In the United States it is commonly taught and practiced that when you see an emergency vehicle coming from behind you with its lights and/or siren going, you slow down and pull off to the right-hand side of the road to allow the emergency vehicle to pass on the left.

Generally, this is not a problem, however, there is at least one instance where this is not ideal.

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> In a hilly area, or immediately following a left-turn, the driver does not notice the coming ambulance until it is close and quickly determines that it is too risky to cut all the way across the road from the left-hand side to the right-hand side before stopping. There is not much traffic, so there is still plenty of room for the emergency vehicle to pass.
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A very similar situation occurred for both my wife and myself. In both instances, the ambulance stopped directly behind us and honked until we moved to the right-hand side of the road in spite of the fact that there was ample room for them to pass.

Is there something in the policy for the drivers of emergency vehicles that simply prohibits them from passing traffic on any side but the left? I know in **extreme** circumstances, they can even carefully drive through oncoming traffic.

In a situation as mentioned above, should one simply cut across the road in front of the coming emergency vehicle?