Safe emergency driving: rules and responsibilities

Blue flashing light and emergency siren give you the right to deviate from a number of traffic rules, but it is a misconception to think that emergency driving means that ordinary safety considerations are suspended. On the contrary, the law imposes stricter requirements on you as a driver precisely because the risk of this type of driving is higher.

§When may emergency response driving take place

According to traffic law emergency driving may only be carried out when deemed necessary for tasks such as rescue of persons fire prevention pollution accidents traffic accidents or to prevent other extensive damage. It is therefore the nature of the task and the degree of urgency—not convenience or habit—that justifies driving with emergency signals.

§Requirements for signalling

The Emergency Response Regulation states that emergency vehicles must be equipped with a blue light and an emergency signal that meet the requirements for the vehicle's design. As a general rule both must be used simultaneously during emergency driving so other road users can both see and hear that it is an emergency vehicle—this gives them the opportunity to react in time and give way.

• 01Blue flashing light and horn are basically used together, not separately
• 02The signals must alert other traffic users in good time, not at the last moment
• 03Exceptions exist for police vehicles for tactical reasons—this does not apply to ambulances.
• 04Missing use of signals does not relieve you of responsibility for an accident during emergency response

§The personal weighing at each junction

In practice, it means that as a driver, you must make a continuous assessment — at every junction, at every yield violation, at every overtaking: is the time you gain worth it in relation to the risk you take and expose others to? A second gained by pushing a traffic light is worth nothing if it costs a collision that delays you much more — and in the worst case injures you, the patient or other road users.

§Responsibility and practice go hand in hand

Emergency driving is not a fixed independent driving education in Denmark but is integrated as a part of the ambulance technician education. Precisely for this reason the education emphasizes repeated controlled training in special driving situations so you build up routine under safe conditions before you face the real time-pressured situation in traffic.

Good emergency driving is ultimately about holding two things in your head at the same time: the obligation to get there quickly, and the obligation to get there safely — for yourself, your partner, the patient and everyone else in traffic.

§Special situations require extra attention

Certain situations sharpen the requirement for your assessment further: crossings with poor visibility school routes road work slippery surfaces or darkness all give a higher risk even when you drive with full signal. In these cases it is often wiser to slow down significantly or stop completely at a red light rather than assume that other road users have spotted you in time. Experienced ambulance technicians often emphasize this very balance — between acting quickly and acting safely — as something that matures through practice and experience not something that can be learned exclusively from an instruction manual.

Finally it is worth remembering that a quick arrival is never the purpose in itself — the purpose is to arrive in a state where you and your partner can provide optimal treatment. An ambulance involved in a traffic accident on the way helps neither the patient you were heading towards nor any other patients the accident itself may create. Safe driving is therefore not a contradiction to quick help — it is the very prerequisite for it.