Whenever sirens are blaring in the Antelope Valley (California) vehicles pull over providing emergency vehicles with room to speed on to their destination.
I'm sure there are some people in the Knoxville area that move aside so the police, fire department, etc. can do their thing, but I never saw evidence of it. Instead in Knoxville if there is an accident almost everyone comes to a complete stop to rubber neck it: "Hey is the person dead? Almost dead? Dying? I gotta check this out!" However, if there is nothing to see: "Oh, it's just an ambulance. Well I'm not pulling over, I'll just speed up and race him!"
In Knoxhell when I pulled over for emergency vehicles I had to wait to get back on the road because all the people behind me just kept on driving and wouldn't let me back in. I wonder what the "racers" would think or feel if it was their loved one in the back of the ambulance trying to get the hospital. I have to think they would care... right? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Knoxhell is a rather small community. Most people know each other. The chances they either directly, or have 3 or less degrees of separation, with the person in the ambulance is probably pretty great. I would suspect they would want to get out of the way so their friend, family member, neighbor, fellow church member, etc. had a better chance of survival. But I'm just RONG. It's way more important to be the first one at the stop light.
2 comments:
Yet, Knoxvillians will pull over to the side of the road and allow a funeral procession to go by while they idle on the shoulder (if there is one, which often there is not). They consider this showing respect for the dead, and it is an important social duty.
Personally, I think pulling over for an ambulance is more important. If an ambulance is impeded by traffic, the condition of the person in back may very well deteriorate. But if the hearse gets where it's going quickly and without impedement from traffic, whoever's riding in the back is going to be just as dead as he would have been anyway.
Knox is a very strange place.
I agree, it makes much more sense to pull over to help save someone's life. Unfortunately it's still happening.
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