacker when you are in the ambulance? or is it just when you want to beat everyone else to the firehouse so you can drive the big red truck?

I completely agree! When driving any emergency vehicle, we still have to worry about other drivers. The L&S do not make our units invincible. It's one thing to exceed the speed limit on limited access highways, but I can't stand seeing emergency vehicles blowing through stop signs or traffic lights without stopping and looking. And, speeding on side streets or within villages is also a problem. You never know when a kid might wander into the street.

Anyway, My own story about being pulled over....Late 90s working for a private ambulance service in NYC. Got dispatched to a Lifeline call for someone that "fell down the stairs" in an apt in downtown manhattan. Had L&S to make a left turn onto the street of the address, traffic was stopped and let us across. a precinct cop pulled up behind us and got on his PA and said "Ambulance I need you". So, I pull to the side and my partner and I got out thinking he was flagging us down... He proceeded to scream at us to get back in the unit. He shone a flashlight in the back window then asked for my papers. I told him I was on a call and he said "I don't give a S&&$, give me your papers." It took him over 10 minutes to write an illegal left turn ticket, all the time I saw in my side mirrors that he had various dash lights in his marked police car along with the light bar. He kept on changing the light patterns. One minute the light bar was on, the next it was off and a dashlight was on. All this time, dispatch advised there were no other units available, so when the cop decided to let us on our way, we wound up taking the patient. At the ED, I asked a couple of other cops about the ticket and as soon as they saw who issued it, they said fight it. One cop even told me that he was bucking for highway and even issued tickets to off duty officers at the same precinct!

My boss sent it up to the DMV and filed complaints at several levels, but I still had to go to court. When I showed up in uniform with a copy of the ACR and dispatch records, the judge then asked who the officer was and when I showed him the ticket, his response was "dismissed and I will have another talk with this officer and his Sgt." The judge also apologized for the system making me appear in court.

[Richard B the EMT]

1) A former FDNY EMS partner of mine also rode with the Broad Channel (NY) VFD/VAS, actually within our unit's service district.

He related to me, one night, at 3 AM, with him responding in his POV to the VFD House (he was an Engine Company chauffeur in addition) for an alarm, under the blue light authorized by the VFD, and stopping to check cross traffic at all the traffic lights on the one and only north/south roadway in the community, he would then go through the red traffic signals. One block from the "house" a cop pulled him over, berated him for over 10 minutes, as he sees all his VFD companies leave the house to do the fire response. The NYPD Officer never wrote him a ticket, just jabber-jawed him on going through the red signals.

2) In 1974, in a failed experiment, the US Government tried to make all ambulances and fire companies paint their vehicles the new color, which I think I recall as being "International Fire Engine Lime-Green Chrome". In Brooklyn, at least one fire fighter I recall overhearing talking about it, lamented, "How could they do that to a (ladder) Truck Company?"

Broad Channel VFD/VAS had just had their newest Engine Company repainted in the new lime-green color. They have to come over the Cross Bay Bridge, which is a toll bridge, from "the channel", to the Rockaway Peninsula side of the Jamaica Bay, to their gas station.

On attempting to return to the channel, they stopped, and spoke to the toll collector, giving their company name and unit number, which, under the bridge's operating authority, is usually recorded, and a free transit over the bridge given.

This toll collector refused, and asked for the money for the trip. His reason? "That ain't no fire truck, it's GREEN, and fire trucks is RED!"

The BCVFD crew radioed their base, and a few minutes later, the toll booths were surrounded by the other engine company, both ambulances, and all the available members in their POVs, blue lights engaged.

The bridge authority Sergeant, hearing the commotion, came out of the building, and up to the toll booth in question, heard the story, and had the toll taker relieved of duty until a department hearing could be called, and let the engine company come through, no charge!

3) Under New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law #115C, a VFD or VAS Chief or president, as long as the POV has specified items from the NYS DoH Ambulance Equipment checklist, can be authorized to be a "first responder" car, with RED Lights and siren, as long as the operator followed VTL #1104, stating operating the vehicle with "Due Regard" to other traffic on the roads.

I was in my POV, going southbound on Cross Bay Blvd, and was proceeding over the North Channel Bridge, when I saw numerous NYPD vehicles stopped at the highest point of the bridge, in the northbound lanes, including NYPD Emergency Services units. When I came off of the south end of the bridge, where legal, I turned around, pulled into the blocked lane, activated my red lights, and identified myself as an off duty EMT carrying equipment to the first NYPD officer I saw. He declined my services.

I got back into my car, turned off the reds, proceeded off the bridge, and made another legal turnaround to go south. I never found out what the condition had been.

As I was slowing down for the red traffic signal on the south end of the bridge, I noted an RMP pacing me. A speedometer check indicated I was doing at least 5 miles under the posted limit. I stopped, and the RMP stopped far enough that I could see it, wheels to beacon, in my rearview mirrors.

The traffic signal changed to green. At the same moment, the RMP's beacon lit up, and they "blipped" me with their siren. I pulled over.

The LEO saw my 2 way radio and scanner sitting on the passenger seat. He asked, specifically, to see the scanner.

OK, technically, non LEOs are not supposed to have radios that can listen in to Police frequencies mounted in their vehicles, so there, the LEO might have had a legitimate gripe against me. But he wrote me a ticket for both the scanner, and the red "Kojac" light on my dashboard, claiming I was "impersonating" a "duly authorized emergency vehicle". Admittedly, I had misplaced my authorization for the reds.

Following the ticketing, I went to the precinct house, and got photocopies of the VTLs I had violated. When friends of mine at the precinct saw who wrote me up, they declared their brother officer many derivatives of a Jerk.

I attempted to plead "guilty with explanation" by mail. The traffic courts declared me to not be their case, and sent me to state supreme court!

When I was called, I made a point of showing the authorization paperwork for the red lights, and the Judge dismissed that ticket, and on looking at the ticket for the scanner, played with his glasses, as if he was trying to read the ticket, and declared it an illegible document, and threw it out.

I discovered 2 things afterwards. The first was, for the 2 infractions, they were written up on traffic violation tickets, instead of misdemeanor paperwork, and as such, were improper documents all the way.

The other was never proven. I volunteer for a local politician, who was then an underdog candidate. He told me someone had heard the ticket issuing LEO boast that he had "gotten that fat (expletive deleted) who works for the candidate. Had I been able to prove that...

Oh, well.

[sum1_2]

Well you see, what happen was, I was drivin' de amblance when my partner dumped his soda out the passenger side. Then the siren blasted and I was pulld ova'. Da pig walked up on the passenger side and aksed "Who was drinkin' dat soda?" My partner said it was him. Da cop said you gots it all over my car. My partner offered to wash it fo him at da station, but the PA STATE POLICE DETECTIVE said, nah, that's OK, just don't do it again.

You're 28 and you talk like that?

[Just Plain Ruff]

You're 28 and you talk like that?

nah, he was just funnin.

[spenac]

nah, he was just funnin.

wuz da menin o dat?