We all know that if you see blue lights flashing and sirens blaring while driving, you should move as quickly as you can out of the way. But it can be difficult to allow vehicles such as ambulances to pass if you are on a busy road, or need to move last minute. So it is important motorists remain calm and make sure they can move their car safely.
Not only does this reduce the risk of accidents, but letting an ambulance pass you could land you with a fine of up to £1,000 if you do it wrong, according to the MEN.
The Highway Code says motorists should give way to vehicles with flashing lights, including police cars, fire engines, ambulances and emergency doctors. If you break the law while doing so though - going into a bus lane, entering a yellow box junction or driving through a red light for example - then you could be faced with a fine.
And on top of the fine, some offences can add three penalty points to your licence.
The Highway Codes states: "You should look and listen for ambulances, fire engines, police, doctors or other emergency vehicles using flashing blue, red or green lights and sirens, or flashing headlights, or traffic officer and incident support vehicles using flashing amber lights."
The code says drivers should stop before the brow of a hill, never mount the kerb, avoid putting anyone else in danger and to not brake harshly.
On the Blue Light Aware website, it says: “Of course, there will be times when there simply is no room for an emergency service vehicle to get past, or perhaps its crew are activated by their control room to respond to an emergency while they are waiting with everyone else at the traffic lights.
“On these occasions, they know that other motorists are not allowed to ‘jump’ the red light, and the emergency vehicle would ideally not activate its sirens and lights until it was safe for the vehicle in front to cross the solid white line at the junction.
“On the (hopefully) rare occasions that a blue light vehicle, in 'emergency mode', is sitting behind another vehicle at a red traffic light, it’s important to appreciate that it would be both very dangerous and illegal for the other vehicle to move across the solid white line."
