Blocking ambulances?

MrPudding

watsgone wrote:

Oh believe me it is flamable it also says so on the cylinder.

Infoplease wrote:

Oxygen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas; it is the first member of group VIa of the periodic table. It is denser than air and only slightly soluble in water. A poor conductor of heat and electricity, oxygen supports combustion but does not burn.

From : http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0860183.html

Back on topic.

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Part of the problem is that modern cars are too soundproofed. A lot of people simply don't hear the sirens because they have the radio too loud. Also they aren't paying attention when they do. I usually roll down the window a tad if I can't see the vehicle, to get a better idea of where the noise is coming from.

Does anyone remember Tommorws World on BBC? I remember they had a story on this problem years ago. It seems that it is actually almost inpossible for humans to tell what direction a normal siren is coming from. They showed an experimental siren was like a normal siren bit had a burst of white noise every few seconds. The difference is amazing. Humans can instantly identify the direction white noise is coming from. They expected it to be incorporated into sirens by now. I haven't heard anything more about it.

Another interesting (for some ) property of white noise is it is very hard to ignore. Another cool use of it was for security cameras. If someone was going to rob a shop they would enter it with their head down so the door camera would not catch their face. During an experiment they put a speaker above the camera, when the door was opened a burst of white noise would come from the speaker. Even when told not to look at the camera and that there would be a noise no one was able to prevent themselves from looking at the camera.

Actually, maybe that is why it is not being used in sirens. Too many people trying to look at the source of the noise instead of where they are going.

MrP

Victor

BrianD3 wrote:

"I'm not legally obliged to pull in for a ambulance"

Erm, aren't you meant to give way to all emergency vehicles?

'undue care and attention'

Don't you mean 'without due care and attention'

Litcagral wrote:

As a previous poster has said, one is not legally obliged to pull over for an ambulance or fire engine but naturally most will do so as a matter of courtesy. AFAIK they are subject to the same rules of the road as anyone else. If an ambulance driver breaks a red light, he does so at his own personal risk.

There was a case where an ambulance, lights flashing and sirens blaring, ran a red light. Some muppet was coming the other way and they crashed. Muppet was found 80% responsible for not observing the ambulance. Ambulance was 20% responsible for not heeding other traffic.

stevenmu wrote:

Seeing as you got pedantic first You obviously don't remember in the run up to hurrican Rita when a bus evacuating elderly patients caught on fire causing the oxygen tanks to explode, linky

Apparently the bus was also leaking brake fluid.

watsgone wrote:

Oh believe me it is flamable it also says so on the cylinder.

Oxygen is what burns other things. Put a lit cigarette into a stream of oxygen and watch it flamce and burn out very quickly.

Squirrel

Victor wrote:

Erm, aren't you meant to give way to all emergency vehicles?

No, the only vehicle's you're legally obliged to pull in for are Army ones. They're also the only group who can't get prosecuted or sued for crashing while breaking traffic laws, an Ambulance, Police or Firetruck driver can. It's about protecting the country from invasion.

Kinda* pointless really





*Extremely

watsgone

MrPudding wrote:

From : http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0860183.html

Sorry, my mistake obvoiusly, but if the cylinder was damaged in a crash and a fire start which can happen with all the equipment they carry, I wouldnt want to be around.

Though back to the point,

So you are not "legally" obliged to pull in, I think that says a lot about ireland today.
What I mean is before people would never say that or care either, they would pull in if they could safety out of conscience

Squirrel

Apparently only 70% of people pull in for an Ambulance, 60% for a Firetruck, and less than 50% for a squad car. I heard this through word of mouth, so hope these were highly exaggerated. I mean, 30% wouldn't pull over for an Ambulance :mad:

testicle

Squirrel wrote:

No, the only vehicle's you're legally obliged to pull in for are Army ones. They're also the only group who can't get prosecuted or sued for crashing while breaking traffic laws, an Ambulance, Police or Firetruck driver can. It's about protecting the country from invasion.

Kinda* pointless really





*Extremely

Let's dispel this rumour immediately. It is 100% not true.

Squirrel

testicle wrote:

Let's dispel this rumour immediately. It is 100% not true.

That's grand. I was told this off a soldier. My CSPE teacher also mentioned about the army not being prosecuted, I wasn't sure about the pulling over one

johnnyrotten

Army personnel don't drive on their own license. They use a military license.
FireFighters/EMTs/Paramedics/Gardai all drive on their own license, therefore are liable to all the rigours of the law and their own personal insurance.
Drivers are not obliged to move for any other road user including Fire/Ambo/Gardai/Defence Forces/Customs.
It can be very frustrating to see the whole line of traffic moving out of the way only to see the Ambulance held up by one person. Most people don't do this on purpose but normally they can't hear , and don't use their mirrors:mad: or are afraid to take any evasive action to help

dingding

Used to travel a lot on the N11 between Bray and Dublin a lot before the new bypass was built. Several times I saw a ambulance at loughlinstown hospital trying to get to the scene of an emergency and the traffic would not let it out.

Could not believe it

ballooba

Type 17 wrote:

Not being smart, but I have yet to hear a story of how a Dublin motorcycle cop interacted with a member of the public, and wasn't "extremely aggressive and confrontational". (A few years ago, my wife was pulled over and sworn at for being in the wrong lane(!), and came home in tears...)

I dealt with a female motorcycle cop in Ranelagh the other day. She was perfectly polite.

She asked me to move on because she thought I was parked on Ranelagh Road. I was actually trying to turn left down the alley before Irish School of Motoring. Nonetheless she was actually just as polite as any other Garda.

crosstownk

testicle wrote:

Fire needs Oxygen, Fuel, Heat and a continuous chain reaction. oxygen itself does not burn.

Correct. But it might as well be flamable because if it is released on a fire with adequate fuel it will accelerate the fire to a serious extent. Presumably, this is why an oxygen cylinder carries fire warnings.

Seth Brundle

johnnyrotten wrote:

FireFighters/EMTs/Paramedics/Gardai all drive on their own license, therefore are liable to all the rigours of the law and their own personal insurance.
Drivers are not obliged to move for any other road user including Fire/Ambo/Gardai/Defence Forces/Customs.

It is an offence to not follow the instructions of a garda when driving. If the garda tells you to meve then you must move.
Im not sure what the reference to personal insurance is about.

fletch

Anybody know why the ambulance heading to the crash on the M50 at Firhouse this morning didn't use the hard shoulder but instead drove down the centre of the two lanes? In case it was iced over I'm guessing? Just thought it was strange.