Remember: Flashing Lights Are Sending A Signal

By Shannon Hicks

For most drivers it is a simple reflex: when you see lights and hear sirens, for whatever reason, you pull over, stop, and wait for the emergency vehicle with its lights and sirens running to pass you.

Similarly, when a school bus has stopped and has its red lights flashing, you stop. Children are being dropped off or picked up when a bus has its lights flashing. Connecticut law requires motorists to come to a complete stop at least ten feet away when approaching from either direction.

Both situations are mandated by law. Failure to grant the right of way to emergency vehicles responding to emergencies carries a penalty of up to $200 and/or up to seven days in jail. Not stopping for a school bus? Prepare to be fined at least $100.

According to some emergency vehicle and bus drivers in town, however, more and more drivers are failing to obey these laws.

Ken Lerman, the current chief of Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, sees plenty in his line of volunteer work. One thing he would like to see less of is drivers who fail to yield the right of way when he or any of NVAC’s drivers are driving an ambulance to an emergency.

“What I notice most is that first of all, people don’t stop, when you’re behind them, they’re oblivious,” said Mr Lerman. “It’s like they have their windows closed and they don’t even know you’re there.”

Other times he sees drivers who start to pull over, but do not finish the safe and complete movement that a nonemergency vehicle should do in such an occasion.

“Some people will pull to the right and keep going, or they pull to the right and slow down,” Mr Lerman said.

“We need them to pull to the right and come to a full stop so that we can get around them safely,” continued Mr Lerman, who has not been involved in any accidents while responding to emergencies, “and would like to keep it that way.”

Fire company drivers have also reported similar incidents. Wayne Ciaccia, chief of Botsford Fire Rescue Company, says he sees this regularly and hears stories from his members of near misses.

“Getting people to pull over for us, it’s a real problem,” said Chief Ciaccia. “And this happens to everybody, not just my crew. They just don’t give the space to fire apparatus, ambulance, and police vehicles.”

According to state law (Sec 14-283), “Upon the immediate approach of an emergency vehicle making use of [audible lights and sirens] … the operator of every other vehicle in the immediate vicinity shall immediately drive to a position parallel to, and as close as possible to, the right-hand edge or curb of the roadway clear of any intersection and shall stop and remain in such position until the emergency vehicle has passed, except when otherwise directed by a state or local police officer or a firefighter.”

Chief Ciaccia is amazed, he said, at the different things drivers do when fire apparatus is on the road for an emergency.

“When we’re running down the road, especially South Main Street where there are so many parking lots and side streets people can be pulling out from, never mind all the traffic on that roadway, we’ll have our warning lights and sirens, and then we’ll even use our air horn,” the chief said.

Sometimes people will pull over, but they won’t stop. Other times, one car will pull over but another will continue driving.

“Yesterday we were responding to a call, blaring lights and sirens, and the driver a few cars ahead of us pulled over and stopped,” Chief Ciaccia said. “The guy right in front of us? He went around that car and kept going.”

Another problem for emergency apparatus drivers is where vehicles decide to stop when they pull over.

One particularly tough location for Botsford’s drivers is Toddy Hill Road, especially the hilly, S-curving roadway that runs where Botsford Hill Road becomes Toddy Hill (at its intersection with Button Shop Road) until Toddy Hill levels out again, near its intersection with Marlin Road, a stretch that is about a quarter of a mile long.

“Don’t pull over on S turns and curves,” said Chief Ciaccia. “That’s just crazy.

“I can’t pass another vehicle in an area that’s unsafe to pass. Pull over where it’s safe, not in a blind spot. It’s just common sense,” he added.

Whether an emergency vehicle is coming up behind you or approaching you in the opposite direction, Connecticut’s law requires that all nonemergency vehicles pull over in a safe location and stop until the emergency vehicle has passed.

“Oncoming traffic, they’ll see us coming with lights and siren and they still don’t pull all the way over,” said Chief Ciaccia.

“They’re not giving any of us a break,” he said. “It happens on almost every call. People act like they don’t see or hear us,” he said.

The ‘Move Over’ Law

More than 150 US law enforcement officers have been killed since 1999 after being struck by vehicles along America’s highways, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. To lower that deadly toll, a coalition of traffic safety and law enforcement groups launched a nationwide public awareness campaign in 2007 to protect emergency personnel along the nation’s roadsides.

Move Over, America is a partnership of the National Safety Commission, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the National Association of Police Organizations, and the American Association of State Troopers. The campaign is the first nationally coordinated effort to educate Americans about Move Over laws and how they help protect the law enforcement officers who risk their lives protecting the public.

As a result of this coalition, 43 states, including Connecticut, have passed “Move Over” laws, which require motorists to move over and change lanes to give safe clearance to law enforcement officers as well as “one or more stationary emergency vehicles located on the shoulder, lane or breakdown lane” on roadsides.

In effect since October 1, 2009, Connecticut’s law (House Bill No 5894; Public Act No 09-101) requires motorists to “immediately reduce speed to a reasonable level below the posted speed limit, and … if traveling in the lane adjacent to the shoulder, lane or breakdown lane containing such emergency vehicle, move such motor vehicle over one lane, unless such movement would be unreasonable or unsafe.”

The law also applies to tow trucks that are responding or on the scene of an accident. Drivers are required to give a wide berth to tow trucks in these cases, when they are considered authorized emergency vehicles.

Fines range from $92 to $2,500 for drivers who are observed disobeying this law.

Do any of these in a school zone and the fees can be doubled.

Blue And Green Lights

In Connecticut (as well as Indiana and New York), volunteer firefighters and EMTs are allowed to use flashing lights in their vehicles to alert the public that they too are responding to emergencies. With Newtown being covered primarily by volunteer firefighters and EMTs, dozens of vehicles have been outfitted with such lighting.

A blue light indicates a volunteer firefighter is responding either to their fire station or directly to the scene of an emergency. Green lights are used by members of Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps for the same distinction.

The drivers of these vehicles have been issued permits by their respective fire company or NVAC, and are also following rules set forward to them when driving with those lights on.

While it is not the law for other drivers to pull over when they see vehicles with blue or green lights flashing from the grills and/or windshield areas, drivers should consider what the people behind the wheels of these vehicles are doing: they are responding to an emergency. As with emergency apparatus, every second counts for these drivers.

School Bus Lights

Jim Tomassetti counted, in one day alone, ten people who drove right through the stop sign and flashing lights that were running on his schoolbus. Mr Tomasetti has been driving schoolbuses for 38 years, the last seven in Newtown. He has even changed the lights on the stop sign that unfolds from the driver’s side of the bus from the factory-installed blinking light to a more eye-catching strobe light.

“I did that to attract more attention to the stop sign, which everyone is supposed to be stopping for,” said the veteran bus driver.

“Everybody’s in a hurry,” he said. “They’re not just tailgating each other out there, it’s worse. If they could get underneath you and push you out of their way, they would. There is just no courtesy.”

His concern is not just for the other vehicles on the road, however; it is for the kids he picks up each morning and returns home each afternoon.

“The big thing is the cellphones,” he said. “People get on those things and they just stop paying attention to everything else around them.

“I watch the cars approaching before I open the doors to let my kids off my bus,” he said. “It’s worse than ever out there.

“The public needs to know of, or be reminded really, about these rules and regulations. When those lights are on, you don’t move. That’s it,” he said.

“When I got my license — and this was long before I was a firefighter — we were told: you see emergency vehicles approaching with their light and sirens on, you pull over and stop. Period,” said Wayne Ciaccia.

“People have asked me, and have complained about our drivers sometimes,” he continued. “They want to know why we have to drive so fast.

“I’ll tell you,” he said. “Minutes count sometimes. Two minutes can be a make or break difference when we are responding. We do tend to drive according to a call, and sometimes we have to get there as fast as possible.”