Emergency vehicles such as ambulances often need to reach their destinations as rapidly as possible. So when motorists see flashing blue lights and hear sirens, they understand the importance of quickly clearing a path.
Time is critical during emergencies, but safety remains paramount. In the rush to help emergency services move quickly, drivers can easily become flustered, especially on narrow roads or streets packed with parked vehicles. And while motorists might find it challenging to create space for ambulances or fire engines on congested routes, it's essential that they stay composed and move vehicles safely.
This approach not only reduces the likelihood of collisions, but failing to properly allow an ambulance through could land you with a penalty of up to £1,000. The Highway Code requires drivers to yield to vehicles displaying flashing lights, including police cars, fire engines, ambulances and emergency doctors.
However, if you violate traffic regulations whilst doing so, such as entering a yellow box junction or bus lane, or running a red light, the consequences can be harsh. Beyond fines, certain violations can also add three penalty points to your driving licence, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The Highway Code states: "You should look and listen for ambulances, fire engines, police, doctors or other emergency vehicles using flashing blue, red or green lights and sirens, or flashing headlights, or traffic officer and incident support vehicles using flashing amber lights."
The guidance tells drivers to halt before reaching the top of a hill, never drive onto the pavement, make sure no one else is put at risk, and steer clear of sudden braking. Additional advice available on the Blue Light Aware website explains: "Of course, there will be times when there simply is no room for an emergency service vehicle to get past, or perhaps its crew are activated by their control room to respond to an emergency while they are waiting with everyone else at the traffic lights.
"On these occasions, they know that other motorists are not allowed to 'jump' the red light, and the emergency vehicle would ideally not activate its sirens and lights until it was safe for the vehicle in front to cross the solid white line at the junction."
The guidance adds: "On the (hopefully) rare occasions that a blue light vehicle, in 'emergency mode', is sitting behind another vehicle at a red traffic light, it's important to appreciate that it would be both very dangerous and illegal for the other vehicle to move across the solid white line."
