• @Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      22 months ago

      Your honor…he hit me!

      Nuh-uh!

      Yeah huh!!!

      He started it!!!

      No I didn’t!!!

      Moooooom!!!

      Your mom has been dead for 32 years…you’re 81

      And I’m still bike riding the mean streets of NYC!

      Yeah, and getting billed for your bad driving.

      • ✺roguetrick✺
        link
        fedilink
        English
        32 months ago

        150 shots with a .22 to hit the branch. I’m amazed he didn’t hit the fucking eagle.

        • @Successful_Try543@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          2
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          150 shots to hit and cut the 4 inch (10 cm) of rope (I guess about 1/4 inch (6 mm) at least not more than 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick) between the eagle and the branch located 70 feet (20 m) above ground, so realistically 100 feet (30 m) distance with a rifle that is not his, i.e. without knowing the aiming point.

          • ✺roguetrick✺
            link
            fedilink
            English
            22 months ago

            He didn’t hit the rope but the branch. If he was shooting for the rope he really would’ve shot the eagle.

      • @asret@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        62 months ago

        That’s awesome! But as an outsider, the ambulance story still seems more “American” to me. There’s been a significant shift in how America is perceived here over the last 30 years.

  • @affiliate@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    29
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    they couldve gotten way more than $1,800 if they hit a few more cyclists on the way. theres plenty of room in the back of an ambulance

  • @loics2@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    172 months ago

    How the fuck is this “fuck cars” content? I hate cars as much as everyone here, but I don’t think we can replace ambulances with bikes

      • @Womdat10@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22 months ago

        The point of an ambulance is to get to the hospital as fast as possible, while have other people keeping the person stable. They also need to not leave the person exposed to all the various debris that is thrown up by fast moving vehicles. This is an awful idea.

    • @DrunkEngineer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      2
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      It is “fuck cars” content because 1. the lack of proper bike infrastructure is what led to the crash, and 2. making road victims have to hire lawyers just to get their medical bills paid.

  • @Pickle_Jr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    742 months ago

    Bikes: a transportation vehicle with health benefits. Ambulance: a transportation vehicle for the unwell.

    Bikes are the natural enemy of the ambulance. A war between the bike clan and the ambulance clan is on the horizon.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
      link
      fedilink
      English
      122 months ago

      Solution: Ambulance bikes.

      (A show like Top Gear but for bicycles could be pretty awesome.)

      • @BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        92 months ago

        It exists

        https://www.emergency-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NHS_bicycle.jpg

        It does not transport people but it is great for places with a lot of traffic to have a first responder on site quickly before an actual ambulance arrives.

        • @FireRetardant@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          42 months ago

          This seems great for large parks and pedestrianized areas. This bike can probably get to a patient a lot faster than an ambulance trying to fit down a walking path. They can start assesing and treating as other vehicles arrive.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
          link
          fedilink
          English
          32 months ago

          Nah, I could see it being pretty great. Reviews of new high performance bikes of all kinds, interesting challenges, builds. For instance, build and test something that will force cars to give you the legally required clearance.

          Heck, they could even do a Vietnam trip and go down the Ho Chi Minh trail, which is a famous example of the bicycle’s utility.

      • @Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        92 months ago

        A hypercompetent autocract whose only concern was the perfect management of his city was the only unrealistic thing about Discworld.

        • @turmacar@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          72 months ago

          It has to do with morphic wossname. On the Disc only one person gets to play City Skylines, but he gets to do it with infinite detail.

    • @grue@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      492 months ago

      My intention is definitely “fuck cars.” The fucked-up thing here is that even ambulance drivers, who should know better more so than almost anybody, are incompetently right-hooking cyclists. Billing him for it is merely the icing on the shit-cake.

      • NaibofTabr
        link
        fedilink
        English
        512 months ago

        A lot of EMTs work 24-hour shifts, and 48-hour shifts are not uncommon. The thought that the ambulance driver on the road next to me might be at hour 46 is… frequently worrying.

        The problem isn’t the EMTs being incompetent, the problem is with the industry standards and the employers.

        • Mayor Poopington
          link
          fedilink
          English
          142 months ago

          Exactly this. They transported someone, they filled out a PCR for billing to send to insurance and the patient.

        • @Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          10
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          I was forced to work a few 24+ hour shifts in healthcare and working on zero sleep fucked me up. It gave me migraines, vomiting, insomnia, manic depression and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.

          It is beyond cruel and inhumane that employers can force people to work without sleep. It is so fucked that not allowing someone to sleep is considered a form of torture by the Geneva convention.

      • @rbn@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        82 months ago

        So your alternative would be that ambulances should no longer use cars? From my perspective all kind of emergency services such as fire department, law enforcement, ambulances should be the very last cars we get rid of as a society. They have to be fast and they need to transport a lot of stuff and people.

          • @FireRetardant@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            102 months ago

            The rest of the world often also builds better infrastructure, like a protected bike lane, to signifcantly reduce the conflicts between cars and not cars.

            • @bstix@feddit.dk
              link
              fedilink
              English
              22 months ago

              A bike lane would’ve helped. If there wasn’t one, I can see a good reason for whatever the fuck really happened here.

              If there had been a bike lane, he could/would have stayed there behind the stopping line acknowledging the right of the ambulance to go first, but without one…I can see someone in panic trying to get out of the way and then getting run over regardless of where he was positioned.

              • @RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                42 months ago

                Youre ignoring the bike lanes are separate from the car lanes, which protects cyclists. But in the US the firedept doesn’t like that. Lanes need to be so wide and space so clear that the bikes have no space

                • @bstix@feddit.dk
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  12 months ago

                  I’m not sure I get what you’re saying, or what I’m missing.

                  I’m talking about the most basic kind of bike lane, which by all means is just a line on the tarmac. It does however ensure that the bike has a place to be, and that the bike will be visible to the cars, because the bike lane’s stopping line is further ahead than that of the cars. I also don’t know the exact situation from the article, but if the bike had been at the stopping line in this bike lane, it would never conflict with a right turning ambulance.

                  picture of bike lane

          • @antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            12 months ago

            The rest of the world does without GIANT and dangerous emergency vehicles for one.

            Could you show me those small and safe emergency vehicles that are used outside the USA? Because I’m outside the USA, I literally live near a firefighter station, and they’re all probably as big as US vehicles.

            • @grue@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              22 months ago

              and they’re all probably as big as US vehicles.

              Key word: “probably.” Which means you don’t actually know.

              Chances are, you’re mistaken. But hey, post a pic and we’ll compare. I’m betting it’ll end up like this, though.

            • @RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              3
              edit-2
              2 months ago

              Literally the video i shared explains everything down to the metrics? Why are you sealioning on the specific post that has your answer?

              And also because someone else discussed german firetrucks I know the sizes. German fire trucks are almost a full meter less wide than US ones. A german firetruck is only half a meter wider than a ford f450

              • @antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                22 months ago

                The video is half an hour long and I really don’t feel like watching it all to find out something that could be said in one or two paragraphs of text, so I ignored it at first. As I expected, the video deals with a bunch of more or less relevant topics that you or OP didn’t mention at all. It actually is a bit interesting, I’ve watched a part of it, and I do have to admit that US fire trucks are bigger than those where I live. The problem is that their deadliness is a consequence of several other factors, and only indirectly of their size. What you and OP decided not to do is to communicate that point with any nuance, and all that I could read from your comments is that, by some logic, getting hit by a 10-metre truck is much safer than getting hit by a 15-metre truck. OP complained about the driver “right-hooking” the cyclist, you just said the trucks are too big, do I really have to watch a half an hour video to understand why your comments don’t sound nonsensical?

                • @RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  22 months ago

                  I appreciate you digging in and trying to get what I was saying. Bit of a nightmare here to keep up with which arguments ive made in the thread above the reply, as people ask the same things over and over.

                  I did say that firetrucks have a huge say in what kind of infrastructure can be built, and how big it’s allowed to be. Segregated bikes lanes for example are mostly forbidden by firedepts who can’t reach them with their massive trucks. There are no right hooks on segregated bike lanes.

                  I get your point though, apologies!

          • @dankm@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            32 months ago

            Fun fact, many if not most of those ambulances are made in Canada, and not the USA.

          • @Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            2
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            Any vehicle large enough to carry the necessary equipment and people for emergency services is going to be dangerous to pedestrians. Not sure what you’re trying to prove here.

            In These Votes: People who failed elementary physics.

            • @grue@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              52 months ago

              No, you’re missing the point. It’s not about the emergency vehicle itself hitting pedestrians. It’s about the fact that having a very large vehicle, such as a ladder firetruck, as the “design vehicle” for the street forces engineers to design in a larger intersection turning radius, which increases regular cars’ speed through the intersection. That is what decreases pedestrian safety.

              See also: https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/design-controls/design-vehicle/

            • @RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              42 months ago

              Tell me youve never been in another country without telling me youve never been in another country.

              Ambulances and firetrucks in Europe and Asia are smaller than most american pickup trucks.

              • @Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                22 months ago

                Unless they have some sort of advanced materials science in other countries we don’t know about here in the US that makes them as light as cardboard, I’d bet my year’s salary you wouldn’t volunteer to let one hit you.

                And yes, I have been out of the US. Shall I tell you what we say about those who “assume” things over here?

              • @rbn@sopuli.xyz
                link
                fedilink
                English
                2
                edit-2
                2 months ago

                I agree that the US have way too many way too big trucks but this…

                Ambulances and firetrucks in Europe and Asia are smaller than most american pickup trucks.

                … is just wrong. I live in Germany and even small villages with only volunteer firefighters have full blown trucks way above 10 tons.

                Most fire departments have something like this:

                MAN TGM 18.330 Tank with 4,000 litres of water 18 tons total weight

                More specialized departments close to industrial facilities, airports can be also much bigger. This one is currently the biggest weighting 52 tons.

                • @RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  3
                  edit-2
                  2 months ago

                  Weight doesn’t matter in this context? US firetrucks are almost a meter wider than german ones. A german firetruck is only about half a meter wider than a Ford F450.

                  And also firetrucks in US are first responders, they go before ambulances for most emergencies.

                • @SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  62 months ago

                  Here in 'Murrica, they send something like in the second photo when grandma falls in the bathroom.

                  Yes, I’m exaggerating, but not by much. The truck in the first photo is smaller than the trucks my city fire department has. There’s a retirement community not far from where I live, and they send a ladder truck for medical emergencies there several times a week. I’m not really sure what use 4,000 liters of water would be when somebody is having a stroke.

                • @grue@lemmy.worldOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  5
                  edit-2
                  2 months ago

                  Most fire departments have something like this:

                  Okay, but look how short that is compared to the American equivalent:

                  More specialized departments close to industrial facilities, airports can be also much bigger. This one is currently the biggest weighting 52 tons.

                  Okay, but look how short that is compared to the American equivalent:

                  The longer the truck is, the larger the turning radius it needs at intersections. The larger the intersections are, the faster regular cars drive through them. The faster the cars drive, the less safe it is for everybody else.

                  Deciding how large a vehicle a street should accommodate is called choosing the design vehicle. You pick that, and then the whole street is designed around it.

                  Guess what: here in the US, we often send even trucks like the second one I pictured – the one that’s even longer than your “industrial facility and airport truck” – to residential neighborhoods. Fire departments want to own trucks like that and we just fuckin’ let them. And that’s why our neighborhood streets are too often designed like goddamned airport runways!


                  Edit: Oh, and by the way…

                  I agree that the US have way too many way too big trucks but this…

                  Ambulances and firetrucks in Europe and Asia are smaller than most american pickup trucks.

                  … is just wrong.

                  The MAN TGM 18.330 you cited has a wheelbase of 3,900/4,200/4,500 mm (source).

                  A Ford F-150 Super Crew with an 8’ bed and an F-250/F-350 Crew Cab with an 8’ bed, both of which are considered pretty typical American pickup trucks, have wheel bases of 163.7" (4158mm) and 176.0" (4470mm) respectively (source).

                  He’s playing a little fast and loose with the notion of “most,” but otherwise, no, he’s actually not wrong!

    • sp3ctr4l
      link
      fedilink
      English
      52 months ago

      I will always opt for a Lyft or Uber, unless I am actively dying from something that could kill me in 30 minutes or less, like a massive severed artery or something like that.

      They are just as fast, and if I start literally dying in the hospital waiting room, they will most likely pay attention.

      The only way it makes sense to take an ambulance to a hospital is if you literally have no other option, or if you are so seriously injured you’ve already lost consciousness or are mostly paralyzed.

      You can call an ambulance, paramedics arrive, stabilize you, and then refuse to get in the ambulance.

      This costs you nothing.

      Then you just bite on your wallet and take an Uber or Lyft, which costs 10 to 20 dollars.

      Get in the ambulance? 1 to 3 thousand dollars, for a shitty version of the care you’ll recieve in the hospital anyway, can’t avoid those costs.

  • madthumbs
    link
    fedilink
    English
    6
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    “Hoesch estimated to police that he was going 5 mph to 10 mph and said he didn’t think the ambulance was going to turn in front of him.”

    -So he’s illegally passing on the right at an intersection and making assumptions. -Wouldn’t have a case with me on jury.

      • madthumbs
        link
        fedilink
        English
        72 months ago

        This was in the US where they drive on the right making a right turn not ‘across traffic’. The picture at the article further shows the positions.

        • @grue@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          24
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          Okay, let me explain it to you: if there are two lanes going in the same direction, you are in the left one, and you turn right, you are turning across traffic (across the right lane going in the same direction as you). That’s what happened here. The fact that there was space to the right of the ambulance for the cyclist to be in means there were effectively two lanes.

          (And don’t try to claim there was only one lane: you conceded that point already when you claimed the cyclist was “illegally passing on the right.” Even an illegal pass doesn’t entitle the vehicle in the left lane to make a right turn across the other vehicle’s path! In order for this collision to be the cyclist’s fault, both vehicles would have had to be in the same lane to begin with, which means there wouldn’t be room for them to be side-by-side and the bike would have hit the back of the ambulance, not be struck by it from the side.)

          • madthumbs
            link
            fedilink
            English
            52 months ago

            The picture in the article clearly shows there’s only a right and left lane. There is no room for turning lanes. There’s also no space for a vehicle. Space for a bike doesn’t make it a lane.

            • @grue@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              25
              edit-2
              2 months ago

              What part of “you already conceded that point” did you not understand?

              But hey, you want to claim there was only one lane now? Fine. In that case, the cyclist was the vehicle lawfully occupying it and the ambulance must have swung wide to the left for some reason, out of the lane, and then back into it. Either way, it crossed the path of and collided with a vehicle in that lane. You are not entitled to deny this point.

              1. Cyclists are traffic.
              2. The ambulance was making a right turn.
              3. The ambulance hit the cyclist from the side.
              4. Therefore, the ambulance was turning across traffic, because no traffic means no cyclist to hit. QED.
      • @BogusCabbage@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        82 months ago

        Um what? From the article you posted

        “he and the ambulance were traveling the same direction”

        “The ambulance attempted to make a right turn onto another street”

        They were both traveling on the right side of the road of (based on the supplied pictures from the articles) a two way, single lane each way street, and the ambulance turned right and didn’t cross any traffic, thus the Ambulance didn’t make a illegal turn.

        The Ambulance should be at fault, and the Fire and Rescue should be covering charges as the ambulance driver wasn’t being well aware enough to make the turn, but at the same time Hoesch, The cyclists, also should have given way.

        I’m all for less cars on the road, but don’t go throwing information that isn’t true, please.

        • @thethirdobject@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          212 months ago

          if there is a cyclist on your right, it doesn’t matter if there are two lanes, you don’t cut their path: if they go straight, they have priority

        • @grue@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          252 months ago

          They were both traveling on the right side of the road of (based on the supplied pictures from the articles) a two way, single lane each way street, and the ambulance turned right and didn’t cross any traffic, thus the Ambulance didn’t make a illegal turn.

          Okay, I’ll try a second time to explain:

          The ambulance did cross traffic, by definition, because the bicycle was to the right of it and counts as traffic. In order for it to not cross traffic, it would have needed to start the turn from a position far enough to the right that there would have been no space for the cyclist to be in.

          Cyclists don’t purposefully cram themselves into tiny spaces between cars and curbs, you know. The only reason a cyclist would enter the space between the ambulance and the curb would be if the ambulance was waaaaaaay off to the left somewhere and left a huge (several foot wide) gap that invited him in, and that’s not something that is okay for a car about to make a right turn to do.


          Bottom line is, it is illegal to right-hook a cyclist. If you hit a cyclist while performing a right turn, you fucked up. Full stop, end of. I don’t understand why people are having difficulty understanding this concept!

        • @Pickle_Jr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          92 months ago

          If you were turning right, and there was a pedestrian in the crosswalk, would it be okay to hit the pedestrian?

          I think it would be fair to blame the infrastructure if we want. Bikes shouldn’t be exposed to right turning traffic. Clearly it’s a safety concern.

          Nevertheless, regardless if you’re turning left or right, you still need to yield to whatever is in your way. Just because you are making a right turn does not automatically grant you right of way.

  • @uis@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    132 months ago

    Meanwhile in Russia(and pretty much rest of Europe): citizems get full healthcare and even foreigners get some of it. For free.

    This is what happens if any foreigner for example breaks bone in Russia:

    1. Emergency, including emergency specialized, medical care is provided to foreign citizens in case of sickness, accident, trauma, poisining and other cases requireing emergency treatment. Such medical treatment provided by state and municipal healthcare organizations is free of charge.