« Video Pick of the Week (May 3rd) | Main | And so it comes »
Fact Check Tuesday: Emergency Vehicle Slowdown
By admin | May 5, 2009
Is it illegal to not slow down or stop when an emergency vehicle, be it Police, Fire or Medical, is seen flying by going to whatever emergency the vehicle is going to? The simple answer to this is a resounding Yes!
The complex answer centers around a law in the Lone Star State. On 9/1/03, a law was passed that said that if an emergency vehicle is passing by, you’re required to slow down to at least 20 miles under the speed limit. If said limit is 20 MPH or under, you have to stop fully. The reasoning behind this was quite simple. A number of police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances were hit by motorists either speeding or just being careless. In one particular case, a lady neglected to slow down for a fire engine going to a 6-alarm fire, and was hit with a whopping $200 fine when a police officer stopped her. There were also cases of fire engines being whizzed by speeding (and careless) drivers. The firemen (and women) as a result added the extra worry of not being run over to putting ot the fire and saving lives.
Other states followed suit quickly, and now all but three and the District of Columbia have enacted similar laws. In fact, several Canadian provinces have enacted laws with similar wording on their books. So now, it certainly pays in more than one way to move over when you see the flashing lights and hear the sirens.
Topics: Fact Check Tuesday | 1 Comment »
One Response to “Fact Check Tuesday: Emergency Vehicle Slowdown”
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
There’s an additional law in Texas, that went into effect (IIRC) on 9/1/05, that requires that if you’re passing an emergency vehicle in the lane next to it, you reduce your speed to 20 MPH below the posted speed limit, unless the posted speed limit is below 25 MPH, in which case you may proceed at 5 MPH.
So, if I’m driving on a highway in Austin and there’s a police car in the shoulder and I’m in the right lane and the speed limit is 60 MPH, I have to slow down to 40 MPH or slower. (If the lane next to the right lane is clear for me to make a lane change before I reach the pulled-over police car, I can change lanes and continue on my merry way at 60 MPH or whatever speed of traffic in that lane happens to be.)