Road Blockers: Drivers don't move over

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The Fort Wayne Fire Department came to NewsChannel 15 with a problem. Drivers don't always do what they should when firefighters are trying to get to an emergency call. That can create a very dangerous situation for both the responders and everyone else on the road.

"Almost every run we respond to there's something," Todd Korn, a battalion chief with the Fort Wayne Fire Department, said. "The biggest thing I see is they'll stop in the middle of the road and it ends up being an obstacle course trying to get through an intersection or down the road."

While people may learn in driver's education to pull over to the right when an emergency vehicle is coming down the road with lights and sirens going, NewsChannel 15 discovered that's not what many drivers do in the heat of the moment.

Over the last several months, we took our cameras out with emergency responders to see these road blockers first hand. It didn't take long to see people stopping in the middle of the road. One driver even started backing up with a fire truck right behind him. 

"They either slam on the brake or who knows what they'll do. Sometimes they go to the left thinking we'll go around them and then slam on the brakes. People don't think," Jim Berger, the Three Rivers Ambulance Authority spokesman, said.

Tonight at 6 p.m., in a NewsChannel 15 special report Road Blockers, see the problem up close. Plus, hear what emergency responders want you to do to prevent becoming a road blocker.