We've all experienced an ambulance, police car, or fire truck quickly approaching behind us with their lights and sirens on. And it's important to remember exactly what you should do — what the emergency driver expects you to do.
When an emergency vehicle including police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, other law enforcement, and tow trucks approaches you are expected to pull over to the closest edge of the roadway and stop until the emergency vehicle has passed. The intent is for you to make way for the emergency vehicle — so it can quickly move through traffic. Never block an intersection. This applies to pedestrians as well as drivers.
When you approach an emergency vehicle you are required to move over and slow down.
When you are driving on interstate highways or other highways with two or more lanes in the same direction as emergency vehicles you are required to leave the lane closest to the emergency vehicle as soon as it is safe.
When you are driving it's important to stay focused. Anything that takes your mind off driving can also cause you not to recognize emergency vehicles approaching. This creates a very dangerous traffic situation that at the least slows down emergency responders. Even worse distracted drivers can cause emergency vehicles to get into an accident. There are a variety of distractions that cause accidents listed below.
Complete details on how to react to emergency vehicles on Florida roads can be found in the Florida Drivers Handbook.
