“Do not hesitate… make way immediately” calls for pedestrians to stop when crossing emergency vehicles

The “Don’t Hesitate… Make Way Immediately” campaign launched by the Abu Dhabi Police General Command and the Abu Dhabi Civil Defense Authority, in cooperation with the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, and Abu Dhabi Transport, called for pedestrians to stop when crossing emergency vehicles.

Those in charge of the campaign stated that the seventh advisory that it recently launched is directed this time to pedestrians, stressing that adherence to safety instructions while passing emergency vehicles is not limited to drivers only, but includes all road users.

The new guidance stipulates that pedestrians must stop when crossing emergency vehicles, remain on the sidewalks or sides, and not attempt to cross the road until the vehicle has passed safely, while paying close attention to the traffic around them.

The “Don’t Hesitate… Give Way Immediately” campaign for emergency vehicles continues to employ multilingual systems to deliver awareness messages and address various members of society, with the aim of enhancing the culture of positive and immediate response among drivers, establishing the concept of responsible driving, and raising community awareness of the importance of making way for emergency vehicles, ensuring their arrival to accident sites in the quickest time to save lives and property on the roads of Abu Dhabi, the safest city in the world.

The campaign stressed that the aim of the new guidance is to promote a culture of safety and shared responsibility, and to ensure that ambulances, civil defense and police vehicles reach reporting sites without any human or traffic obstacles, in order to preserve lives and respond quickly to emergency situations. She stressed that conscious pedestrian behavior contributes to saving lives, just as a committed driver does, calling on everyone to fully cooperate with the relevant authorities while operating emergency sirens or warning signals.

Abu Dhabi Police previously identified 6 guidelines within the campaign, which are:

On the main roads:
Emergency vehicles use the left lane on main roads and drivers must give way to them by moving to the right lane as soon as they approach.

When crowded:
It is necessary to strictly adhere to not using the shoulder of the road in order to use it for emergency vehicles.

On internal roads:
Drivers must give way to emergency vehicles while they are moving by moving right and left between vehicles on internal roads that do not have a shoulder.

At road intersections:
Vehicles on side roads with a green light must stop completely and wait until emergency vehicles cross, which may cross the red light. They usually stop for a moment and then continue moving with caution.

In squares and roundabouts:
Emergency vehicles enter roundabouts with caution and then make their way. When other cars are seen, they must give way to them by not entering the roundabout and giving them priority.
Cars inside the roundabout continue to move forward, with the road widening to the right at the first opportunity.

On dual-lane roads with one lane:
Emergency vehicles make their way between the cars in the middle of the road, and the other cars ahead of them must move to the far right without leaving the shoulder of the road, and the cars opposite them in the opposite lane must move to the far right to make room for them.
The campaign called on drivers to interact with the campaign’s literature and values ​​to be an established behavior in our society, including that every second in emergency situations is important to respond to a traffic accident, fire, or ambulance for a sick person, and that the sound of the siren may be just a normal sound for some drivers, but it is a sound of hope for others that help will arrive, and therefore the driver must be more aware of not hesitating and making the decision to move immediately and clear the way.