Would you ever pass an emergency vehicle going to the same call as you?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Would you ever pass an emergency vehicle going to the same call as you?

Posted: 7/18/2010 5:37:48 PM EDT

This has happened to me twice now recently when driving the engine to an MVA. Seems dangerous and pretty pointless to me.

I'm worried that it could easily result in another crash as people are not expecting a police car to pop out from the passenger side of a fire engine, plus I can't move to the right to avoid a dumb driver that stops in the left lane if there is a police car passing the parked cars to my right.

Our relationship with PD is pretty chilly as it is, not sure saying something about it would even do anything

Posted: 7/18/2010 5:40:03 PM EDT

[#1]

Absolutely. I would much rather PD arrive at the shooting call before FD. At least we can shoot back when taking rounds.

Posted: 7/18/2010 5:49:15 PM EDT

[#2]

Driving the Medic Unit I commonly let the BC Car, LEO, or EMS Supervisor pass me. LEO's will rarely pass me unless I wave them by, Fire/EMS we give permission over the radio. I am more than fine with it, if you can get in front of me and not slow me down you're more than welcome. We have big Medic Units so it takes a minute to get up to speed after stopping at lights and such.

Posted: 7/18/2010 5:49:32 PM EDT

[#3]

Depends on the type of call and what the current traffic situation is. An MVA, you get there first and I'll handle the traffic control. A GS situation I need to get there to secure the scene.

Posted: 7/18/2010 5:51:01 PM EDT

[#4]

It just depends on what the call is, where it is, who's there/coming, and what road/traffic conditions are like.

Posted: 7/18/2010 5:55:13 PM EDT

[#5]

Well clearly in the case of a call where Fire/EMS would stage and await the "all clear" from PD that would make sense. In my case though we would not likely be running hot to that call either.

The two most recent times this occured it was a simple MVA with possible injuries. Last night when it hapend the cop that passed us was the 4th police car on scene of the 1 car crash and we were all of 3 blocks away when he did it. Why the rush?

Posted: 7/18/2010 5:59:15 PM EDT

[#6]

To a crash? No.

Posted: 7/18/2010 6:48:12 PM EDT

[#7]

Depends on the situation.

If its a fire, The fire truck is most important, followed by ambulance, and then police.

Medical Emergancy: Ambulance, Police, Fire

MVA: Ambulance, Fire, Police

Domestic/Assualt: Police, Ambulance, Fire?

Posted: 7/19/2010 12:40:39 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Depends on the situation.

If its a fire, The fire truck is most important, followed by ambulance, and then police.

Medical Emergancy: Ambulance, Police, Fire

MVA: Ambulance, Fire, Police

Domestic/Assualt: Police, Ambulance, Fire?

I agree with this.....I have only passed a fire truck once while running code and that was because he pulled to the side and waived me by.....most of the time I get stuck behind the fire guys is while going to a crash....I'm in no bigger hurry than them to get there so I fall in behind em and ride their coat tails in.

Posted: 7/19/2010 1:18:57 AM EDT

[#9]

actually had two guys on foot chasing a suspect, i was on foot and had a female officer in a vehicle near me also...the radio broke with the other two ground units informing they were coming out of the woods
down the hill from me chasing the guy...the girl in the car takes off down the road a good 30 seconds before i do...i end up passing her lackadaisical ass...while i was on foot...she got a nice ass chewing for
driving 10 mph 100 yards down the road to help the other guys

Posted: 7/19/2010 3:42:18 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Absolutely. I would much rather PD arrive at the shooting call before FD. At least we can shoot back when taking rounds.

This. if its a hot call the EMS will be staging a ways away from the call before rolling in anyways.

Posted: 7/19/2010 3:58:09 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
This has happened to me twice now recently when driving the engine to an MVA. Seems dangerous and pretty pointless to me.

I'm worried that it could easily result in another crash as people are not expecting a police car to pop out from the passenger side of a fire engine, plus I can't move to the right to avoid a dumb driver that stops in the left lane if there is a police car passing the parked cars to my right.

Our relationship with PD is pretty chilly as it is, not sure saying something about it would even do anything

Are you sure he went to the same call as you?

One of my co-workers got chastised for passing a fire truck on the way to a fire call......................... only he wasn't on the way to the fire call, he was on the way to another call.

Posted: 7/19/2010 4:23:56 AM EDT

[#12]

I have, and I would again. The most recent I remember was an officer needs assistance call. The K-9 unit drove an Expedition that topped out around 90. I smoked him on the highway and kept on going.

Posted: 7/19/2010 4:36:35 AM EDT

[#13]

Depends.

Posted: 7/19/2010 4:51:22 AM EDT

[#14]

We have a pretty good relationship with our ambulance and fire crews and will, given the opportunity, leapfrog them to stop traffic at junctions ahead so they don't have to slow down. Especially appreciated by the bigger fire appliances..............

I once had a spell as a supervisor on a Division where I only had a small compact as a vehicle. Everything came by me on the way to a call.....

Posted: 7/19/2010 4:58:29 AM EDT

[#15]

I have only passed a fire truck once. It was a house fire with people trapped inside.

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:04:56 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:

Quoted:
This has happened to me twice now recently when driving the engine to an MVA. Seems dangerous and pretty pointless to me.

I'm worried that it could easily result in another crash as people are not expecting a police car to pop out from the passenger side of a fire engine, plus I can't move to the right to avoid a dumb driver that stops in the left lane if there is a police car passing the parked cars to my right.

Our relationship with PD is pretty chilly as it is, not sure saying something about it would even do anything

Are you sure he went to the same call as you?

One of my co-workers got chastised for passing a fire truck on the way to a fire call......................... only he wasn't on the way to the fire call, he was on the way to another call.

I watched him come up the road behind me, get too close to see in my mirrors then he passed me on the right while I was in the left lane (4 lane, 2 each way road) then do a u-turn and park at the scene of the MVA. There were also cars pulled off to the far right side of the road too, it wasn't 3 AM or anything like that.

I understand the need to pass a slower police unit over another to go to a shooting or some such call but that has not been the case with me.

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:07:52 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
We have a pretty good relationship with our ambulance and fire crews and will, given the opportunity, leapfrog them to stop traffic at junctions ahead so they don't have to slow down. Especially appreciated by the bigger fire appliances..............

I once had a spell as a supervisor on a Division where I only had a small compact as a vehicle. Everything came by me on the way to a call.....

That would be nice

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:09:55 AM EDT

[#18]

We have used our tanker and engine to push a few PD and county cars out of our way

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:20:33 AM EDT

[#19]

only time I have was house fires and we were blocking traffic during rush hour for the engines to get there.

J-

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:47:02 AM EDT

[#20]

You know what they always say; seconds count....

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Posted: 7/19/2010 6:33:05 AM EDT

[#21]

Yes I have. I've even leap frogged ahead to block intersections.

Posted: 7/19/2010 7:08:07 AM EDT

[#22]

I have passed an ambulance before but NEVER on the right. To me, that is a big no-no when running code, never pass anything on the right.

Posted: 7/19/2010 7:38:31 AM EDT

[#23]

Although I'm not a LEO I feel this is one of those things that needs to be taken one call at a time. In my experience riding with officers no two situations are the same and behavior that may be acceptable for one call may be unacceptable for another call. With situations like this I would say it is unwise to say it is always unacceptable to pass another emergency vehicle going to the same call as you. (however I do believe that in this situation it was unnecessary)

Posted: 7/19/2010 8:22:14 AM EDT

[#24]

I've only passed FD on one call. A vehicle under water with a child trapped inside. The child didn't make it.

Posted: 7/19/2010 3:50:55 PM EDT

[#25]

I'm in an ambulance and not a police car but I pass everyone who is going slower than me who can be passed safely.

Posted: 7/19/2010 4:00:10 PM EDT

[#26]

many times.

the "bums/toads" driving the slow moving patrol cars are treated that way.

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:22:44 PM EDT

[#27]

I have passed multiple fire trucks en route to a fire call before, as a police officer. It was a multi-story, multi-unit apartment building with residents still inside. Some of our fire apparatus, particularly one of the older rescue rigs goes 0-50 in 10 minutes flat, and I'll be damned if I'm running 25 to a call where there are lives at stake.

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:29:07 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
We have used our tanker and engine to push a few PD and county cars out of our way

You and I better be in different parts of GA, a hose dragger ever thinks about pushing my car out the way using a fire truck, he can expect handcuffs on top of whatever physical injuries he sustained in the accidental fall on his face. I was in the fire service for several years before I became a cop, and I never saw a need to damage a friggin cop car just to get around it.

One of my co-workers was parked on a scene a while back and the fire apparatus wasn't properly operated, resulting in the rig slipping into neutral and taking out the police car's front end. That did not end well at all.

Posted: 7/19/2010 5:54:34 PM EDT

[#29]

For calls dispatched as EMSPD calls, meaning suicides, gunshots, fights, etc. PD is either already on scene or we stage anyway. I would let the cop car pass. If one FD apparatus needs to pass another, we call on the radio.

We get along pretty well with our PD. We have a snafu or two from time to time, but other than that we get along smoothly. Our biggest problem is dispatch.

Posted: 7/19/2010 7:14:52 PM EDT

[#30]

i have; one of my teammates needed help on an "assist EMS" call with a psych. all we heard was yelling on the radio when he keyed up. i think i broke every traffic law in the state to get to him

Posted: 7/19/2010 7:39:19 PM EDT

[#31]

I have, and I will. But always safely.

Posted: 7/19/2010 9:09:50 PM EDT

[#32]

Lead, follow, or get the fuck out of the way.

Posted: 7/19/2010 9:39:41 PM EDT

[#33]

I often pass the box or the engine to hold the intersection for them. After they pass If its safe to do so I speed up and pass (usually on the left) and get to the next intersection. The way I figure it, the intersection is the most dangerous part of driving emergency. I try to hold the intersection for the truck so they can get through a little more easy.

It doenst always work but if I happen to be in the right spot at the right time I try to help the FFs out.

Posted: 7/19/2010 10:52:37 PM EDT

[#34]

Depends on the run, the road conditions, the traffic... Fire guys for the most part will wave us on when they see us running up on em... but I still won't pass if it looks to be one of those "How did I not just crash" moments.

I have passed fire equipment... I've gotten on to mutual aid channels and let em know I'm coming when I'm running up from the 1/4 mile or so back that I start to see lights.. I don't want to do something that is going to cause more trouble than I'll solve.... I can't help at an emergency scene if I create an other emergency scene on my run to the first.

I've also passed fellow officers... running to a agg robbery where the victim had been gutted with a butcher knife I passed my direct superviser as he sat at a red light with his lights/siren running....

Traffic had stopped in all directions wondering what he was doing.... so I cleared that intersection at about 90mph... And no, he wasn't trying to hold the intersection for fire or fellow PD, he was just a very slow responder.

Posted: 7/20/2010 7:03:03 PM EDT

[#35]

I did this last week actually. I passed two big and slow fire trucks while enroute to a MVA rollover into a creek with entrapment. We were a few miles out on a pretty wide open, flat, low traffic road. The crash didn't turn out to be as bad as it sounded but I saw nothing unsafe about passing them, and plenty of things wrong with coasting along at half speed to get to an emergency call like that.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Posted: 7/20/2010 8:20:43 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:

Quoted:
We have used our tanker and engine to push a few PD and county cars out of our way

You and I better be in different parts of GA, a hose dragger ever thinks about pushing my car out the way using a fire truck, he can expect handcuffs on top of whatever physical injuries he sustained in the accidental fall on his face. I was in the fire service for several years before I became a cop, and I never saw a need to damage a friggin cop car just to get around it.

One of my co-workers was parked on a scene a while back and the fire apparatus wasn't properly operated, resulting in the rig slipping into neutral and taking out the police car's front end. That did not end well at all.

I think NOVS had some sarcasm in that post.... just so ya' know.

As for the OP's question, it's been said a dozen times or so, but to me it depends on the call and the type of unit I'm passing.
-SleeperShooter

Posted: 7/20/2010 8:41:14 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
We have used our tanker and engine to push a few PD and county cars out of our way

You might once.

Posted: 7/20/2010 9:53:55 PM EDT

[#38]

About a month ago a taxi cab was carjacked by a drunk patron. The taxi had Lo-jack on it and was headed S/B on the freeway. When I got on there were 5 units from the local jurisdiction (who have a no pursuit policy) going code at 75MPH. I passed them all like they were standing still.

Posted: 7/21/2010 7:13:15 AM EDT

[#39]

Our S/C and chief have been known to pass us - most of our cops will sit on our LRQ until we wave them around if there's any traffic hazard - otherwise, they take the oncoming and punch it.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Would you ever pass an emergency vehicle going to the same call as you?

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