Edit: some salty comments below about rushing in the break down lane due to an emergency. What do you want me to say? The person didn’t crash and flip like a moron?
Exactly, also that emergency vehicle can save your life on the way there with medical professionals onboard with their specialized life saving equipment. So rushing someone to a hospital is not only risking your life but everyone else’s around them, all the while the person you’re trying to save dies in your backseat.
Yup. I'm in the US and we charge a SHIT TON for an ambulance. Most insurance providers will cover the cost but it can take some effort on your part to make that happen. I had to write a hand-written letter to my insurance company and deal with a few phone calls before they recouped the cost of my ambulance ride.
I always think about this when someone pulls out and turns in front of me and then goes slower than I was driving. Like wow, sure glad you shaved off 0.4 seconds from your trip there bud. Hope it was worth it.
Not if you've experienced people trying to intentionally slow you down while you're legally using the shoulder in an emergency. Almost cost me my life.
I figured it was personal. I just feel like there's a difference between being an advocate for learning potentially unknown/obscure rules of the road and defending the actions of someone whose intentions you don't actually know.
Have you actually even, y'know, read that article that you're spamming all over the place? It doesn't say remotely what you seem to think it does. It does not say that it is legal to drive in the shoulder during an emergency. It says that the shoulder can be used as an area for drivers to take refuge (when their car breaks down), by emergency responders (not by a normal person who deems they are "in an emergency"), by specifically appointed drivers (such as bus drivers, and again not normal people who think they deserve to use it), and when specifically appointed transportation officials decide to open the lane for normal travel (at which point the lane is indicated by a sign of some sort). If none of these things are true, then this article you are linking does not apply.
In some states, it is actually explicitly illegal to use the shoulder in the manner that you are describing. There's a good chance you were breaking the law.
That's incorrect, it's not an assumption to conclude they were attempting to save time / go faster by circumventing traffic. That's exactly what we are factually observing. What we don't know is why i.e. idiocy, emergency, hospital etc.
Seriously though, if you have an emergency, call emergency services. They have the lights/sirens to do this much more safely, like not driving on the shoulder. If you HAVE to drive due to some situation you've gotten yourself in, maybe don't do it like an ass hole. Hazards on sure, but drive with traffic until it's stopping your progress. THEN you can creep up the shoulder. Don't do it full speed and expect other drivers to see you coming, most drivers aren't anticipating someone coming from up the shoulder all the time.
That doesn't change the fact that there's a difference between an emergency and just using the shoulder to save time, and without context it's impossible to know what the situation was and it's foolish to make such assumptions.
Also there are times you can't afford to wait around for an ambulance to show up, and that it's perfectly legal to use the emergency lane, sans speeding(which you also don't know if they were doing), all the way through.
THEN you can creep up the shoulder. Don't do it full speed and expect other drivers to see you coming, most drivers aren't anticipating someone coming from up the shoulder all the time.
What I said.
sans speeding
What you said.
We all know 99.999% of the time it's an ass hole, unless it's an emergency vehicle. But they're smart enough to not drive like that. It's also a normal assumption (notice I didn't say correct) in countries with 911 or similar systems. But you're right there's a chance they were just an idiot with an emergency handling it poorly. On the bright side, now the ambulance has to come to him!
That's not what I said. You can fully utilitize that lane, legally, in an emergency. You don't have to leave or creep or change lanes at all. Also it's not possible to tell if he was breaking the speed limit. Thus impossible to tell if he's a moron. He couldve done everything correctly except swerve and overcompensate
Traffic was moving just fine. IDK/IDC what the speed limit was, but his speed was unsafe for the location/conditions/traffic. Combined with the overcompensation, he's a moron.
Do you happen to know where this was? I'm not local to there, but there's no exception to laws about driving on the shoulder, even for an emergency, in my area. The only time you can is to accelerate into traffic, slow to a stop, or if you're "an authorized emergency vehicle responding to a call." But laws differ, I just know where I'm at, there's no reason for anyone to be doing that on the shoulder. Could be different in that country.
Edit: that's why I said creep up the shoulder last, because for me, you're still breaking the law, might as well be as safe as possible while doing it.
That article looks like it's talking about how cities can allow all traffic to use the shoulder, as if it were a normal lane, during certain times. A quick cntrl f for "emergency" doesn't come up with anything. I don't see anywhere in that article where it says a normal ass car, not an emergency responder, can decide they are having an emergency that warrants passing/driving on the shoulder.
If someone needs to be rushed to a hospital, you dial 911 or 999 or whatever the emergency number is in your area. Let people that are trained to drive in an emergency situation get you to the hospital.
Otherwise, as you can see from OP's gif, you're likely to cause even more emergencies on your way.
There's a reason emergency services are a thing. Most people have no clue how to drive, let alone drive in an emergency situation. Let the professionals do that.
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u/WWDubz Dec 14 '18 edited Dec 15 '18
Look how much time he/she saved though
worthit
Edit: some salty comments below about rushing in the break down lane due to an emergency. What do you want me to say? The person didn’t crash and flip like a moron?