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A few days back at around 11:30 or so in the night i was driving on necklace road, the roads were very empty and i was constantly doing between 80-100. I spotted an ambulance in front of me (maruti Omni) going at about 50-60. What was i supposed to do ? Slow down and go behind the ambulance or just overtake and go since the roads were empty.
The road has 2 lanes for each side of traffic.
BTW i slowed down followed the ambulance for a bit but afer a minute or two i just overtook him. Was i right or wrong ?

You're supposed to give way only if you're holding him up. And since your driving speed was faster than his, i dont see any prob in overtaking.

Shan2nu

You drive / overtake as you normally would in any situation. (Asking for way, overtaking safely etc.).

100 on the Necklace Road is high-speed IMO.

Driving in the same direction - With ambulances, you SHOULD immd. give them way as soon as you spot one coming behind. (Assuming, their relative speeds being faster than yours.)

As long as you are not obstructing the ambulance in any way you are not doing anything wrong.

Dont block his path. If he rushing with his sirens blaring, give way. If he is going at a steady speed, give him space and pass him by as un-obtusively as you can. He was probably doing that speed because the situation inside the ambulance warranted it.

Little OT: I have seen people tailgating ambulances in various city, this is the most hidious thing to do. THis is on the rise especially in metros.

Pramod

They may be the relatives of the patient in the ambulance, A wild guess !

No relative no nothing! They are ambulance-chasers (no, not the lawyer types, but the beat-the-traffic type). They try to make max benefit of the gap given to the ambulances. Not a safe practice.

Similar practice is also found in Dubai; but the catch is that you do the circus, but if there is an accident, of you hitting someone or someone hitting you, you are at fault and the punishment meted out is double of the normal fine / punishment for same offence. Not sure if this is just hear-say or practiced, though.

Pretty common thing here in Houston. There are some morons who think that a rushing ambulance is their best bet of getting out of the clogged traffic, and if I'm not mistaken on one occassion, a lady in a pick up truck rear ended an ambulance(on an emergency trip, ie) as she was trying to keep up with the ambulance and get through the downtown area.
Others usually follow the van, but keep a safe distance.

With an ambulance, best is not to tail-gate one or let one tail gate you. Either let the person go ahead if he's got his siren blaring, else follow safe procedure to overtake the ambulance and go ahead and ensure you don't obstruct the path.

I would recommend letting the Ambulance do whatever speed it is doing, so if you do not overtake and then slowdown in front of the ambulance , you are OK.

On a lighter vein, the problem with overtaking an ambulance is, they may hand over the patient to you, since you are faster :)

I think the ambulance was maintaining the speed limit. :)

On empty roads or less crowded roads its easy to give way if you are driving slower then Ambulance.

This is what I practice in Bumper to Bumper :::

The moment I see Ambulance in my rear view, the very first thing I do is change to a different lane to that of Ambulance and block this particular lane irrespective of any honking, by doing so I am blocking the particular lanes traffic, this would inturn mean that Ambulance has got less vehicles to deal with when it crosses me and at the next signal aswell.

Hey Karan, What you did was perfect. Stay behind the ambulance for a bit, ensure that he is maintaining a steady line and then overtake him without disturbing him in the least. After overtaking, pull away neatly ensuring that you do not cross his line and aim to put maximum distance between you and him.

Cheers,

Big accidents usually have multiple trucks rushing towards the spot. Usually hard to distinguish the siren sounds of one from the other, better to stay away from these vehicles.

Cooldude,
Its a great sign that you gave this a good thought, and are asking about what the right thing to is. Our roads would be som much more better if we had more considerate drivers like you.

Our hospitals should standardize on a better bigger vehicle, standard lights and sirens, with higher ground clearance. Omni is such a weak vehicle for emergency rescue. The sirens are usually so weak. Ideally in an emergency situation, no one else would be capable of overtaking the emergency vehicle.