Any opinions (night ambulance)

[TAMR4449]

I was told this... http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=95665 has bad motive. That means that it has bad artistic taste right? Any opinions?

[cmherndon]

Well, it could be from the fact that you've mentioned that it was an ambulance which ran around the gates. That could've probably gotten someone fired. I think it's more of a technical reason than an artistic reason. Not to knock your photography skills, but the image also looks poor in quality as well. This is a photo you might want to save for the personal collection only.

[JButler]

An ambulance, police car or firetruck, with the emergency equipment (lights and/or siren) on, can run around the gates, just as they can run a red light. As long as they were on a call and made the crossing safely, no one will get fired. Since you can't see what ambulance this is, that is a pretty silly excuse anyway.

[muskblock]

It could be the car that's right in the middle of the picture...

[wukichra]

JButler --

The fact that emergency vehicles can run traffic lights at will is a common misconception. Yes, they do not necessarially have to stop for them HOWEVER - The opposing traffic MUST yield the right of way. Generally common practice for Vehicles however impractical/Impossible for a Train to do. The ambulance was in the wrong in running the gates, regardless of the situation!! Right of Way to emergency vehichles is granted by others on the road, not taken by the vehicles!

[busyEMT]

I can not think of a situation where I would run the gates in an ambulance. That is just stupid. Not only is the ambulance crew at risk, the locomotive crew is also (not to mention a patient on board or on scene). Rigs aren't little sports cars. Let dispatch know, that is what radios are for... and other units in the service area. Or alternate routes.


http://twincitiesrailfan.com/images/ambu_intro.jpg

To risk getting hit, is to risk no ambulance showing up!

[E.M. Bell]

To go along with this thread...this was on the AP wire this morning...

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- A train slammed into an ambulance that apparently tried to get out of its path, but stopped at a rail crossing, killing all three paramedics on board. The patient in the vehicle survived, officials said.

Paramedics Jeff Ferrand, 37, and John Rook, 23, died at the scene Saturday after the Union Pacific train hit the front end of the ambulance, spinning it around and ejecting the emergency workers.

A third paramedic, Christopher Klingan, also 23, was taken to a hospital but later died, officials said.

"Perhaps the driver saw the train coming and tried to get back, because a matter of two or three feet and there would not be an accident," Arkansas State Police Cpl. Darren Neal said.

Neal said the driver apparently decided he couldn't make it across the county road crossing in rural Fulton, backed up and came only a few feet from getting out of the train's path.

The ambulance was carrying a woman, Charlene Gayton, who had suffered a heart attack or a stroke. She was not hurt in the wreck, and remained in stable condition late Saturday.

Gayton, 66, was taken to a hospital by her family, who came in another vehicle and pulled her out of the ambulance. The accident happened about 50 yards from her mobile home.

Witness Beauford Wyatt Sr. said he rushed to help the paramedics, but one of them was already dead and he couldn't save the other.

"I tried to help," said Wyatt, 25. "He said two words and died in my hands."

Officials said there was a sign at the crossing, but no gates or lights. Train engineer John Harris told police he saw the ambulance start to cross the tracks Saturday afternoon. He blew the horn, rang the bell and applied the emergency brake to no avail.

Authorities were investigating

[Lord Vader]

I think it's a pretty neat photo, but it just doesn't fit in exactly with the RP "theme". Keep up the innovative work!

[JButler]

wukichra wrote,

"The fact that emergency vehicles can run traffic lights at will is a common misconception."

I wouldn’t have made the statement if I didn’t have a good idea of what I was talking about. While I wouldn’t pretend to know all the laws in your state, 16 years as a cop has allowed me a certain familiarity of West Virginia’s motor vehicle code. In WV emergency vehicles can disregard traffic control devices
WV Code 17C-2-5
and motorist are required to yield the right-of-way to emergency vehicles using emergency equipment (lights and siren)
WV Code 17C-9-5

Neither code relieves the operator of an emergency vehicle of the responsibility to operate safely. They do mean that an operator of an emergency vehicle can (not necessarily should) disregard the RR gates if it safe to do so and they are operating with emergency equipment on.

I don’t know the circumstances behind the ambulance disregarding the gates in the photo in question, so I can’t say they were or were not acting safely. It would be irresponsible for me to say they were, just as it is irresponsible for anyone else not there to say they were not. Also, don’t construe my statements as advocating the practice of running RR gates. In 16 years, I have disregarded RR gates one time, on the way to an “officer injured” call and with the crew of a stopped CSX train flagging me through the crossing.

[Andrew Matuska]

If was going to cost someone’s job oh-well! I have no tolerance of anybody running the gates!!! :evil: :evil: Here in La Crosse it is kind of a problem of people jogging in front of trains and in a rare case a car zigzags the down gates. If they can hear me I let them know what I think and most of my neighbors know that because I yell at the top of my lungs on how stupid that decision was.

Andrew

[TAMR4449]

cmherndon I suppose your right. It was 400 speed film. And Sorry about started the whole ambluance topic. It's just what happend and that's what I said when describing the photo.