DexOlesa said:
Idiot sits just off my bumper blaring the siren flashing the lights, honking for me to move over and stop.
When I hired on 40 years ago my partner told me that we should not forcefully take the right of way; other drivers had to voluntarily relinquish it.
To practice Defensive Driving. Especially when deciding to cross the center line, speed or go through red lights.
Over-use of the siren / air horn not only upset the patient and family in the back, it also disturbed the neighbourhoods.
More importantly, over-use caused panic reactions among other drivers. You never knew what they were going to do.
Metro Police ( except for the Accident Squad ) did not even have sirens in those days.
Something the department was always aware of was that it was / is only a small minority of paramedics who account for a disproportionate number of accidents, and nearly all injuries.
The solution was simple. They got those individuals the hell out of the driver's seat before they killed someone.
They can't do that anymore.
They just keep sending and re-sending the same drivers for remedial training.
Then putting them back behind the wheel.
Fortunately, on the Multi-Patient Units ( MPU's ) they made sure to put the right people behind the wheel in the first place.
Incidentally, regarding the video in the Original Post:
August 30, 2012
"City of Toronto removes video depicting a truck driver acquitted of charges in relation to deadly crash:
A spokeswoman for the City of Toronto said DeMerchant’s complaint is being taken seriously."
The incident is described at 14:15 -> on the video ( which is still available on Youtube ).