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Umm Joe, the old Wards Service Center building has been torn down. I guess that is no longer on the plate?
On another note, I observed a couple of "emergency" vehicles with their red lights a-flashing running through a red light on Beaglin Park Drive, turning West on Route 50. While I believe that they have the right and responsibility to circumvent traffic signals for emergency purposes, both of these vehicles switched off their emergency beacons once they had completed the turn through the intersection.
What vehicles were these? None other than a Salisbury FD "Command Unit" and another SFD sedan following.
It would appear that your observations about the goings on at the SFD are more believable with each passing day ....
17 comments:
When responding on Emergency calls the FD can go through red lights (but you do it with caution) because actually, I don't believe any organization is "Allowed" to go through red lights. Were suppose to use the upmost caution when doing so. Now for the turning off of the lights after going through the lights,so many , many times a first Unit arriving will give an update to the accurance and Scale down the response. It's an order to "Slow your response" usually without lights, especially when a situation (which isn't always called in ...during the excitement of it all...correctly.) Something seeming to be an emergency could be truly "Under Control" in seconds of a response. We get quite a few calls for house fire,,,,which turns out to be a pot on the stove....taken care of in seconds when the first unit arrives, hence scale down to "Under control...you can return to Quarters or slow your response to NON emergency status.People on cell phones trying to do the "good deem" right thing have given us a lot more calls (they pass by a scene are excited and are over a little zealous...but bless them sometimes they're right and probably saved a life and or property....Seconds Count.
Just thought tell ya what I know.
YES WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE EMERGENCY LIGHTS AND PROCEED THROUGH SIGNALS USING CAUTION, HOWEVER IF THE SCENE BECOMES UNDER CONTROL, WE WILL TURN OUR LIGHTS OFF AND GO NORMAL RESPONSE. IT'S JUST SAFER NOT TO RESPOND WITH LIGHTS AND SIRENS IF NOT NECCESSARY, THIS HAPPENS ALL OF THE TIME. WHILE EN-ROUTE WE WILL BE TOLD TO SLOW OUR RESPONSE.
Very nice, civilized response, thank you. Thanks for the explanation, many of us did not know this.
OK, it appears that at least 2 comments have been posted by fire dept personnel. I will clarify here:
My observation of the red lights in use occurred just before 9AM this morning (Dec.07, 2007).
Can you confirm from official logs that these vehicles were indeed responding to an "emergency" situation at that hour? Is any of this information available to the public for examination and review?
I agree, it was a very nice, well thought out, civilized response. No offense to you two, but at least not everyone there at the SFD is a total asshole. You two gentlemen(? don't know if one of you is a lady) show that you can engage in civil discourse. Could you please explain that to some of your "brothers"?
What's the regulation on police vehicles going through traffic lights--sirens AND flashing lights?
When it happens, document it, get the car # and we'll find out. Till then, don't try turning this topic around.
I'm the first person commenting on this page.L.Buck Sta.1
the person who asked about whether you can find out what they were responding to.
They have posted at "times" in the paper the fire reports (although) not recently. But certainly, If you think someone acted in a inappropriate manner make a call up town to find out what was going on.Thats certainly not unheard of. We want to protect citizens (every minute counts)not in danger them on the way.
What about all the Wicomico County Sherrif Cars and Maryland State Police Cars that fly by you on 50 or the bypass with no lights on. No need to do 80-90 mph if there is a Non Emergency situation or no situation at all. They should be setting examples of obeying the laws. And I would love to get their tag numbers to report them but I'd have to catch them first and then I would get a ticket for speeding.
Give me a tag # or a vehicle # and I'll try to find out. In the mean time, think about this for a minute. Right now the SFD was snagged today for running red lights, one after the other. Now, (believe it or not, LOL) we're to believe all of you mentioning the SPD, MSP & WCSO are now all breaking the law too?
The Fire Department looks like shit right now because they're acting like shits! The point of this Post was what the SFD is doing. There are other Posts out there to go after the Police but you choose to pick on them here, therefore you are high up in the SFD and that's what I believe.
To clarify, NO PERSON has the "RIGHT" to run a red light. All the lights and sirens do is "REQUEST" the right of way.
Don't believe me? Cause an accident while going through a red light and see what happens. Just because you are in a 75,000+ fire truck, cop car, ambulance, etc., does not give the driver a "RIGHT" to run a red light.
I use to drive emergency vehicles all the time.
These departments don't have enough insurance should you kill someone and their family. Once the insurance limits are met at the Fire Department level, they come after the driver of that vehicle personally.
If the fd causes a wreck get a lawyer that is familure with the NFPA standards. No one around here meets them when it comes to driving. There should be a list of who should and should not be able to operate fire apparatus around here. Ive scene the way some of the drivers drive and they should have their license revoked.
If you see Fire Department apparatus being operated in an unsafe manner you have the option of reporting it to the fire department the vehicle is from. Give them a call.
Hey, everyone, Nice Job on staying focused and positive. This proves that we can all have an intelligent discourse on SOMETHING related to the FD without it turing into a major pissing contest.
On a related note, aren't ambulances the exception to the rule (the whole lifesaving bit)? I know the "transport" ambulances are different. I also seem to remember a Ambulance hitting someone a couple of years ago, and there was a big go-round of blame. Could someone refresh my memory on this? I don't remember who they found at fault.
I can't publish this information as it's documented or I will lose my job but I will tell you SFD had 3 calls between 8 am and 9:15 am that day...2 accidents and a house fire so I do believe they had the right to do what they did seeing as those are 2 types of calls officers high as them need to respond to asap. Sorry to not put my name but my job depends on it.
Maybe to help clarify this particular issue, I will explain why those SFD vehicles turned their lights off after going through the intersection. While they were proceeding through the intersection of Rt. 50 and Beaglin Park Dr. they noticed the few vehicles ahead of them going way out of the lane of travel to get around something. After those vehicles cleared, the SFD vehicles could see what the problem was. There were two pieces of PVC piping approx. 10-12ft. long by approx. 4in. diameter lying in the intersection. Both SFD vehicles turned on their emergency lights and came into the intersection, one blocking the east bound traffic and the other blocking the vehicles coming up from behind on Beaglin Park Dr. The two pieces of piping were then removed by hand from the intersection and set off to the side of the road. The two SFD vehicles then did proceed through the light because they were still in the intersection and needed to get out of it. They could not back up due to other vehicles already behind them. They proceeded with due care and caution after all traffic had stopped.
Chris O'Barsky
Teacher Lady
Ambulances are not an exception to the rule. They still have to follow the rules of the road. If I am operation an ambulance in emergency mode and the lights are on the siren is supposed to be on also. If I approach a red light or stop sign I am supposed to come to a stop, see that it is safe to proceed through and then go. If I proceed through a red light and strike someone who has a green light even though I had lights and siren on, it is my fault.
These people operation fire and ambulance vehicles that just roll through intersections with tunnel vision thinking they have right of way are wrong. Unfortunatly it takes an accident and a Lawyer to prove this correct.
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