Lights and Sirens: School Buses & Traffic at Reds

[MMiz]

After seeing the recent YouTube video of crazy code, I'm wondering if you have any formal/informal policies on coding near school buses and what to do at red lights with traffic.

I was taught in school, and was told by an agency that:
1. If a school bus has its lights flashing, indicating students are getting on/off the bus, that I am to shut down RLS (red lights and sirens), stop, and wait for the school bus' lights to stop flashing.
2. If the RLS are activated, and there is significant traffic stopped in front of me at a red light, I am to turn off RLS until the light changes.
3. Don't be stupid and speed through a school zone.
4. Don't be stupid.

Does your agency have an formal/informal policies?

 

[NJN]

I was taught in school, and was told by an agency that:
1. If a school bus has its lights flashing, indicating students are getting on/off the bus, that I am to shut down RLS (red lights and sirens), stop, and wait for the school bus' lights to stop flashing.
2. If the RLS are activated, and there is significant traffic stopped in front of me at a red light, I am to turn off RLS until the light changes.
3. Don't be stupid and speed through a school zone.
4. Don't be stupid.

We pretty much have the same policies.
1. School Buses are not to be passed if they have their warning systems activated.
2. Never heard anything about this type of senario, but if i have heavy traffic sitting infront of me and it has no where to go, i'm just going to stay put until i can get through.
2-B. We have a very busy section of U.S. Rt. 22 running through our town and there is a policy that you do not attempt to cross unless you have a green light. So either way heavy traffic stopped or very heavy traffic running at high speeds means I'm going to sit until i have the light.
3. Well duh? isn't this one common sense.
4. Same as above

 

[exodus]

After seeing the recent YouTube video of crazy code, I'm wondering if you have any formal/informal policies on coding near school buses and what to do at red lights with traffic.

I was taught in school, and was told by an agency that:
1. If a school bus has its lights flashing, indicating students are getting on/off the bus, that I am to shut down RLS (red lights and sirens), stop, and wait for the school bus' lights to stop flashing.
2. If the RLS are activated, and there is significant traffic stopped in front of me at a red light, I am to turn off RLS until the light changes.
3. Don't be stupid and speed through a school zone.
4. Don't be stupid.

Does your agency have an formal/informal policies?

1: Siren off - Lights on, make sure the drivers knows we are running emergent. But I do have no problem rolling EXTREMELY slow (read idle in drive) past the bus if they take too long.

2 - If all lanes are blocked, we go to oncoming, if there is a median or it is unsafe. We shut down siren, lights on until opticom switches the light.

3 - School zone. If there's kids, I run slower than normal.

 

[cbjfan]

1. Shut off siren, come to a complete stop, if the children are still on the bus and the driver waves us through, then we are to proceed at no more than 5mph past the bus. If children are off the bus and ALL motion for us to proceed as well as the bus driver, then we do the same as above.

2. Same as exodus.

3. We must follow school zone speed limits even when RLS. For our area it is 20mph. If children are present, i.e. end of school, then we go even slower.

4. Obviously, don't be stupid.

 

[djmedic913]

Answer me this...
If police car running lights and sirens, a fire truck running lights and sirens, an ambulance running lights and sirens, and a postal truck arrive at a 4 way stop controlled intersection at the same time, who has the right of way?

A school bus with its lights on stops us dead. I will leave the lights on but siren off. the bus driver in there infinite wisdom SHOULD see us waiting and close their doors and let us by. There is no going past, even slowly, if the bus lights are on. I have had bus drivers waiving me past but they kept their lights on and I did not move til the lights are off.

traffic: the other side of the double yellow is allowed.

Drive With Due Regard!

 

[exodus]

Answer me this...
If police car running lights and sirens, a fire truck running lights and sirens, an ambulance running lights and sirens, and a postal truck arrive at a 4 way stop controlled intersection at the same time, who has the right of way?

A school bus with its lights on stops us dead. I will leave the lights on but siren off. the bus driver in there infinite wisdom SHOULD see us waiting and close their doors and let us by. There is no going past, even slowly, if the bus lights are on. I have had bus drivers waiving me past but they kept their lights on and I did not move til the lights are off.

traffic: the other side of the double yellow is allowed.

Drive With Due Regard!

The police car would go first, then ambulance, then fire truck.

Police car is fastest, ambulance is second fastest, fire truck is slower. Mail truck is retarded ;]

 

[JPINFV]

Answer me this...
If police car running lights and sirens, a fire truck running lights and sirens, an ambulance running lights and sirens, and a postal truck arrive at a 4 way stop controlled intersection at the same time, who has the right of way?

Hopefully the three emergency vehicles drivers could come to quick consensus using hand signals just like when ever a group of non-emergency vehicles come to a Mexican standoff. The post office, even though it is a federal agency, postal officials still have to follow local rules of the road and are not entitled to the privileges granted to emergency vehicles engaged in emergency operations. Other wise we could cut a significant amount of cost out of the USPS by paying minimum wage to wackers who just want to ignore traffic laws in someone else's vehicle.

 

[HotelCo]

The police car would go first, then ambulance, then fire truck.

Police car is fastest, ambulance is second fastest, fire truck is slower. Mail truck is retarded ;]

Agree on the order but not the reason. If we're using that logic, shouldn't the Firetruck go first? Seeing as it's the slowest and it's going to take the longest time to get somewhere.

 

[emtfarva]

Hopefully the three emergency vehicles drivers could come to quick consensus using hand signals just like when ever a group of non-emergency vehicles come to a Mexican standoff. The post office, even though it is a federal agency, postal officials still have to follow local rules of the road and are not entitled to the privileges granted to emergency vehicles engaged in emergency operations. Other wise we could cut a significant amount of cost out of the USPS by paying minimum wage to wackers who just want to ignore traffic laws in someone else's vehicle.

The Postal worker has the right-of-way. they can go through the light or the stop sign with out stopping due to the fact that they could be carrying a declaration of war.

 

[exodus]

Agree on the order but not the reason. If we're using that logic, shouldn't the Firetruck go first? Seeing as it's the slowest and it's going to take the longest time to get somewhere.

Nope, PD goes first so they can get to the scene and control it the quickest and perform first responder tasks. Ambulance and FireTruck should arrive within 30 seconds of each other.

 

[mjg0519]

http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/fourway.asp

 

[Guardian]

Have you guys been following the NJ Trooper Higbee case where he ran a stop sign without stopping at 65 mph, without lights or siren, and killed two young girls?

He was later charged and found to be not guilty of anything. Defense arguments were that he followed NJ police operating procedures when pursuing the speeder.

This stuff is happening way too often. In my city, the police have killed two people within the last 5 years. And all I'm hearing about is the importance of scene traffic awareness and wearing reflective vests. Maybe we should be giving reflective material to the public to protect them from us.

 

[djmedic913]

The Postal worker has the right-of-way. they can go through the light or the stop sign with out stopping due to the fact that they could be carrying a declaration of war.

Until about 10 minutes I agreed with you, that the mail truck had the right of way because it is federal and actually subject to the state or local laws, but they just showed courtesy and intelligence in allowing the emergency vehicle to go first. I don't who told me this or when. But alas it turns out I was wrong. It seems what I had believed stemmed from when mail was sent by trains and the mail trains had right of way over all other trains.

http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/fourway.asp

Thanx for posting this. I was researching the answer and stumbled upon that page myself. proably at the same time.

So apparently in NYC anyway since 1920 the firetruck has right of way as per a judges order.

 

[Shishkabob]

If all 4 make it at the same time, the postal truck has to wait for the other 3. Between the other 3, it's whoever turns right. "Yield to right"...


But back to the OP


Bus with lights on? Wait till they are off, then proceed carefully because of children.

School zone? No L/S PERIOD. Go speed limit through.

 

[daedalus]

I have passed school busses after waiting for a good while.

 

[JPINFV]

If all 4 make it at the same time, the postal truck has to wait for the other 3. Between the other 3, it's whoever turns right. "Yield to right"...

...and if no one is turning right?

School zone? No L/S PERIOD. Go speed limit through.

Slow down? Sure, but turning off L/S for 2 seconds while I pass a school on a major road isn't exactly practical.

 

[marineman]

For passing a school bus we shut off siren and wait for driver to wave us by, leave the lights on so driver will see us and knows we're waiting to get through.

School zone we shut off siren and pass through at no more than 25mph

Stop light with heavy traffic we will use oncoming lane if we need to but usually just shut it down and wait.

For us chances are if a cop car, ambulance, and fire truck are all at the same intersection we're probably heading to the same call. 99% of the time in that case they will send the ambulance through first, if it's an unsafe scene or an MVC requiring extrication or on fire or something order would be adjusted accordingly but I'd like to hope that we can figure it out on the fly.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

1) School Bus Lights > my lights. We wait for the driver to signal to us what to do. Lights on, siren off except the man "whoop whoop!" to remind the driver that we are there incase he didn't see us coming up from behind (I certainly hope he sees us if we are in front of him!)

2) School Zone - I believe law states we can leave L&S on but the 20mph limit still applies. Crossing guards are not to be ignored.

3) Red Light - cross over with discretion. This is outlined very explicitly in our SOP.

When responding to an emergency, it is recognized that it is desirable to drive as close to the center line as possible. When driving with only the left tires over the center line, the speed limit as per paragraph 6 shall apply. If it is necessary to drive completely left of center, or completely in the center turn lane of a multi-lane road, the maximum permissible speed shall be the posted limit

Paragraph 6 sets a speed Limit + 15 limit for normal operations. So if we cross over then the speed limit is as posted. If we can't cross over or its not safe, we go as left as possible and sit there lights (maybe blaring sirens depending on the officer in command's discretion since he has the siren controls) and wait for traffic to clear to the green light.

4) Yes, we always use common sense!

5) If PD is responding then we go to a special frequency that not only has the FD on it but also the PD cars. We'd tell PD to go secure the scene, and the ambulance would proceed ahead of the engine which is there only for manpower.

We should be able to figure it out with hand signals, but in the event we can't and we are responding to different incidents (and therefore not on a common radio talk group) I'd assume the who's on the right rule holds. At an intersection, just like leaving the station, you don't go until the guy to the right of you goes.

MMiz, how did you some up with this?