Cats-R-Us

Yesterday we had a call from a neighbour who needed to get to the emergency dept of the hospital 30km away. We had also done this for him a year ago when he thought he was having a heart attack (turns out it was a major gall bladder problem). We live inland and it is very country with not a lot of traffic until you get near a town but we had been told that, if necessary, you put on your hazard warning lights, fix something like a white handkerchief out of a window and just go for it - it is recognized that although you are not an ambulance, you are on an emergency run. Did it this time due to the severity of his problems and it seemed to work with vehicles slowing and pulling over for us. I did subsequently ask my husband if I could buy one of those lights you stick on your roof that flashes and he said a very load NO - think he is being mean. Serious though, can anyone confirm if this is in fact true or is it a local myth and may, or may not, work?

Fred James

Well, it seemed to work for you!

No you cannot put one on the roof and they are all blue lights now - recent change so that all emergency vehicles are the same.

Mark604

I'm sure that even though it might be accepted, it's not a defence if you fail to obey normal traffic rules. However, it must have been quite a surprise to see that it worked.

zilar

When i moved here to Madrid in the early 1970's , a private car or taxi with the horn blaring and a white handkerchief or towel being waved out of the window was practically the only emergency vehicle we had. There were very few ambulances and they were for people whose private health insurance included this service. Red Cross ambulances dealt mainly with road traffic accidents. I don't remember any vehicles being fined for breaking traffic regulations. In fact, they were usually waved through by the road traffic police. The system seemed to work, but then of course, there were fewer cars on the roads and they were slower, made even more so by the whole family piling into the Seat 600 to accompany the sufferer..

Fredbargate

In the past Gibraltar ambulances traveling with blue lights were often stopped and fined for the use of incorrect colour lights when taking emergency patients to hospitals in Spain