Why do emergency vehicles in America park on the shoulder with their wheels facing into traffic?

Question

In Europe, after a series of high profile accidents, including fatalities, it was determined to be safer to have the front wheels face away from the road. In the event that the vehicle is struck from the rear it will be propelled away from the traffic and the vehicle it is assisting/investigating.

Answer 1

Because they aren't as smart. Plus, the cops probably need to make a quick getaway if someone pulls a gun.

Answer 2

Its a generalization but not all American Emergency vehicles park with wheels facing out into traffic.

Normally -N- Texas the cops block the roads for incidents -that happen 'in' the roads.. I have only seen them place their wheels parallel to the emergency lane stripe...when positioned in the Emergency lane.

We have had a few cops taken out by drivers that pass too close to the police cruisers and emt service vehicles.

I have seen a few cops doing ticket patrol in the grass medians and their wheels and vehicles were aimed in the direction of traffic for faster accessibility.

Answer 3

I checked all over and cane up with nothing as to why this is done...

Answer 4

heck no where i live they park out in the middle of the road

Answer 5

Hmm...thats an interesting one...

I'm a Fire & Rescue volunteer in Australia and I know we don't do that...

The only people that actually block the road are usually police - and they block diagonally so if they're hit, they'll skew off the road...

Anyone else (including us) are parked parallel - or as we need to be (if it's a road accident, we sometimes park across the road too, inside the police barrier, to be close to it) - any fire or emergency off the road, we pull up on the correct side...and if we're on the road (say to get to a water supply) then we face the same way as traffic...

Answer 6

Not only to shine the car's lights on the car being pulled over, so they can be seen at all times, but also so that if the person tries to speed off and run from the cops, the cop has the automatic advantage in chasing that person and getting right out in to traffic.

Also serves as an imtimidation factor because when you see the cop car in both side and rear-view mirrors with flashing red/blue lights also, it makes people think twice about doing stupid things. From the drivers perspective, it looks like the cop has you covered from every angle that way.

If it became a problem with accidents here, I'm sure they would change the policies for pulling people over, or assisting people. If the cop is helping you in some way, then they are more likely to just pull up right behind you.

It's also expected that people will automatically get out of the way when emergency vehicles are doing their thing, and almost all people follow that. Accidents can happen, but it hasn't become a big problem as far as I know.

Answer 7

A vehicle hit from behind at  +70 mph doesn't become the problem.  The offending car is.

Texas law reads that, in the presence of an emergency vehicle, traffic must slow to 20 mph under the speed limit, or change to the outer lane.

Why don't they  do that in Europe?