Giving way to ambulance is very important as life will be on stake if nobody will give way to ambulance. There are some rules that are needed to be followed in order to give way.
First of all and most importantly do not panic. You should stay calm and check where the ambulance is coming from. Then give way by merging left if it is safe to do so. If you cannot move left safely you should slow down and let the ambulance overtake you. Never speed up or try to outrun the vehicle as this is dangerous. And you cannot break the law to give way to an ambulance.
It is an offence not to give way to an ambulance. The penalty is a fine and loss of demerit points. Here is an example of a motorist who did not give way to an ambulance while all the other cars moved to the left. The ambulance was supporting a little girl who had split her head open, but just because of one car nothing could be done. Reporters have interviewed the driver. He said that if they had reached the hospital in time, she could have been saved. Not everything was lost and the bleeding could be contained. But just because of one car a little girl lost her life.
With the increasing traffic on the roads, ambulances have a tough task in taking the patients to hospitals on time. A recent survey conducted revealed that nearly 18,000 patients who are transported in ambulances every year could be saved form medical complication if the vehicles could reach the hospitals faster.
More and more motorists in the busy streets of subcontinent and other major cities are refusing to yield to ambulances and firetrucks. This assessment is based on first-hand experience of volunteers along with a sharp rise in complaints from paramedics and firefighters.
Instead of clearing and pulling to the side of the road when an ambulance approaches, many motorists are racing ahead of it or following closely behind them to pass more quickly through traffic.
Even worse, some motorists simply ignore the sirens altogether, or leave their cars parked on narrow streets, creating a tight squeeze for large fire trucks and ambulance.
Nearly half of the emergency vehicles that hospitals receives each year are classified as high priority calls in which a person is suffering from chest pains, breathing disorders, heart attacks, trauma or some other serious condition. However unyielding motorists delay their arrival by precious minutes that often mean the difference between life, death or severe brain damage.
The bottom line is that people who don’t stop for ambulances increase the chance that someone who is critical will die because ambulance can’t reach them or get them to a hospital fast enough.
In conclusion, I would like to say that education about ambulance importance should be given by the use of pint media, electronic media, workshops, exhibitions and road shows. Last but not least separate road should be made just for ambulances.
M.Umar Iftikhar Malik, a student of class 2 wrote above mentioned content piece as submission of ICRC essay writing competition for 2017. We are publishing it as a token of appreciation for the student, his parents and teachers.