Drivers must stay alert for emergency vehicles

One of the risky situations for drivers is what to do when you are about to meet an official emergency vehicle with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Aaron Dix of Greenville Health System says South Carolina law is clear. “South Carolina law requires motorists to yield to emergency vehicles. By yielding, it means pulling to the right and stopping,” he says. Dix is the GHS director emergency services, and he admits it can be confusing inside intersections. “If you have the red light and we are behind you, we don’t want to push you into oncoming traffic. So, if you cannot safely pull to the right and stop, we want you to just hold still and stop and we’ll go around you.” The other day, one Oconee County motorist witnessed a situation at a Walhalla intersection where an emergency vehicle made its way past vehicles stopped for a red light only to meet a vehicle that had the green light and crossed the intersection in front of the emergency vehicle. Dix realizes that the attention of drivers is often stretched, but he requests to keep in mind that an ambulance might be carrying a loved one in need of emergency care when every second could make the difference between saving the patient’s life.