Emergency Vehicles

I MOVED to Philly in May and really like the city. One thing I'm amazed by is the complete lack of respect for emergency vehicles here. When I was growing up in Kansas, I learned that you get over as soon as you can in case you might be in the way. Apparently not the case here. Folks seem to think that so long as you are going in the same direction and there's a green light, you can just keep moving and let the emergency vehicles stay in the flow of traffic. I was riding home recently, going North on Broad, around South Street.

Some residents of Rockcress Drive in the Windrush townhouse development would rather be able to park their cars in front of their houses than provide a safe pathway for emergency vehicles. Even though the homes have garages and small driveway parking spots in front, some residents consider on-street parking a right, not a privilege. Many use their garages for household storage. Township officials say the narrow street is clogged with parked cars on nights and weekends, creating a potential danger for emergency vehicles.

Residents spoke, and City Council listened. Homeowners on Burholme Avenue attended Tuesday night's City Council meeting to protest a proposed ordinance that would permit parking only on the east side of the street. Most residents on the west side have driveways. Parking is now permitted on both sides of the street, and city officials said this hampers emergency vehicles. "There have been problems maneuvering emergency vehicles in the past, so the potential is there [for danger]

Two emergency vehicles were parked on the 100 block of North Swarthmore Avenue in Ridley Park while their crews were inside a house, tending to a woman who had a heart attack. The paramedics did not know another emergency was barreling their way. Before paramedics had a chance to transport the woman to the hospital Monday night, the Essington Fire Company ambulance and a jeep from Taylor Hospital became the last vehicles involved in a 10-vehicle, hit-and-run incident. "Our crew never even heard the crash.

Updated at 9 a.m . Tuesday A dead body in a car - and a note warning people not to come near - kept neighbors guessing and a street barricaded for hours Monday as emergency vehicles and personnel in white hazmat suits converged on a spot in Pennsbury Township, Chester County. Police said Tuesday they found potentially toxic chemicals in the car after a more than six-hour operation during which the body of a 30-year-old Kennett Square man was removd from the vehicle.

His name has been on movie marquees and film posters, but now Steven Spielberg will have a more permanent place on the city's landscape. The Los Angeles City Council voted yesterday to name a street in the suburb of Woodland Hills after the director. Spielberg is the latest celebrity to have a street named after him or her. There are already streets named for actors James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope, Edward Everett Horton, George Burns and Gracie Allen, city transportation officials said yesterday.

City Councilman Joseph Vignola wants to bring the cars back to South Street on warm spring nights, but neighbors say their sleep is more important. Vignola is working on a package of legislation for the popular downtown commercial strip. It would: Eliminate the barricades that now block motorists from South Street between 8th and Front after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays from March 1 to December. Eliminate parking on one side of the street to create a diamond lane for the exclusive use of buses, taxis and emergency vehicles.

I've never been known for my ability to be patient. I hate to wait in long lines at the grocery store. I get annoyed when it takes more than 10 minutes for the pharmacist to fill a prescription. I seethe if a phone call isn't returned right away. Blame it on the American lifestyle, the fast pace of technology washing into my very being, being a member of the Pepsi generation and its associated instant gratification ethos, watching too much TV as a kid - whatever. Well, I got a lesson in patience the other day. Two words pretty much sum it up: Schuylkill Expressway.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission yesterday announced measures designed to improve safety along the accident-plagued Northeast Extension, where seven people died in two chain-reaction collisions last year. State police at Plymouth Meeting and highway maintenance personnel have been ordered to equip emergency vehicles with new "Accident Ahead" signs in time for Memorial Day weekend. The plastic signs are to be erected at least one mile from an accident by the first vehicle on the scene.

It will cost at least $200,000 to repair damage to the Boardwalk caused this week when the driver of a 40-ton tractor-trailer apparently took a wrong turn, officials said yesterday. Angela D. Caldwell, 36, of Kingsport, Tenn., was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident, and operating a motor vehicle on the Boardwalk without a permit. She was released after posting $1,000 cash bail. Police said Caldwell apparently made a wrong turn Wednesday and entered the Boardwalk at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, but continued driving along the wooden walkway even after being hailed and stopped by a city employee.

Updated at 9 a.m . Tuesday A dead body in a car - and a note warning people not to come near - kept neighbors guessing and a street barricaded for hours Monday as emergency vehicles and personnel in white hazmat suits converged on a spot in Pennsbury Township, Chester County. Police said Tuesday they found potentially toxic chemicals in the car after a more than six-hour operation during which the body of a 30-year-old Kennett Square man was removd from the vehicle.

I MOVED to Philly in May and really like the city. One thing I'm amazed by is the complete lack of respect for emergency vehicles here. When I was growing up in Kansas, I learned that you get over as soon as you can in case you might be in the way. Apparently not the case here. Folks seem to think that so long as you are going in the same direction and there's a green light, you can just keep moving and let the emergency vehicles stay in the flow of traffic. I was riding home recently, going North on Broad, around South Street.

Nothing can change the fact that two years ago, during a Christmas parade here, Charlie Robinson, then 11, died. But laws can change. That is what Charlie's mother, Noreen Robinson, is banking on when the New Jersey Legislature takes up a bill introduced by State Sen. Martha W. Bark. Her bill would mandate that during the holiday season, emergency vehicles such as fire engines be escorted by a police car to cut down on accidents - the kind that killed Charlie. "I thought that it might be a very good idea that we would have a law in place for holiday celebrations," Bark said.

It will cost at least $200,000 to repair damage to the Boardwalk caused this week when the driver of a 40-ton tractor-trailer apparently took a wrong turn, officials said yesterday. Angela D. Caldwell, 36, of Kingsport, Tenn., was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident, and operating a motor vehicle on the Boardwalk without a permit. She was released after posting $1,000 cash bail. Police said Caldwell apparently made a wrong turn Wednesday and entered the Boardwalk at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, but continued driving along the wooden walkway even after being hailed and stopped by a city employee.

Residents spoke, and City Council listened. Homeowners on Burholme Avenue attended Tuesday night's City Council meeting to protest a proposed ordinance that would permit parking only on the east side of the street. Most residents on the west side have driveways. Parking is now permitted on both sides of the street, and city officials said this hampers emergency vehicles. "There have been problems maneuvering emergency vehicles in the past, so the potential is there [for danger]

Rural America is getting a new address, and some folks are not at all happy about it. Nearly everyone agrees that the goal - a better mapping system to help emergency vehicles find homes - is a good idea. But getting from here to there isn't easy. In some communities, the effort to impose urban efficiency is putting big strains on country tranquility. Neighbors are feuding over new names for little-used country roads. Street signs are being torn down by residents almost as soon as they go up. Some disgruntled homeowners are striking back by refusing to use new numbering systems.

Borough Council last night awarded bids for two emergency vehicles to the highest bidders - as opposed to the lowest - because officials said they best met the needs of the municipality. The council voted unanimously to purchase an aerial ladder fire truck from KME Fire Apparatus of Nesquehoning, Pa., for $539,000, and an ambulance from VIC Costantino Inc. of Berlin Borough for $99,916. While KME's bid was the higher of two received, officials said its vehicle best met the specifications outlined by Stratford Fire Company No. 1 for replacing a 27-year-old truck.

His name has been on movie marquees and film posters, but now Steven Spielberg will have a more permanent place on the city's landscape. The Los Angeles City Council voted yesterday to name a street in the suburb of Woodland Hills after the director. Spielberg is the latest celebrity to have a street named after him or her. There are already streets named for actors James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope, Edward Everett Horton, George Burns and Gracie Allen, city transportation officials said yesterday.

I've never been known for my ability to be patient. I hate to wait in long lines at the grocery store. I get annoyed when it takes more than 10 minutes for the pharmacist to fill a prescription. I seethe if a phone call isn't returned right away. Blame it on the American lifestyle, the fast pace of technology washing into my very being, being a member of the Pepsi generation and its associated instant gratification ethos, watching too much TV as a kid - whatever. Well, I got a lesson in patience the other day. Two words pretty much sum it up: Schuylkill Expressway.

The mailboxes that line Hephzibah Hill Road in East Fallowfield Township feature numbers that range from 200 to 400 and then back to 300, all in a span of less than 100 yards. Around each curve, it seems, the numbers could go up - or down. In addition to the number-jumping, some mailboxes still have rural-route designations, while others are grouped together, making it difficult to determine which goes with which house. In Chester County, though, the days of haphazard numbering are coming to an end. For several years, municipal officials have been working to make sure the numbers displayed on mailboxes and housefronts are clearly visible from the road, so that emergency vehicles can find them easily.