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> The latest Cruise incident occurred Thursday night when a Cruise robotaxi and an emergency vehicle crashed and left a passenger injured. Cruise said in a soci

> The latest Cruise incident occurred Thursday night when a Cruise robotaxi and an emergency vehicle crashed and left a passenger injured. Cruise said in a social media post that one of its self-driving Chevy Bolt EVs entered an intersection on a green traffic light at Polk and Turk streets when it was struck by an emergency vehicle that appeared to be en route to an emergency scene. It sounds serious. But more importantly, it’s a self driving car and a public emergency vehicle. I expect both to have a high def video of the accident and it should be released soon for the public benefit. The US is one of the most driving countries and it’s one of those rear cases when it’s about a public safety and everyone is an expert.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
It would be interesting to see, but emergency vehicles responding to a call (and with lights and sirens going) clearly have right of way. That said, every emergency driver I know and have seen slows to a near stop at intersections to make sure it's clear before proceeding. But perhaps that's not procedure in California, which would be madness.
- YeBanKo 3y ago
  An emergency vehicle with sirens on obviously has the right of way. And they absolutely slow down for traffic in California. Right of way does not absolve emergency vehicle drivers from responsibility to avoid accidents. It’s easy to get confused especially in busy traffic when an emergency vehicle approaches. But if we have videos, everyone can judge for themselves if self-driving vehicle failed the expectations. Here is interesting stats: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/emergency-vehicles/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/emergen...
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  No, the driver with the green light has right of way. Emergency vehicles are not allowed to break traffic laws in any state; they're just afforded some privileges other vehicles aren't, and other operators are required to get out of the way. If an ambulance hits a car that had a green light, the ambulance driver is cited. https://www.google.com/search?q=ambulance+driver+cited https://www.google.com/search?q=ambulance+driver+cited
  - idontpost 3y ago
    [dead]
  - aidenn0 3y ago
    In all states I'm familiar with, the driver with the green light is still supposed to yield the right of way to the emergency vehicle once they see it. The ambulance driver has a responsibility to make sure that the driver with the green light is doing so. If a car is e.g. going 55 through a green light, they might not even hear the sirens until it is too late to stop. The US, in general, doesn't have strict "right of way" rules for it's always X driver's fault. All parties involved have a duty to avoid an accident. If you see someone doing something totally stupid and against the rules of the road and just plow into them, it's technically your fault (of course they would have to prove that you deliberately failed to avoid the collision, so if you keep your mouth shut, you might get away with it[1]). 1: Not legal advice!
- jfoster 3y ago
  They may have right of way, but does that mean they can blast through an intersection at any speed or is there a reasonable speed they should be proceeding at? On what's currently made public, this really feels like it could go either way with regard to which party was more at fault.
- aidenn0 3y ago
  > But perhaps that's not procedure in California, which would be madness. Definitely is. I was on the jury for a case that involved an officer calling for help on the radio. We watched the dash-cam footage of the first officer coming to assist. He got up to 80 between the intersections, but slowed down to near the speed-limit for green lights and almost stopped at red lights, despite the urgency and it being 3 in the morning when the odds of another car being there were low.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    The only time I’ve ever seen emergency vehicles violate the “slow at intersections” was when the presidential candidate motorcade went into emergency.
- mdorazio 3y ago
  You and others here are conflating right of way with responsibility at red lights. Those are two separate things. While emergency vehicles have right of way, that only means you must pull over to let them pass you. But emergency vehicles also have intersection responsibilities. For example, here's the law excerpt in Texas: > In operating an authorized emergency vehicle the operator may: ... (2) proceed past a red or stop signal or stop sign, after slowing as necessary for safe operation; ... And in California the relevant law is in vehicle code section 20156 [1], which clearly states that emergency vehicle drivers cannot do whatever they want without regard to the safety of other drivers just because their sirens are on: > Section 21055 does not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway, nor protect him from the consequences of an arbitrary exercise of the privileges granted in that section. It's quite likely that the emergency vehicle driver is at fault in this interaction, not the Cruise vehicle. [1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=21056.&lawCode=VEH https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
- oceanplexian 3y ago
  They might have right of way in the “law”. But if emergency responders rip through a red light at high speed without looking, they’ll quickly learn that there are another set of laws, called the laws of physics.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago

It would be interesting to see, but emergency vehicles responding to a call (and with lights and sirens going) clearly have right of way. That said, every emergency driver I know and have seen slows to a near stop at intersections to make sure it's clear before proceeding. But perhaps that's not procedure in California, which would be madness.

YeBanKo 3y ago
An emergency vehicle with sirens on obviously has the right of way. And they absolutely slow down for traffic in California. Right of way does not absolve emergency vehicle drivers from responsibility to avoid accidents. It’s easy to get confused especially in busy traffic when an emergency vehicle approaches. But if we have videos, everyone can judge for themselves if self-driving vehicle failed the expectations. Here is interesting stats: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/emergency-vehicles/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/emergen...
KennyBlanken 3y ago
No, the driver with the green light has right of way. Emergency vehicles are not allowed to break traffic laws in any state; they're just afforded some privileges other vehicles aren't, and other operators are required to get out of the way. If an ambulance hits a car that had a green light, the ambulance driver is cited. https://www.google.com/search?q=ambulance+driver+cited https://www.google.com/search?q=ambulance+driver+cited
- idontpost 3y ago
  [dead]
- aidenn0 3y ago
  In all states I'm familiar with, the driver with the green light is still supposed to yield the right of way to the emergency vehicle once they see it. The ambulance driver has a responsibility to make sure that the driver with the green light is doing so. If a car is e.g. going 55 through a green light, they might not even hear the sirens until it is too late to stop. The US, in general, doesn't have strict "right of way" rules for it's always X driver's fault. All parties involved have a duty to avoid an accident. If you see someone doing something totally stupid and against the rules of the road and just plow into them, it's technically your fault (of course they would have to prove that you deliberately failed to avoid the collision, so if you keep your mouth shut, you might get away with it[1]). 1: Not legal advice!
jfoster 3y ago
They may have right of way, but does that mean they can blast through an intersection at any speed or is there a reasonable speed they should be proceeding at? On what's currently made public, this really feels like it could go either way with regard to which party was more at fault.
aidenn0 3y ago
> But perhaps that's not procedure in California, which would be madness. Definitely is. I was on the jury for a case that involved an officer calling for help on the radio. We watched the dash-cam footage of the first officer coming to assist. He got up to 80 between the intersections, but slowed down to near the speed-limit for green lights and almost stopped at red lights, despite the urgency and it being 3 in the morning when the odds of another car being there were low.
- bombcar 3y ago
  The only time I’ve ever seen emergency vehicles violate the “slow at intersections” was when the presidential candidate motorcade went into emergency.
mdorazio 3y ago
You and others here are conflating right of way with responsibility at red lights. Those are two separate things. While emergency vehicles have right of way, that only means you must pull over to let them pass you. But emergency vehicles also have intersection responsibilities. For example, here's the law excerpt in Texas: > In operating an authorized emergency vehicle the operator may: ... (2) proceed past a red or stop signal or stop sign, after slowing as necessary for safe operation; ... And in California the relevant law is in vehicle code section 20156 [1], which clearly states that emergency vehicle drivers cannot do whatever they want without regard to the safety of other drivers just because their sirens are on: > Section 21055 does not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway, nor protect him from the consequences of an arbitrary exercise of the privileges granted in that section. It's quite likely that the emergency vehicle driver is at fault in this interaction, not the Cruise vehicle. [1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=21056.&lawCode=VEH https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
oceanplexian 3y ago
They might have right of way in the “law”. But if emergency responders rip through a red light at high speed without looking, they’ll quickly learn that there are another set of laws, called the laws of physics.