I don’t think this thread is going to provide any definitive answers - there will be some who would move and some who would not.
From IAM website:
Don’t cross red traffic lights or speed to get out of the way. The emergency driver has training and legal exemptions that you don’t have. Bus lanes and box junctions can be problems too, but let them resolve the problem of breaking the rules — not you. (the bit in bold is their bold)
In any given situation, the driver will do whatever the driver thinks right at the time. But there’s no way you’ll get police officers or anyone else coming on here and saying ‘it’s ok to go through a red light if we’re behind you with blues and twos’. Why not? For several reasons:
Several posters have said they’d do it if safe. What is ‘safe’? If the police suggested it was OK to move and that became generally known, many less skilled drivers might do it when it is NOT safe to do so.
If you start to dilute the law and say it’s OK to go through a red light to let an emergency vehicle through, then other laws will become equally ‘flexible’. It would be OK to break the speed limit ‘if safe’ to allow passage of an emergency vehicle through roadworks if that was the only option, for example.
And if obeying the law becomes secondary to the driver’s assessment of what is ‘safe’ in an emergency…then what about when I’m overtaking an artic on a DC and the artic starts weaving about when I’m halfway up the trailer? I might think it’s the safest bet to put my foot down to pass the artic as quickly as possible. If I do that and break the speed limit just as I come up to a camera, will the courts say ‘ok, it was an emergency’? I don’t think so…and if they did, and it became accepted practice, then SpeedyBoyRacer will pass every artic at 95mph and, if caught, claim that the lorry was weaving (similar to what delboy said).
Also, there are several organisations, including HMRC, that have vehicles with blue lights, not just the three main emergency services. Should you break red lights for all of them?
The heartstrings argument about letting an ambulance through. The ambulance might need to make rapid progress, but it might not literally be a matter of life and death in the context of the few seconds delay at the red light. What about police and fire engines? They might, or might not, be on a mission where seconds will count. Should we let them through as well?
And if it’s about ‘emergencies’…what about doctors travelling to an RTA or a suspected heart attack victim with the ‘green’ flashing light on…or HA heading to an incident with amber lights flashing?
Nobody is going to give an official sanction, so each driver will have to make their own decision about what to do - but on the understanding that if they break the law they may have to take the consequences.
Emergency vehicle drivers are highly trained and are exempt from certain motoring regulations. Leave them to sort out the problems.
Cheers…M
Well we both did and then had to squeeze past one waiting ambulance and a wall and she waved her thanks and sped off. I do while in Britain think turning the brain off and trusting in the life saving power of the Hi Vis vest is the only way.
