American Reacts to Emergency Vehicles Around the World

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[Rick]

The German, Dutch, Belgian and Austrian emergency vehicles mostly still use a real horn. The advantage is that the sound is unmistakable and cannot be confused with other noises such as alarm systems, etc. There is also less environmental noise that can overwhelm the sound. Another advantage of a real horn is that it is primarily aimed in the desired direction (direction of travel) and does not pointlessly fill the area with sound. Thanks to the consistent tone, the vehicle can also be located better by road users, the direction and speed can be estimated.

[rogerk]

In netherlands emergency vehicles only use sirens when they need them as well. You see them often driving just with lights on when it is dark. Only turning sound on when aproaching busy intersections and stuff.
Cuts down masivly on sound polution.

[hajujajajuha]

One thing in EU is the color of the flash lights of all emergency vehicles (police, ambulance and fire dept.). The color is bright blue. That is a very good thing compared to white, orange or even red flash lights.
Bright blue is very visible in a bright day or totally dark night. All other colors just disappear in the surrounding lights. Many times it is difficult to figure out from the sirens where the emergency cars are coming from, but bright blue flash can be seen from very far away.

In EU orange flash lights are used in all type of service vehicles wheter they are used to mainrain the roads or being a vehicle of some person maintaing something else. Also very slow vrhicles like tractors use orange flash lights.

White and red are not used except the police uses one red light on the roof of the car when they order another car to stop immediately. It is not flashing but it is like a very bright red high beam.

[karin]

In the Netherlands we have three different sounds for Police, Fire car and ambulance.. For me that does not matter, because when I am driving on the road, I know I have to act immediately just to let them pass through..
The sounds always makes me creaps out as a driver.. But I really think it is NECESSARY to let them go through one side or another. Thanks for sharing. ❤

[SiGr]

Random Fact; The siren that we know as the "emergency service siren" was created by John Robison in 1799 in scotland and it has been adapated all around the world.

[biloaffe]

11:50 The "Martin's Horn" (siren), invented in Germany, is still used in Germany in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein! New York may soon be added to the mix. The shrill sound of police sirens gets on New York's nerves. A Europeanization is needed. The constant howling could soon be followed by the "Tatü-Tata" known in Germany.

[Pucky]

Italy was missing. The fire department there also has a distinctive siren. And the police always look perfect, their uniform flawless and their hairstyle and sunglasses always on point.

[CoL_Drake]

the horns used in germany belgian netherlands austria ... are very easy to locate for a driver as well as you can hear dirctly if it is coming at you, going side ways to ur location or going away from you because it sounds distinctly different. you can also estimate the distance it is away from you very easy, while at the same time the sound doesnt go to much to the sides and back so its less noise polution for the rest of the city.

[secondwalts]

In South Korea, ambulances turn on a siren in real emergency cases. No siren means no emergency.

[AHVENAN]

Interesting to see that Vietnam uses both Euro- and US-style fire trucks, that's the first time I've ever seen both types in one place

And regarding the one you said was dead quiet, it was probably going through a resedential area at night, at least here in Europe, emergency vehicles will usally run lights only, no sirens when going trhough residential areas at night, unless they absolutely have to run the sirens, they don't want to wake everyone up if not nescessary!

Kinda funny to see your reaction to a Mercedes fire truck, you might only be familiar with their road cars and race cars, but Mercedes either makes or at least has made pretty much anything with a minimum of four wheels and an engine, tractors, semi trucks etc....

[karin]

I am lucky living in the Netherlands how us people should react in traffic when emergency with alarm want to pass. In the Netherlands, if we don NOT react as we MUST do, the police can come around and you have to pay a lot of money...!!
Just like it should have been alk around the world..!! That is my opinion... have a nice day...❤

[PokhrajRoy.]

15:54 A semi-compact van is optimally designed to manoeuvre traffic and deal with narrower roads.

[crazyking]

You Must Look : Feuer und Flamme . It‘s a Doku Serie over the German Fire Department 🇩🇪🚒

[paulharvey]

There are normally red lights either side of fire stations in the UK, that require you to make an emergency stop when they flash - and to remain stationary until they stop flashing! This allows for the unimpeeded egress of fire engines from their stations. Those ambulance cars and motorcycles in Edinburgh carry senior paramedics to top-level emergencies, either as an advance party, or where assistance is required. In London, the Metropolitan Police have a river unit, with a number of boats of various types, based and working upon the River Thames.

[m]

Elantra is the North American name for Avante. There was a car produced under the name of Elantra but was discontinued in South Korea.

[eugene__eugene]

I know in some countries policecars drive with flashlights by default. They even keep flashing when they are parked on an intersection while there is NO emergency, just to "let people feel they are being watched, so they behave". Many times there is just a car with flashlights there without an officer...

If you (ab)use your emergency vehicle signals like that, the signals lose their significance. How do you expect people to know the difference between an emergency where they need to make way and a vehicle just rudely begging at everybody to be seen by using flashlights as christmas decoration

[robinwbarrett]

impressed by the surfboard strapped to the firetruck ladder in Honolulu 😂

[alwynemcintyre]

In Australia we use Toyota, Kia, VW & BMW sedans, SUV's and vans as police vehicles

[twinmama]

The Austrian, Belgian, Dutch, and German sirens use acoustic horns. There has been research on the topic of acoustic vs digital horns. The results favored acoustic horns as they are better identified by other road users and for longer distances. Both give other road users more time and room to get their vehicles out of the way and/or to stop which results in the emergency vehicles getting faster to their destination.
One downside to acoustic horns is their increased disturbance of other people but crews try to mitigate this by using the horns only when needed. In our town of 15k people, we have a voluntary fire brigade that has 1 to 2 dozen missions a month. Most are non-emergencies (e.g. cutting down a high tree after a storm has ravaged it). We have no police station but a depot for ambulances. They have dozens of missions every day and during the day you will hear sirens from time to time but drivers mostly don't use them at night as the streets are quite empty. Only when they want to force their right of way at a crossing or somebody's vehicle is blocking their way they will use the horn.

[woodenblaze]

As a French I can say we use the same horn as the Germans, not 100% identical but still mainly the same. Also some crazy fact for you to know: in Paris and all surrounding area, firefigters are linked to the military, yes they are soldiers AND firefighters and they live like in a true military base and must do one year of training like a regular infantry soldier before actually training like a firefighter, this is probably why Paris brigade is the third most efficient in the world. In addition to this, in Marseille, a city close to the sea in the south, firefighters are part of the navy, so same routine as in paris with additional specialised training for rescue in sea obviously. Also the reason why europeans use ladder trucks looking like a london bus with the ladder on their backs is because unlike in US our roads inside cities are not as big and wildly spread out, having a truck focus in lenght to move the truck will only result in being trapped in the endless circulation of cars so we do with the height instead to gain space and mobility in tiny streets