THE authorities should come up with a campaign to create more awareness of what motorists should do when they encounter emergency vehicles such as ambulances.
Last week, while driving along Yio Chu Kang Road, I encountered an ambulance with its lights flashing. While common knowledge is to give way to the ambulance in the rightmost lane, the motorists (myself included) in the middle lane were not sure whether to slow down to let those in the right lane cut in, or speed up.
One of the impatient drivers behind me even cut into the right lane to overtake those of us giving way in the middle lane.
There is a video circulating online which shows motorists in Germany moving to both sides of the highway to clear up a middle lane for an ambulance to pass and get to the scene of an accident.
That is a great example of what should be done. We seem to lack the initiative or a standard protocol for such situations, and that can result in unnecessary delays for emergency vehicles.
So I hope that the authorities can come up with some form of educational campaign to share the message and, perhaps, even come up with stricter penalties for inconsiderate motorists who block emergency vehicles.
Lennel Tan Kian Liang
Last week, while driving along Yio Chu Kang Road, I encountered an ambulance with its lights flashing. While common knowledge is to give way to the ambulance in the rightmost lane, the motorists (myself included) in the middle lane were not sure whether to slow down to let those in the right lane cut in, or speed up.
One of the impatient drivers behind me even cut into the right lane to overtake those of us giving way in the middle lane.
There is a video circulating online which shows motorists in Germany moving to both sides of the highway to clear up a middle lane for an ambulance to pass and get to the scene of an accident.
That is a great example of what should be done. We seem to lack the initiative or a standard protocol for such situations, and that can result in unnecessary delays for emergency vehicles.
So I hope that the authorities can come up with some form of educational campaign to share the message and, perhaps, even come up with stricter penalties for inconsiderate motorists who block emergency vehicles.
Lennel Tan Kian Liang
