Blocking lanes

[scout6]

I am getting tired of lanes being blocked by officials for accidents, that do not impact the road!  Guy runs off the road to the inside.  Police and fire show up and block two lanes while they decide what to do.  This seems to be happening more and more.  The other day, I was driving West on the highway.  A car on the East lanes was on fire.  The fire marshall blocks one of the two lanes heading west.  The median is over 50 yards!  I understand that there is a job to be done, but does it need to impact everyone else if there is no injury?

[wbw6cos]

Running the traffic down to one lane allows the digital rubber-neckers to have an unobstructive view of the incident.

 

On the metro Atlanta interstates (and other roadways) the fire departments tend to positon their engine at an angle across two lanes (if possible) adjacent to the incident lane.

 

In the photo, a police vehicle was on the shoulder with blue lights (I believe) investigating a minor fender bender and a multi-vehicle pile up occurred with a tractor-trailer hitting into the police vehicle and then jack-knifed.  There is some speculation that a car may have cut the truck off to "move over" for stopped emergency vehicles, which started the chain of reactions.  Too many of these type incidents occur and that gives first responders the notion to err on the side of caution.

 

That said, I have seen similar situations that do not make any sense at all when they block lanes like your photo.  Atlanta has HERO trucks that do a lot of the blocking for most situations when they respond to incidents even as simple as gasoline filling.

 

I do feel your pain, though.

 

 

[eddd]

I spent 20 years in the fire and rescue service, and things are not as simple as they may seem.   The number one priority at a call is the safety of my crew, including me.  Additional lanes are blocked to provide a safe working zone for the responders.   Fire apparatus is positioned so as to provide a safety barrier for everyone involved in the scene.

[scout6]

Eddd,  I understand when there is something to block off.  In this case, he just parked his suburban in the west bound lane.  

[Paul De]

I am also frustrated with delays and particularly those caused by gawking. That said it seems that in my neck of the woods there are incidents about every year or two where the responding officer experiences a near miss, or worse. Seems to be more chuckle-heads on the roads these days, maybe not everyone who forks over the nominal fee for a drivers license should get one.

[eddd]

9 hours ago, scout6 said:

Eddd,  I understand when there is something to block off.  In this case, he just parked his suburban in the west bound lane.  

 

No doubt there are the occasional times when responders will block roads/lanes when not needed, but keep in mind that you  may be driving by a scene that is wrapping up or which may need to be maintained for investigative reasons.

 

The driving public (often upset by the delay) gets a 10 second glimpse of the scene to make their extremely limited determination of what is occurring.     

[elkroeger]

I moved away from Seattle about 5 years ago.  There's one traffic light where I live now.  My commute is 45 minutes.  ON FOOT.  No interstates.  No road ragers.  No rubberneckers.  No incident response teams.  No 10 mile backups.  Life's too short for all that B.S.

[szurszewski]

6 hours ago, elkroeger said:

I moved away from Seattle about 5 years ago.  There's one traffic light where I live now.  My commute is 45 minutes.  ON FOOT.  No interstates.  No road ragers.  No rubberneckers.  No incident response teams.  No 10 mile backups.  Life's too short for all that B.S.

 

Yeah, but I bet you get woken up by motos early in the morning on the weekends...

 

(Did you hear me ride by yesterday around 0730? I thought about stopping in to say hi, but I didn't want to ruin a good Saturday sleep in if you were having one...)

[elkroeger]

shoot, pop in any time.  I can't remember the last time I slept past 5am.  On the other hand, I usually go to bed with the chickens.

 

We were at the gym at 7:30 Sat anyway.