You can just make out the Albany ambulance. It’s in an eastbound lane behind the westbound Chevrolet Silverado.
Picture this. A bunch of drivers including me are stopped in heavy traffic at one of Albany’s leading intersections for crashes. Suddenly behind us, lights and sirens. An ambulance is bearing down.
It is 4:48 p.m. on Saturday. We’re all pointing west on Santiam Highway, standing still, waiting for the light at Waverly Drive. The signal is five or six cars ahead. Even if it changes now, it will take some seconds before we can move.
There’s no way we can get out of the way right now.
The siren keeps going. But in the rearview mirror, the lights have disappeared. The ambulance was right there, behind us. Where did it go?
It switched lanes, that’s where it went. This westbound driver for Albany Fire and Rescue, thinking fast, turned into one of the oncoming lanes.
In the left-hand lane going east, the ambulance went west and passed all that traffic waiting at the light. At the signal, it switched lanes again to be in the correct one, heading west. And was gone.
I have often wondered how our first responders manage emergency runs through the peak-hour bottlenecks on Albany’s highways, roads that are essentially the same as when the city was half its current size.
For all I know, this medic driver Saturday had a way to control the Waverly signal to create a clear path in the eastbound lanes for a westbound rig.
In any case, that was a swift maneuver, neatly done. (hh)
Thanks for the story. That is good information to have. I’m sure all readers of your blog are relieved you weren’t “in” the ambulance, as when I read your headline I thought you had had another “spell” or whatever. Glad that wasn’t so.
A Good Read. Thank-You HH
Hasso
you are absolutely correct. first responders do have a device to use to control the traffic lights
A number of years ago I was involved in the Toy Run for needy kids, and we followed a first responder vehicle which could make sure the signals worked for our parade.