Seconds count. I’ve no problem with emergency services vehicles using their sirens to ensure they are never stuck in traffic.

OP sounds like they have a problem with authority figures.

Waah Waah…!!! The sound emanating from your car as an emergency vehicle drives past you.

devils advocate, it could have been something they were were called out for, then cancelled before they got very far.

You sound like you have an issue with them turning off sirens as they head to emergencies and presume that they use the lights and sirens just to avoid the inconvenience of traffic.

The purpose of the lights and sirens is to make traffic etc aware that they are trying to get somewhere urgently, and that they will be exercising their ability to drive in a manner that might contravene standing laws and thus need the attention of drivers (I am sure there is a technical expression for this driving). They use the lights and sirens to clear an intersection or area of traffic and will turn them off when not needed, indeed it will be common to kill the sirens in urban areas or as they approach an accident scene.

With the lights and sirens off, proceeding at normal speed would be entirely appropriate and indeed expected – travelling well above the limit would call for the lights and possibly sirens.

Did you stop to think that they were responding to something that needed an urgent response, that got cancelled for some reason ie. a closer vehicle arrived, or the matter wasn’t as reported so the urgent response was not needed?

I know that doesn’t suit your want to whinge, but it can happen.

c_c™ said :

OP sounds like they have a problem with authority figures.

OP does not seem to be very bright.

OP, you you think the firemen get to take the big trucks home and they were using their sirens and lights to get back for dinner on time?

Boo hoo who gives a fire truck? If i had a siren id use it to beat the traffic too! Hehe

So how does the OP know that assistance wasn’t cancelled? Or that new recruits weren’t being trained how to get through traffic?

What, you think they don’t like traffic and need to get to the shops quicker?

I suggest that you are only seeing a small part of the picture. The ‘morons’ in the fire truck would have been going to a fire call – something that they do day in and day out. Every call is different and the nature of the call dictates what resources go and from which stations. For example, a house fire may have up to five different trucks going depending on the information received (as well as ambos, AFP). These trucks generally come from multiple stations.

What you saw tonight was the second / third / fourth truck downgrading from ‘urgent duty driving’ to ‘roadspeed’ – that is, to drive at normal road conditions. This happens when the first truck arrives on site, investigates the incident, and finds that the risk at the incident is minimal. They may still require the other truck to come along (manpower, specialist equipment) but the risk is less that putting others at risk by incoming trucks driving with lights and sirens. An example of this may be a small fire in a house that has been extinguished with all occupants outside, but they still need to get rid of the smoke etc).

Being downgraded happens every day. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened whilst I have been going through an intersection, or as I have just come out of an intersection. Downgrades happen to all services.

I have been employed in emergency services for some 12 years, attending more than 500 a year. I have never been in a vehicle undertaking urgent duty driving when not going to a ‘Priority 1’ job. I have never forced myself through an intersection because I was sick and tired of the traffic and wanted to get out of there faster. Every red light or speed camera activation gets investigated too to make sure that the truck was going to a job. GPS tracking and job data allows this.

Urgent Duty Driving can be dangerous, and that is why coppers, firies and ambos do the driver training that they do.

There are still a lot of muppets on the road who drive on autopilot and can’t think or think it’s all a game – or want to believe that red and blue light Maccas and donut runs do happen…

All I hear was waaaaaa they get to get ahead of traffic and I dont. Boo hoo, suck it up.

Why dont you report them to emergency services if it’s such a great concern. I’m sure they’d be glad to discuss your dire grievances.

markbuzz said :

You sound like you have an issue with them turning off sirens as they head to emergencies and presume that they use the lights and sirens just to avoid the inconvenience of traffic.

The purpose of the lights and sirens is to make traffic etc aware that they are trying to get somewhere urgently, and that they will be exercising their ability to drive in a manner that might contravene standing laws and thus need the attention of drivers (I am sure there is a technical expression for this driving). They use the lights and sirens to clear an intersection or area of traffic and will turn them off when not needed, indeed it will be common to kill the sirens in urban areas or as they approach an accident scene.

With the lights and sirens off, proceeding at normal speed would be entirely appropriate and indeed expected – travelling well above the limit would call for the lights and possibly sirens.

The OP even says they stopped at the next intersection, so they obviously weren’t on a job or a rush to get anywhere, they were using the work vehicle to get out of a traffic jam because they didn’t fancy sitting in it with the rest of the proles.
I don’t know of any country (that isn’t a banana republic or Italy) where that’s morally acceptable.
Police and emergency must follow the same rules as the ones they’re appointed to manage, otherwise how do they expect to retain the authority and respect for what they do?
They work for the people and are appointed by “the people”, it’s not an authority issue at all.
Isn’t that a cornerstone of Australian philosophy…where you eliminate the bias of groups expecting special treatment for doing the same thing as everybody else?

Next time they try to get passed you with lights flashing, just sit there in protest and see what happens.

Whenever the ferals are causing a ruckus in the Civic bus interchange the PoPo never scream into the interchange with lights and sirens engaged. Two reasons for this, they don’t want to alert their presence to the ferals & there are so many people wandering around the interchange with their heads up their bum they they would probably clean someone up.

That doesn’t mean that they don’t use them further up the road to get to Civic & then turn them off for the last bit for stealth.

OP is on the money, if I have to wait in traffic so should everyone else, who do these emergency service workers think they are? If the government was serious they would address the big problems like traffic jams and stop these cowboy police and firemen and paramedics hooning around for their own convenience.