Lotus Esprit in the neighborhood

In the past two days I have seen a silver Lotus Esprit three times. Always on the streets very close to my house so I have reasoned that it is someone who lives very close to me. The car has temp tags on it so someone just got it.
I have thought to myself, I need to find out who this is; I'd like to check it out.
I last saw the car this morning about 9:00.

Then, today, while on the crapper and surfing the local paper's website I see this teaser photo:

I can tell by the body lines that this is not a "regular" car. By the time I open the article, it hits me...

My guess is it wont be fixed. Bummer!

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/Fire-and-EMS/2015/10/16/Driver-injured-in-ambulance-crash.html?ci=stream&lp=6&p=1

Ouch!

nope. shes done

watch yer local copart. could be a nice donor

Those have carolla tail lights.

Reminds me of the time a douche in a T-top Z-28 tried to sneak up the inside as an 18-wheeler started around a turn. About the time the trailer was swinging sideways into his top, the light bulb finally went on in his head. Some pretty good damage for his antics. Wonder if this was similar

There's been a BRG Esprit zooming around my neighborhood over the last couple of weeks.

Glass always looks worse than metal when it's crashed. I can't tell from the pic if the A-pillar got crunched. If not, it'll be back on the road in two weeks.

So wait, the ambulance took a right turn from the left lane, in front of the Lotus? I mean, it's a big failure of defensive driving on the Lotus owner's part, but to be fair that is an insanely sh1theaded move even from an 'emergency vehicle operator'. I don't think anyone's job entitles them to be that much of a sh1thead on the road, especially when whatever you're doing is SO IMPORTANT that you can immediately stop your bashed company truck that you just wrecked in the middle of a busy intersection and wait for cops/reporters to come take pics of the accident you caused.

So the ambulance was PASSING the Lotus WHILE making a RIGHT HAND TURN? Hmmmm.... I could see where the driver of the car thought the ambulance was continuing straight since they were being passed at an intersection and slowed/pulled over only to have the ambulance turn into the car. I's bet if the car driver knew they were going to be cut off they would have stopped quicker.

Lol@the officer running a speed trap from the accident scene.

Edit-possibly measuring distance for accident report?

You'd have to see a video to really know what happened - everything else is speculation, for all we know the ambulance was swinging wide to get around other traffic - but I really don't see how anyone could defend the Lotus driver in this. If there is an emergency vehicle in sight with lights and sirens on, you should be on the right and stationary, period. And from the angle of that accident (notice there is no damage forward of the wheel well), it looks like the Lotus would have had to hit the ambulance, not the other way around. Nowhere in the news story does it say anything about the ambulance turning from the left lane either. And let's get real here; the driver probably just called for another ambulance after the accident. Most cities have more than one, y'know...the sentiment of "WHAT IS WITH THESE EMERGENCY VEHICLES THINKING THEY OWN THE ROAD" present in this thread is beyond laughable.

I deal with this every single day.

As Pointofdeparture mentioned, when an emergency vehicle is approaching you from behind, it is your responsibility to pull over to the right and stop. Not stop in the middle of the road. Not slow down to 15 mph. Pull to the right, and stop.

We pass through a major intersection all the time that has three lanes going north. The left hand lane is for left turns only and that light is frequently red when the other two lanes are green and empty. 90% of the time, the car in the left lane stays there, waiting for us to pass on the right. State law demands that we pass on the left at all times (because that car is expected to be moving to the right). We are forced to (cautiously) cross the yellow line to go through the the intersection, even if we are turning right.

We are required to do the same thing every time because other drivers are expected to do what they are supposed to do every time.

People need to understand the laws under which they operate their motor vehicles.

Just to be clear, I pull right and stop. Quicker than I would normally stop. But if it was to occur right at an intersection there's a grey area. At what point should I skid to avoid blocking a potential turn by the emergency vehicle passing me on my left? The emergency vehicle driver knows where they're going. Regular traffic has no idea where the E vehicle is going and with sirens blaring, lights flashing, checking rear view mirrors, cross traffic, etc. the regular driver isn't checking to see if the E vehicle has a turn signal on. Even if they use turn signals all the other flashing lights would distract attention.

As mentioned, need video to see if the car driver didn't try to pull & stop quickly.

Edit: Thinking about it, I've noticed the E vehicles here stop at the signal in whatever lane with lights flashing sirens blaring so all traffic comes to a halt before making a turn in either direction.

Woody wrote: I deal with this every single day. As Pointofdeparture mentioned, when an emergency vehicle is approaching you from behind, it is your responsibility to pull over to the right and stop. Not stop in the middle of the road. Not slow down to 15 mph. Pull to the right, and stop. We pass through a major intersection all the time that has three lanes going north. The left hand lane is for left turns only and that light is frequently red when the other two lanes are green and empty. 90% of the time, the car in the left lane stays there, waiting for us to pass on the right. State law demands that we pass on the left at all times (because that car is expected to be moving to the right). We are forced to (cautiously) cross the yellow line to go through the the intersection, even if we are turning right. We are required to do the same thing *every time* because other drivers are expected to do what they are supposed to do *every time*. People need to understand the laws under which they operate their motor vehicles.

I'd say "State Law/suit" is trying to usurp logic in that situation. Logically if you hear sirens while stopped, staying still costs the emergency vehicle less time than erratically moving across the obvious path. Lawsuit wise: "trying to do the right thing and got smushed" costs the state lots of money.

MrJoshua wrote: I'd say "State Law/suit" is trying to usurp logic in that situation. Logically if you hear sirens while stopped, staying still costs the emergency vehicle less time than erratically moving across the obvious path. Lawsuit wise: "trying to do the right thing and got smushed" costs the state lots of money.

Plus if the ambulance has to stop and hang around because it squished a Lotus, then it's not going to where it's needed.

In reply to NOT A TA:

We won't blow right through an intersection. We may not stop at a red light, but we make a point of slowing way down and crossing very carefully.

And I think that people would be very surprised at just how slowly firetrucks are actually moving most of the time. We have a second speedometer in front of the officer's seat so that I can't always keep track of how fast my driver is going. Even during a Priority One response, I rarely see it break 50. It's not easy to get these things moving quickly and a great deal of thought has to go into slowing down and cornering. The officer acts as a spotter the whole time. There's a lot going on in there.

If there is an emergency vehicle in sight with lights and sirens on

"In sight" is a big problem when operating in the blind spot of a Lotus and two lanes away from it, and sirens on doesn't guarantee being heard, considering there's no legal limit on the noise level INSIDE a car.

We can say "in a perfect world everyone notices an ambulance" in the same way we can say "I wouldn't be mad if somebody turned across my right of way and my rare/expensive enthusiast car got bashed" but if you bet me a million dollars on either one panning out, you'd be stupid.

It's a pretty simple case of someone doing something that objectively is crap and then writing them a blank check for it because of the job they hold. If I saw a dude pass me at 100 mph and I chased him down flashing my lights at him until he stopped or I could force him off the road, and then I physically dominated him (and every once in a while one of them dies.. whoops) and tied him up and put him in the back of my car and called my buddy to come snag his car and take it back to his place, we would face all kinds of charges, right? Reckless endangerment, assault, kidnapping, theft, etc. Unless we were cops and tow truck drivers. This is still BAD driving we're talking about here. It just happened to be being done by an ambulance driver.