- [Rick] You can hear it, but you can't find it.
Where's that goofy emergency vehicle?
Hi there, smart driver.
Rick was Smart Drive Test talking to you today
about emergency vehicles,
both for the purposes of staying safe
and passing a driver's test.
Stick around. We'll be right back with that.
(dramatic music)
Welcome back, talking to you today about emergency vehicles.
These include police vehicles, ambulance, and fire trucks.
And in some cases it may be search and rescue.
In the event of a catastrophic emergency,
search and rescue will respond as well.
In some cases they'll have flashing green lights.
These are volunteers who've been called in
to the fire station and are responding to an emergency.
So those will be in some places, in some jurisdictions.
Know that emergency vehicles travel in packs.
So if there's an ambulance and you see it
and you stop for the ambulance,
know that there may be a firetruck behind it as well
or police vehicles.
So keep an eye out,
know that there may be other emergency vehicles
within a very short time or within very close proximity
to the original emergency vehicles.
So you may just want to pause, have another look around
and make sure that there aren't any more emergency vehicles.
In most instances, if you're at an intersection,
simply stay stopped.
That is your safest option.
Try not to proceed through the intersection
because that's simply going to impede the movement
of the emergency vehicles through the intersection.
Stay stopped.
If you do have to move out of the way,
oftentimes a right hand turn
through an intersection or a roundabout
is going to be your best option.
But as soon as you turn the corner,
stop, pause, have a look around
and make sure that the emergency vehicle
didn't follow you around the corner
because if you proceed after you make the right hand turn,
again, you're going to impede the movement
of the emergency vehicle and cause confusion.
And this increases the chances of being involved in a crash.
Just on a quick note, if you are pulled over by police,
you don't have to pull over immediately.
Go to a parking lot or someplace on a minor road
where you can stop safely.
And then you can talk to the officer
and do what you need to do to keep both yourself
and the police officer safe.
For the purposes of a driver's test,
you have to come to a stop immediately
and that's not always on the right side of the road
for those of us that drive on the right side
of the road in the world.
Sometimes it may be the left shoulder
is going to be your best bet to get out of the way
of the emergency vehicle.
Now, if you're on a highway and you pull over,
activate your hazard lights, your four way flashers,
as soon as you pull over.
That will tell traffic behind you
that you're pulled over and get their attention.
And they will probably become alert to the fact
that there's an emergency vehicle
and won't drive into the back end of you.
And activate your hazard lights for the duration
that you're going to be sitting there.
And for those of you in the province of Ontario,
this is actually a maneuver on your driver's test.
Look up in the corner there, I'll put a card up for you
on the full video on that.
The only time that you don't have to stop
for an emergency vehicle is if you're on a highway
divided by a concrete barrier and the emergency vehicle
is on the other side of the roadway.
Most jurisdictions in the world now have move over laws.
So if there's an emergency vehicle
along the side of the road attending to a crash scene
or has somebody pulled over or attending to an emergency,
then you need to move over to the other lane
if you're on a multi-lane roadway and reduce your speed.
Most of the time it's 60 kilometers an hour
or 40 miles an hour.
Have a look in your handbook for those specific speeds
that you need to pass the pulled over emergency vehicles.
And as well, know that in addition to the volunteer people
that we were talking about at the beginning,
sometimes it can be amber lights and blue lights as well
and people pulled over on the side of the road
could be road maintenance crews, such as tow trucks
and snowplows and those types of things.
If you're on a freeway and there's an emergency vehicle,
be very careful about pulling off
on the shoulder of the road.
Sometimes, actually in my experience, most of the time,
pulling off on a freeway is not recommended.
Simply pull into the right hand lane, slow down
and allow the emergency vehicle to pass
in the passing lane because other traffic generally,
for whatever reason, doesn't pull over on a freeway.
So that may not be your best option
if you're on a freeway or interstate.
If you have any further suggestions about emergency vehicles
and handling situations with emergency vehicles,
leave a comment down in the comments section there.
All of that helps us out.
And remember pick the best answer,
not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.