Always yield to emergency vehicles
When you see an emergency vehicle either coming from behind or toward you with its red lights and siren sounding, please give the right-of-way to that ambulance, fire truck, or police car by pulling over to the right side of the road and stopping.
Even if you are in the center turn lane, it’s the law that you yield to the right side of the street without blocking the intersection.
Once the vehicles have passed, it is then safe to resume your normal travel path.
— Sallie Ross-Filgo, South Lake Tahoe Fire Department
I am always amazed at the number of people that will not pull over to let these vehicles pass, or are so wrapped up in their own world that they pull over at the very last moment. These emergency drivers are on their way to save someone’s life, someone’s home or take care of a person’s safety.
People are ignorant of the driving rules,LAWS.
Driving is a Privilege not a Right.
Speaking of driving laws, what is the law when passing the school on pioneer trail and high meadows. Is the speed limit 40 unless the yellow light is flashing which means it is 25? Even when school is in session, if the light is NOT flashing, is the speed limit 40? The way people drive, this seems to be split 50/50 between always going 25 or only when the light flashes.
The best way to find the answer to a question like this is NOT to ask the question in a public forum and then rely on answers from others who probably never actually read the law, and not even to look at the DMV driver’s handbook (which can be incorrect too); the best way is to look it up in the Vehicle Code and see what is actually said (you can buy a copy of the current Vehicle Code from the DMV for about $5-$10, or you can go to the library and they can show you how to look it up online). So, this time, to show you what you should be looking at, I’ve done the work for you:
CVC 222352:
(a) The prima facie limits are as follows and shall be applicable unless changed as authorized in this code and, if so changed, only when signs have been erected giving notice thereof:
.
.
.
(2) Twenty-five miles per hour:
.
.
.
(B) When approaching or passing a school building or the grounds thereof, contiguous to a highway and posted with a standard “SCHOOL”
warning sign, while children are going to or leaving the school either during school hours or during the noon recess period. The
prima facie limit shall also apply when approaching or passing any school grounds which are not separated from the highway by a fence, gate, or other physical barrier while the grounds are in use by children and the highway is posted with a standard “SCHOOL” warning sign. For purposes of this ubparagraph, standard “SCHOOL” warning
signs may be placed at any distance up to 500 feet away from school
grounds.
Notice that nothing is said about a flashing light on a sign – those lights are just to get your attention and the light being “on” doesn’t mean the “school speed limit” is in effect (the clock that runs the sign could be off) and, for the same reason, the light being “off” doesn’t mean that the “school speed limit” isn’t in effect.
Reader Says — So, the speed limit is 25 when kids are coming and going, but because of the fence, the limit is 40, even when the kids are out playing in the field. And since you do such a fine job with finding info, why don’t you do some more work and find out the legal status of the light.
Steven: Read the last paragraph of my post. The flashing light has no legal status: it’s just there to get drivers to notice the sign. But if it is “on” and you go blasting by the school at 40 mph while school kids are going to or coming from school, it can be used against you as evidence that you had notice that you should be looking to see if kids were coming or going – you won’t be able to get away with claiming “Oh, I didn’t notice them.”