Yesterday, as I crawled along Tchoupitoulas St. toward the Greater New Orleans Bridge, I wound up behind an ambulance. The driver was apparently heading back to a hospital across the river. No lights or siren on. Emblazoned across the rear doors was the legend, "Keep Back 500 Feet."

When must you do that? Certainly you'd want to stay back when an ambulance is screaming its way to a hospital with all the lights blazing and the siren keening. And you don't want to be right on its tail at any time, or the driver can't see you in his mirrors. But is there some unwritten rule (as opposed to the clearly written rule we learned in driver's ed about stopping for school buses) about when to hang back that 500 feet? Or is it a law?

I don't believe it a law here outside of the normal "too close for conditions" traffic law.

It sounds like a throwback from when firefighters were auditioning for Superman when they stood on the back of the truck decades ago.

I tend to look at it like the CAUTION HORSES thing you would see on some horse vans. What about CAUTION HUMANS

Why not instead of me keeping back 500 feet, why don't they make sure they stay 500 feet ahead.

Goofy bunch of controlling people, trying to tell me what to do instead of acting themselves.

Add that to my list of if I was King of the World....

On a related note, I was following a fire truck (lights/siren going) one time on a limited access four-lane highway. My B-I-L was a fire captain at the time, and told me that they just loved to take license plate numbers and report anyone who got too close, or, heaven forbid, tried to pass them. Anyway, the truck must have been full of water, because they slowed down to about 40 MPH going up some of the hills, and one guy tried to pass them. The truck driver swerved over at the guy a couple times to keep him from passing... So, the whole bunch of us followed them down US Rt. 219 at about 30-40 MPH, till they turned off.

I treat any emergency vehicle as I would a school bus...I stay FAR away because the police certainly wouldn't cut me any slack if an altercation would occur.

You don't tailgate or pass a Emergency vehicles with it's lights on.Although there are plenty of idiots that do.

Common sense went out the window, oh I'd say...about 30 years ago. The rules are necessary for safety. If you happen to find yourself up here in the Northeast, all the states up here are enacting the law to "move over and slow down" for ANY stopped emergency vehicle including wreckers. I've only done that since I started driving. Bored people do dumb things like following an ambulance to see the damage??

Was there a posted 45 mph minimum?

Sort of on topic: Many moons ago, as a Paramedic, my partner and I were running Code 3 (Lights and siren-all the following is on Code 3 runs) to a call, when I noted some moron in a mini-pickup nearly DRAFTING us down the highway. Mentioned it to my partner (he's driving). He looks in the mirror, says "What should I do?". I told him "hit the brakes". He did. Hard. Next mirror view was a mini-truck slewing in the lane as he dropped off of our six. Didn't try to follow us any more.
I once had my unit followed for several blocks through city streets, until the guy got near his destination, then peeled off. I've had people look me in the eye and PLAY CHICKEN with me, causing me to flat spot the tires.
While attempting to overtake/pass in the snow (I was forced to use the unplowed "middle lane"), I fish-tailed my 5-ton rig at people who wouldn't ease off to let me back into the clear lane. Was this agressive? Yes. On their part. I don't apologize for my actions. I just wish I'd had a recording camera so these fools could have been prosecuted. I had a life-and-death job to do. The last thing any emergency responder needs is interference.


I've also had my unit shot at and hit, but that's another story.

Most of those vehicles are apparently governed at 45MPH. Traffic on the Capitol Beltway (I495) moves at 55-65MPH.

Needless to say, an ambulance or firetruck on the beltway with it's lights on is in the far right lane and everyone is passing it in the three left lanes.

If you do *anything* near a school bus in this area, you will be reported and the law will issue a ticket which leads to license revocation in a heartbeat. That means you must hire a lawyer if you want to keep your license.

One guy was ticketed for this.

A school bus unloaded in a one way driveway in front of a school. There was no one the bus, not even the driver, but the red lights were still flashing and the STOP arm was out. He sat and waited for the driver to return for several minutes. He did not want to go around the bus, because of the red lights. However, he was on a POSTED one way driveway.

He finally SLOWLY backed out of the circle drive. Yep, someone watched him do it and he was mailed a ticket for going the wrong way on a driveway in front of a school.

On the collector street in our subdivision, the school buses run up and down the street with their yellow lights on the whole time, therefore, you have no idea on when they plan to hit the red lights and stop. So, I simply stop and pull to the side until the bus has passed and has safely out of range.

"I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place." -Stephen Wright

Some school buses around here cross the double yellow line to "make sure" oncoming traffic stops. Not crazy about that.

I would have been on the phone with the transportation dept. of whatever school district that is. Someone needs a bit of "job counseling" on that one.

How about the flashing headlights on school buses that leave oncoming driver blinded? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This morning on the Pontchartrain Expressway, as I headed toward my exit, two school buses pulled up alongside each other! One in the exit lane, the other in the right lane of the expressway -- and stopped with their yellow flashers on. One, I could understand, that maybe he was having motor trouble. But two? What were they doing, chatting about their home lives, or the performance of the NO Saints?

They weren't letting kids off, not on an expressway (or so we'd hope), and they weren't flashing the red lights. So after a solid blast of my horn, I went around the bus on the right and down my exit ramp.