beeping horn as well as sirens

[240Cup]

When did this all start then and what is behind it?

Seen no end of this on various intercepters and paramedic documentaries - seems to be a fairly recent thing but surely better for them to keep their hands on the wheel and concentrate on piloting the thing than constantly beeping away? Are the sirens not good enough?

Not knocking 'em, just curious!

[Carnage]

240Cup said:

When did this all start then and what is behind it?

Seen no end of this on various intercepters and paramedic documentaries - seems to be a fairly recent thing but surely better for them to keep their hands on the wheel and concentrate on piloting the thing than constantly beeping away? Are the sirens not good enough?

Not knocking 'em, just curious!

Changes the tones on the sirens.

Also, sometimes more effective than sirens as people are more tuned into the noise of a horn.

[magpie215]

Iirc a horn press changes the tones

[DailyHack]

magpie215 said:

Iirc a horn press changes the tones

Yep, this is correct, simple tone/siren change if you hit the horn, different road scenarios (hitting traffic/road lights) etc

[Sebring440]

240Cup said:

surely better for them to keep their hands on the wheel and concentrate on piloting the thing than constantly beeping away?

240Cup said:

Not knocking 'em, just curious!

Not knocking 'em...?

[Haltamer]

As has been said, seems to be the mode of choice for engaging / switching siren tone in the UK.

Ambuchannel 112 did an ambulance tour of a Dutch ambulence, there the tone change was linked to a foot switch on the dead pedal / footrest, which seemed like a good idea. (On an auto)

[carreauchompeur]

As stated, the beeping changes the tone... shorter tones more effective at junctions.

On emergency response runs I use the bullhorn quite a lot. It’s useful as a directional aid to focus the minds of car drivers who clearly haven’t seen me, particularly side on. Helps them work out where the noise is coming from.

[GC8]

Sirens have two components: an amplifier and a PA horn.

Most amplifiers use horn button input to scroll through horn tones.

This was very silly.

[Tommo87]

Sebring440 said:

Not knocking 'em...?

That's exactly what I thought.

[240Cup]

Thanks for the replies, no not knocking them just wondered if there was a good reason for taking hands off the wheel in a response call and clearly there is so all is well with the world before you all get the pitchforks out.

Not so convinced about the Skoda Octavia Estate paramedic car pilot who came blatting off a roundabout at many leptons on blues and sirens and found time to wave at the ambulance just in front of me .... lol

[echazfraz]

240Cup said:

Thanks for the replies, no not knocking them just wondered if there was a good reason for taking hands off the wheel in a response call and clearly there is so all is well with the world before you all get the pitchforks out.

Not so convinced about the Skoda Octavia Estate paramedic car pilot who came blatting off a roundabout at many leptons on blues and sirens and found time to wave at the ambulance just in front of me .... lol

Aren't most horn "buttons" these days on the wheel anyway, as part of the airbag assembly? So no need to remove hands from wheel for horn?

[Sheepshanks]

240Cup said:

Not so convinced about the Skoda Octavia Estate paramedic car pilot who came blatting off a roundabout at many leptons on blues and sirens and found time to wave at the ambulance just in front of me .... lol

I'm always amazed watching those ambulance programmes how they drive along on blue and twos chatting and joking to each other. The passenger rarely seems to help at junctions etc either.

[LukeSi]

Sheepshanks said:

I'm always amazed watching those ambulance programmes how they drive along on blue and twos chatting and joking to each other. The passenger rarely seems to help at junctions etc either.

I'd imagine that is down to it being the responsibility of the driver to ensure it is safe. If they relied on the passenger and the passenger missed something it could cause a potentially dangerous situation.

[the tribester]

240Cup said:

Thanks for the replies, no not knocking them just wondered if there was a good reason for taking hands off the wheel

Don't need to take their hands off the wheel, just need to extend a thumb to the horn button.

[LosingGrip]

Sheepshanks said:

I'm always amazed watching those ambulance programmes how they drive along on blue and twos chatting and joking to each other. The passenger rarely seems to help at junctions etc either.

It soon becomes ‘normal’ to drive at high speed. Even being a passenger doing 90 down roads trying to eat your dinner whilst it’s still hot!

It’s down to the driver to decide if it’s safe to go. If I rely on my passenger and crash it’s my fault still.

[Sheepshanks]

LosingGrip said:

Sheepshanks said:

I'm always amazed watching those ambulance programmes how they drive along on blue and twos chatting and joking to each other. The passenger rarely seems to help at junctions etc either.

It soon becomes ‘normal’ to drive at high speed. Even being a passenger doing 90 down roads trying to eat your dinner whilst it’s still hot!

It’s down to the driver to decide if it’s safe to go. If I rely on my passenger and crash it’s my fault still.

It's the chatting and joking that was the main thing. The passenger does help sometimes.

They're also not going fast - I can't recall seeing one on TV where they've been doing anything other than breezing along.

I just think it looks bad that they're not more focussed on drivng - I'm surprised it's broadcast.

[carreauchompeur]

I do admit to being less than impressed at an ambulance driver doing about 85 in Lane 3 on a motorway response run recently, no other traffic on the motorway. Having approached around 140mph in a cop car responding to, presumably, the same job. Wouldn’t move over.

We ended up having to both carefully undertake him. I get that we’re probably going to the same job but you won’t be able to treat your casualties on an open motorway! We are going to travel quicker than your van...