That's what I was always taught, but I also use common sense in regard to seeing how traffic is before doing anything. In other words if there is heavy traffic on my side of the road, and there is a wide open lane, or two, on the other side, there really is no reason to stop. The way I see it, the way folks are now days when it comes to driving the act of stopping in the middle of the road, or even off to the side, is more likely to cause problems, up to and including an accident, than not stopping ever would.
Now if I see the emergency vehicle is going to have to get around traffic in the other lane, or would otherwise need my side of the road in any way, then I will definitely get out of the way.
The only time I haven't practiced this is at a 5 way intersection in VA, about twenty years ago. I'm the only vehicle on the leg of the intersection where I am, and I'm setting at a red light. I'm in one of the middle lanes, and the road is 4 lanes wide. In front of me several of the other legs have green lights, and cars are moving through the intersection from each of them.
In other words I'm sitting still, with traffic moving around in front of me, and if I go forward, through the red light, I take a chance of getting hit. Given that I'm on a 4 lane road, with no cars on either side of me, there was plenty of room to go around me.
Now what happens is this female (((yes I looked, not trying to be stereotypical here )))) fire truck driver comes flying up right behind me siren blaring, slams on brakes, and comes to a complete stop. She then starts blowing the air horn to the point I'm surprised she had any pressure left in the air system. This left me with a choice, sit there, or roll out in the middle of the intersection, with cars still moving, and take a chance on getting hit. Needless to say I chose to sit right there. The idiot driving the fire truck sat right there too, blowing her horn at me, until the light changed. At that point I was actually able to pull safety into the intersection, and out from in front of her. She then proceeded to floor it, and go around me, and make a right turn onto one of the 5 legs, that would have made going around my right side a much better choice to begin with.
You have no idea how close I came to following that truck and giving the idiot female driving a royal butt chewing. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do that, nor did I think to get the number off the rig to call in with later.
What she did was about as wrong as she could do. She had ample room to go around me, but instead wanted to force me into an active intersection ahead of her. That is just wrong, and I was not about to put myself, and someone in another vehicle, at risk, because of her stupidity.
Beyond that, I always yield to emergency vehicles. Having seen what happened when my Mom got hit, as a pedestrian, years ago, I know for a fact that there are many times when seconds count. However, again, I am not going to knowingly put myself at risk because the driver of one of those emergency vehicles is an idiot. If anything happens as a result, it's on them, not on me......
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