Shen. FD: Stop passing parking trucks
PHOTO COURTESY / RH&L - A Chevrolet SUV drives along the far sidewalk in oncoming lanes on North Main Street to avoid having to stop and wait for Shenandoah's Telesqurt 64-20 to park on April 18, 2021.
SHENANDOAH – It’s become almost a regular feature for the Facebook page of one fire company in town — security camera footage of an impatient driver crossing the double-yellow line to pass a parking fire truck, nearly striking it.
The Rescue Hook and Ladder Fire Co., Main and Coal Streets, posted at least two videos with two angles of impatient drivers risking a crash this year, and, today, the Columbia Hose Co. on West Centre has brought up the same concerns.
“Over the last couple weeks numerous apparatus with the Shenandoah Fire Dept. have almost been struck either backing into station or returning from calls due to impatient drivers. This happened again yesterday when our Engine was making a left turn into the parking lot of our firehouse,” the fire company wrote to their Facebook page. “A very impatient driver decided to pass on the left crossing a double line almost striking our apparatus. We ask all drivers to be patient.
The Columbia says a crash would put one of Shenandoah’s eight front-line trucks out of service “for an extended period of time and leave the community without a vital piece of equipment.”
On January 24, the “Hookies” posted a reminder from the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code regarding such actions.
“Emergency vehicles entering or leaving official garage. If an emergency vehicle is leaving or returning to its garage and the emergency lights of the emergency vehicle are engaged, the driver of an approaching vehicle shall stop and give the emergency vehicle the right-of-way to leave or enter the garage and may not proceed until the emergency vehicle is safely out of the driver’s path,” the fire co. wrote, quoting the vehicle code.
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