First-responders deserve improved equipment, consideration from motorists

To the Editor: I have been a resident of Sussex County for the past 43 years and have seen it grow more and more each year. I have worked for many companies over the years and also worked as a duty wrecker for various towns, before my disability became too much for me to continue. I have seen a very big problem with our emergency departments within the last few years; this being the fact that they are only able to use blue lights to show they are emergency workers. The problem today is that our roads are so overloaded that it’s harming our ability to get these people to their buildings to pick up their gear, ambulances and fire trucks. Just today, I had to use my car to block an intersection to allow two emergency workers out into the intersection and onto the highway, as they were being blocked by oncoming traffic that would not yield to their warning lights. I had to force my way into oncoming traffic at risk to my own welfare; there is no reason for people to not allow emergency workers the right of way. As I learned very early in life, they may be going to your own family and you would not want to see your own family members waiting for help do to your own failure to yield to these men and women. I would ask that, somehow, laws need to be changed to allow these workers to have better lights and sirens to warn the public to get the hell out of the way; before it’s to late and someone dies, if they have not already. Our roads are over-loaded here in Vernon and many visitors do not even know what the blue lights are for. This has to change and I hope that my letter today may help to be the start. As a child, I had the unfortunate experience to watch as a young man died; the problem was that, at the time, our police departments did not carry any oxygen or very much first aid gear. Thanks to people in our communities back then who saw the need and changed this, most of our police cars are now equipped with emergency gear that has helped a great deal. Now there is a great need again and I know that if enough of our communities see that there is a problem again, they will find the ways to correct it before someone else dies. Timothy Rowett Highland Lakes