80 MPH?

[upstatefire31]

While driving along I-84 in CT early this morning I had a FD ambulance with a patient in the back  pass me.....No lights,siren....Non Emergency transport...I was going 73 MPH and the ambulance flew past my truck and I was like DAMN! So I sped up till I got to just abt 80 and the ambulance was still pulling away from me.   

 

That was not a safe speed by far.  What do you guys think?

[ACPD227]

Im not sure you have enough information to decide if 80 mph was needed or not. 

 

What concerns me is you thought you were Charles Bronson and decided to speed up to 80 and follow them. So you are saying its ok for you to do 80 but not them. 

[FireMedic049]

While driving along I-84 in CT early this morning I had a FD ambulance with a patient in the back  pass me.....No lights,siren....Non Emergency transport...I was going 73 MPH and the ambulance flew past my truck and I was like DAMN! So I sped up till I got to just abt 80 and the ambulance was still pulling away from me.   

 

That was not a safe speed by far.  What do you guys think?

I think you're worried about something that you don't necessarily need to be worried about.

 

What was the speed limit?  Doing 80mph in a 70mph zone is different than doing 80mph in a 55mph zone.

 

Where they driving erratically?  Even in an ambulance, 80mph on an interstate isn't necessarily "unsafe".

 

Are you sure it was a non-emergency transport?  Absent heavy traffic, lights and sirens aren't necessarily needed on a major highway.  Maybe they turned them off once they got onto the interstate?

 

Why were you doing 73mph?  What type of vehicle were you driving?  Why did you feel the need to speed up to assess their speed?

[edburke]

Just some regional stuff worth mentioning.  In New England, it is very rare to see a speed limit above 65.  Although it is kind of a patchwork, FD ambulances don't do a lot of "Non-emergency" work-that said, the majority of ambulance calls are quickly becoming priority 3 taxi rides.  When I was certified in Connecticut in the mid-90's, there was a regulation (at least according to the guy at OEMS that I dealt with for out of state certification) that any occupied ambulance operating on the highway had to have their lights activated (siren was at the discretion of the operator.)  

 

On a side note, I think we've all operated at a speed higher than the speed limit.  Just the other day, I got an "escort" from two Rhode Island State Troopers on motorcycles down I-95 from Canton, MA to Attleboro, MA.  They were doing 80 and I was a safe distance behind them....people kept moving out of their way.

[johndanger]

I think you should mind your own business.

[edburke]

With comments starting to become borderline, I will reference this portion of the Posting Guidelines:

 

 

Flaming of any member, or public criticism of board rules will not be tolerated, and appropriate warning actions, including suspension and removal from the board will be taken.