Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › RANT! ambulances/fire trucks with sirens on at 4am
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May 18, 2009 at 3:01 pm #590924
nuniMemberEarly this morning my husband and I were woken up by either fire trucks or ambulances driving right by our house with their sirens on. Is it really necessary to have the siren on at those hours?? And of course because it was hot we had the window open. I am sure anybody else that had their windows open at that hour got a wake up call as well. Aren’t there rules for this type of thing like unless there is traffic they should keep the siren off during these hours?!?!?! It was hell trying to get back to sleep and now I’m exhausted.
May 18, 2009 at 3:28 pm #666943
KBearParticipantIf they are responding to an emergency, yes it is necessary to have the sirens on. You think your sleep is more important than someone else’s medical or fire emergency?
May 18, 2009 at 3:39 pm #666944
beachdrivegirlParticipantI agree with KBear it is very necessary to have sirens on at any time of day/night in the case of an emergency.
May 18, 2009 at 3:44 pm #666945
datamuseParticipantAren’t there rules for this type of thing like unless there is traffic they should keep the siren off during these hours?!?!?!
No.
May 18, 2009 at 4:03 pm #666946
MrJTMemberNice try. little to no sympathy here.
May 18, 2009 at 4:15 pm #666947
flowerpetalMemberSome people are up at this time and heading out the door for work. Imagine pulling out of your driveway onto what is usually a quiet street and rushing down the street at 50 MPH is an aid car or a fire truck without its siren. That might be likely cause for a whole other set of emergency vehicles.
I am an easy-back-to-sleep kind of person and I sympathize with those who are challenged in that way. I get that you are frustrated Nuni, but really!
May 18, 2009 at 4:36 pm #666948
OlMomParticipantWelcome to life in the city.
May 18, 2009 at 4:51 pm #666949
nuniMemberFirst of all, the emergency vehicles were driving on a main road, not so much a residential street (heading up Sylvan Way).
Second of all, I was telling my story, didn’t mean to make it sound like I was trying to get sympathy which I was not. I was ranting about something.
Third, never did I say my sleep is more important than someone’s emergency. I am pretty sure that these vehicles can get to where they need to be without waking up the entire neighborhood before 4am. How about maybe turning their siren on when they see a vehicle in their way? Not having it on for the entire length of the trip.
May 18, 2009 at 4:59 pm #666950
JimmyGMemberEmergency vehicles when responding “code” are required by law and case law to have both visual and audible signals on (with very few exceptions).
And your needing sleep isn’t one of those exceptions.
May 18, 2009 at 5:02 pm #666951
nuniMemberOkay thank you JimmyG for that explanation.
The last sentence could have been omitted, but thanks for the first part.
May 18, 2009 at 5:03 pm #666952
swimcatMemberI agree with Nuni- I’m sure at that hour the sirens weren’t necessary for the duration of the trip. Maybe a portion of it, but not all of it (especially on Sylvan Way!). And if Nuni wants to complain about it, who cares? Most sleep deprived people can be a bit cranky. I know I can be.
May 18, 2009 at 5:22 pm #666953
KBearParticipantSince the emergency vehicles are going faster than the speed limit, and their drivers don’t know when someone might pull out of a driveway or around a blind corner, they need to warn them somehow. It’s absolutely necessary. Suggesting it’s not is like when people say, “Why didn’t the cop just shoot the bad guy in the leg? Why did he have to kill him?” BECAUSE IT’S AN EMERGENCY, FOLKS! There isn’t time to second-guess or develop a more neighborly protocol that won’t interrupt people’s sleep. When someone’s house is on fire, or they’re bleeding to death, I think the least we can do is put up with some sirens so that help can reach them quickly. How selfish to suggest otherwise!
May 18, 2009 at 5:23 pm #666954
guidosmomMemberI live right by nuni and if I had had my windows open I would be complaining too. Nothing worse than not being able to go back to sleep. Which reminds me – RANT to the raccoons who woke me up last Thursday night fighting.
May 18, 2009 at 5:24 pm #666955
JanSParticipantcome live in my neighborhood, near the intersection of Calif. Ave. SW and SW Admiral Way.We have sirens all night long. We’re near a fire sstation…it goes with the territory.
May 18, 2009 at 5:35 pm #666956
Dalamar437MemberI agree too, I think having sirens blaring at 3am in a quiet area is excessive. Totally understand if a major interesction is being entered or soemthing like this, but sounds to me like the emergency responders were just being inconsiderate. I think they take for granted sometimes how loud the sirens are.
If other people can be synical, stupid, and blow this post out of proportion then darn it, so can I! So let me see just how badly I can miss the point here….
I think Nuni’s sleep might be more imporant then someone else’s medical emergency. If you get jolted awake early in the morning you might have a heart attack and then they’ll just spawned another emgency with their excessive noise. If you don’t sleep they might fall asleep while driving and cause a bad accident on the freeway.
But lets just cut the crap, I think that everyone should just die if they have an emergency between the hours of 10pm and 8am. I’m sure the medical people would much rather sleep themselves at those hours anyway. Besides according to some recent statistics there is only a 57% chance an emergency response team will make it to you before you die anyway.
May 18, 2009 at 6:02 pm #666957
christopherboffoliParticipantnuni:
Though this won’t bring you immediate relief, I thought you might be interested to know that science is at work trying to remedy the type of issue you are describing.
Just in the way light can be focused in only one direction, sound engineers have recently made some breakthroughs in focusing sound in a single direction or in a narrow beam. In the very near future we may have ambulances with sirens that are directed only in the direction in which they are traveling. Even with their sirens blaring they would be absolutely silent from the sides and back. Or imagine how nice it will be when noisy neighbors can fine tune their thundering home theater system so that only they can hear it and no one else.
This link will take you to a remarkable demonstration of “aiming” sound at a recent TED conference:
The inventor is Woody Norris, former director of the Engineering Experiment Station at the University of Washington. Actually, I think this technology came out of military research for non-lethal weapons in the form of directed sound beams for crowd control. But his technology is already on the market. I expect you’ll see a lot more of it very soon.
May 18, 2009 at 6:04 pm #666958
KBearParticipantIt’s one thing to rant about being mistreated in a personal or business transaction. But complaining that you were inconvenienced while someone else was having a serious emergency is callous and selfish.
May 18, 2009 at 6:10 pm #666959
KBearParticipant“Or imagine how nice it will be when noisy neighbors can fine tune their thundering home theater system so that only they can hear it and no one else”
My neighbors wouldn’t make use of that feature. In their minds, it would defeat the purpose of having a thundering home theater system.
May 18, 2009 at 6:12 pm #666960
nuniMemberchristopher, that is amazing! Thanks for sharing that. :)
KBear – Thank you for you opinion, it has been noted.
May 18, 2009 at 6:30 pm #666961
TrickParticipantI sometimes come home from work at 4am, and sometimes I do wish the sirens were on when I’m heading down 35th. A few times I’ve had SPD scream past me without sirens, and it’s quite startling.
You’d be surprised at the traffic at that time in the morning. Not heavy, but fairly traveled.
I always think, that if it were myself, family member or neighbor, I’d could lose a couple hours of sleep for their life altering emergency.
May 18, 2009 at 6:48 pm #666962
Dalamar437MemberIt’s one thing to completely misinterpret a person’s point. But interpreting that someone’s annoyance with loud noises from an emergency vehicle is in any way connected to someone being callous and selfish is just blowing things way out of proportion.
I just find the assumptions made and negative filters applied in response to this rant amusing. I don’t think any of this post is remotely trying to say, “how dare you have a real emergency!” or “the nerve that you’d be suffering at the expense of my sleep!”
People can have their emergencies and hopefully get help. People can also be upset that the emergencies vehicles made it known to probably hundreds of others trying to sleep.
May 18, 2009 at 7:03 pm #666963
KBearParticipantShe has every right to be annoyed with the noise, but she doesn’t seem to understand that it’s a necessary annoyance. To suggest that the sirens not be used while she’s trying to sleep is a disregard for public safety. To me, that’s selfish. I think several other posters agreed.
May 18, 2009 at 7:31 pm #666964
Dalamar437MemberWell I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion. I disagree that it’s a “necessary annoyance” in this specific circumstance.
Ultimately I think everyone is responsible for being alert and aware of their own surroundings. I don’t think it’s the responsibility for an emergency response team, especially in the middle of the night.
I would hope that if I had a medical emergency at 3 am, the emergency services would leave their all their lights on. Maybe even make some noise necessary in intersections and possibly alert moving cars in busy areas within reason for public safety. People can drive and be deaf but I’d hope they don’t drive while blind.
I would hope they do not wake up 500 people in a residential area on my account. To me THAT is selfish and excessive.
May 18, 2009 at 7:32 pm #666965
WSBKeymasterHere’s a perspective I don’t think anyone else will have.
I’m glad for sirens in the middle of the night because I’m up working till 4, 5 am and hearing sirens in the distance (or closer) is usually the first cue I should check the online 911 log again or turn the scanner up a little louder to make sure it’s not something big. We are atop a hill so we hear EVERYTHING, even the train noise from Harbor Island, which is over a hill and four-five miles away.
It’s all relative. I’m looking up official regulations, though, since I’m sure this is one of those “Answer Person” questions somebody has asked in a column someplace somewhere.
May 19, 2009 at 1:22 am #666966
aunteesocialParticipantI’m all for perspectives– here are a couple more.
Imagine that you are with someone in distress- you can tell them that help is coming, but for the person in need to hear the sirens may help them to know someone will soon be there to care for them.
Or, irreverently, what if you are sick/injured and the ambulance is coming— it may feel satisfying to get back at the neighbor with that obnoxious home theater system by waking them up at 4am with sirens!
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