Yeesh! Almost accident.

[notalwaysright]

I'm first in line waiting at a light, with a clear view way down the street. I see an ambulance coming in my direction with it's lights on. Intermittently it was sounding the siren, but it was not on non-stop. Being stopped and boxed in, (and the only place to go would be in the intersection) I just sit and watch.

There are two left turn only lanes and a lane going straight all with green lights. So they are crossing in the intersection in front of where the ambulance is heading. One or two cars notice and stop. Ambulance gets closer, still intermittently sounding the siren. Now most cars have stopped and one or two honk possibly to alert other drivers, or maybe because they can't figure out why people are stopping on a green. (see below) Now the ambulance is at the intersection and still a car flies through, the engine sounding like I remember my Yamaha Blaster sounding. (High pitched) It was pretty close, as the ambulance was going at a good clip.

I can't help but wonder, why don't ambulances get to change the lights like police cars do? And another, why would they not turn the siren on instead of those little blips? Are there rules about this, and they aren't allowed to? This is not some quiet neighborhood. I think there are six lanes here, and the lanes don't all intersect at 90 degree angles, there are buildings and one side has a retaining wall, so the visibility is lacking all around.

A while ago I was at that same intersection, but going a different direction. Anyway, the light changes and the car in front goes, and the car behind them (and in front of me) doesn't move. I wait a few seconds and honk. This is usually a person distracted by their phone or whatnot. But they don't move and suddenly an ambulance with it's lights on goes through. We had green the whole time, and I did not hear any sirens at all. From where I was there was no way I could have seen anything, there's a building blocking my view. I felt bad about honking, but I really couldn't have seen, and I was not about to miss that freaking light, it's so long.

That went on long, sorry.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Blipping the siren versus constant wail is sometimes done in crowded areas because people tend to pick up the start and end of sounds somewhat better. You'd be surprised how many people tune out a constant sound. It might also have something to do with the buildings bordering the roads. Way back when I was working as an EMT, there was a section about 3 blocks long that we would either blip or shut the siren down because the flat-faced buildings caused an amazing echo. I swear the bounce back was louder than the siren attached to the dang van, lol.

As to the light-changer bit, there could be a few different reasons. For example, could it have been a private ambulance service? I've seen situations before where only "official" government vehicles are allowed to have them.

Blipping, coupled with waiting at the lights could also indicate they were on a low priority call, possibly a taxi run. Though if it were a taxi run, in my opinion and experience, they shouldn't have been running lights and siren. Regulations/laws vary from location to location, though.

If they're running full lights and blipping as well as driving fast, there's a good chance they've got a critical case in the back and the siren is being turned off and on to facilitate communication, either in-truck, or having the EMT/paramedic on radio or phone with an ER specialist or such. Full lights and blipping, driving normal-ish, might be trying not to alarm the non-critical patient inside.

Well, there's a couple possibilities for you, and there's a good chance I didn't even specify the actual reason they were doing such.

[notalwaysright]

It wasn't the red (official?) ambulance that says Local County, I looked up the name and it says it's an "ambulance service." Really interesting, especially about the sirens. I mean, I'm sure you're right that people tune out constant noises... But at this intersection, this doesn't seem to be effective. People shoot through as fast as possible, probably due to the fact that the light is so long, it's only one light away from the highway, and people are stupid. I've seen an SUV rolled over after taking that turn too fast.

Anyway, thanks for the info!

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Your response made me think of something else to add, it's becoming more and more common to have a multi-mode siren on emergency vehicles as well. The standard siren of course, then there's a "bigger", more annoying siren that gets flipped on when approaching intersections. The travel tone would be the usual rising and falling long tone siren, where the intersection noise would be louder, rises and falls faster, and has a momentary pause between the peaks. Kind of like the difference between a howling and a barking dog.

Other patterns do abound, as each mfg seems to try and find the "best". Everything advances, lol. I still remember the sirens where the noise was a factor of the air movement through the siren cone, rather than a speaker. I don't think I ever used one in real life, other than the old time ambulance the owners of one service kept around for parades. After those faded out, there were the original electronic versions, where the siren tone and pattern were established by the timing of the electronic components, and the only way to change the tone and/or pattern was to replace the components; originally solid state, later models had cartridges you could change out. Nowadays, it's essentially a speaker and a digital audio player, there are tons of choices for patterns. Some of the systems even let you program custom tones and patterns(again, a feature I only used for parades).

[munchkinmama]

Just took a class about driving fire trucks and ambulances. 1. We were taught to change the siren sound 200 ft before an intersection. (normally run a wail and change it to a yelp. Reason being that people hear the change and it gets their attention.) 2. At least in my state the fire trucks and ambulances cannot force their way through a intersection and will (can) be found at fault if cross traffic hits them when they are going through the light. 3. As for not hearing it before seeing the ambulance depending on speed and siren type it is possible to outrun your siren. And some places have strict rules on when and where to use the siren. Also learned that sometimes it is actually faster to go with traffic and not use lights and sirens because using them gets other people in panic and can cause other traffic issues.

[Nunavut Pants]

Tid-bit: I took a "traffic school" a number of years ago (to get out of a ticket) that was taught by a CHP. He told us that, while fire trucks and ambulances did have the right to enter intersections against the red light when they had their lights and sirens on, that right did not extend to us--even when we were in front of them, blocking their way!

That said, firefighters (or cops) could legally direct us to do so, and we could then comply. I don't think ambulance personnel could, though.