Stu Salkeld
I wanted to discuss an alarming situation I observed in Stettler the morning of Wed. Jan. 17; this was one of the recent “cold snap” mornings as I’m sure you remember.
I was out running a few errands at 8:30 a.m. before heading to work at the ‘ole newspaper office when I observed a concerning situation. I was driving westbound on 47th Ave., the truck route, as it passes through Christ King Catholic School’s zone when I saw two vehicles approaching me eastbound. I was able to watch them for an extended period because we had all slowed down to 30 km/hr for the school zone.
The closest vehicle was a small compact silver car and behind it was a large white 4×4 that happened to have a flashing green strobe light going off on its dash. As I watched the two vehicles for a fair bit of time approaching me, they both stayed in the same positions and at the same speed, neither vehicle changing its position and neither vehicle pulling over or stopping.
As they passed me in the other direction, I slowed a bit so I could watch them in my rearview window, and they proceeded in exactly the same fashion further eastbound on 47th Ave, neither stopping or pulling over.
You may or may not be aware but the flashing green strobe was introduced over the past few years as an alert that a vehicle equipped with one is a firefighter en route to an emergency call, whether on a scene or to gather equipment at a local fire hall.
Why the small silver car didn’t simply pull over and let the white truck with the green strobe proceed isn’t clear; as I thought about the situation later there can be only two explanations.
One, the small silver vehicle didn’t see the green strobe and hence the driver wasn’t aware of his or her surroundings. How you can not see a brilliant green strobe flashing in early morning grey light baffles me as I could see it at least a block or two away while the white truck appeared to be roughly 10 to 15 feet behind the small car. However, I already know there will be contrarians who attempt to justify the car driver’s actions by saying, “They didn’t see the strobe.”
To which I would respond, “Then that motorist failed at a simple responsibility we all bear, being aware of their surroundings.” People who operate vehicles in my opinion have an obligation to be aware of their surroundings for the sake of pedestrians, other motorists and emergency vehicles, whether they be ambulance, fire or police in nature. Road hazards can also be an issue.
I’m not sure I buy the “They didn’t see the strobe” line as the car obviously slowed down for the school zone thus they were obviously aware of the road to some degree. If you’re a motorist in that situation, a large truck behind you with a flashing green strobe that goes unseen, you’re probably a threat to public safety and shouldn’t operate a vehicle on a public road. Period.
Second explanation: the small silver car saw the green strobe but didn’t care. This is deeply unacceptable. Those in the emergency services world who worked for recognition of the green strobe saw an issue (firefighters being delayed unnecessarily on their way to an emergency) and asked motorists to do something that would be pretty inconsequential (pull over to the side of the road for two to three seconds) as opposed to the potential consequences of firefighters being delayed to an emergency: injury, death, property damage.
Some people may not care about injury, death or property damage occurring to strangers; don’t kid yourself, those people are out there. All I would suggest to someone of that ilk is that the firefighters may very well be trying to get to a motor vehicle collision or structure fire that does actually involve something you care about.
So for the sake of the public at large, the next time you’re out and about on the public roads and a vehicle approaches from behind with a green strobe flashing, please sacrifice two or three seconds out of your day to allow them past.
Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
ECA Review
Stu Salkeld is a multimedia journalist for the East Central Alberta Review newspaper and you can reach him by email at reporter@ecareview.com.
