7.3 Emergency Vehicles and Police Directions
Key Takeaways
- On hearing the siren of a Fire Brigade unit, an Ambulance, or a Police vehicle, pull to the left side of the road and STOP so the unit can pass.
- At night, also dim your lights when you give way to that emergency unit.
- You must observe the directions of Police controlling traffic and stop when required by Police in uniform.
- A member of the police force in uniform who is regulating traffic may require you to stop or to take a stated route or line; neglecting or refusing that direction is an offence under Cap. 51:02 section 53.
- A green light still yields to a constable engaged in the regulation of traffic; signal clearly which way you want to go when Police are controlling a junction.
Emergency sirens and Police in uniform
The Road Traffic Code places the emergency-siren instruction with the everyday driving rules that sit after rule 27 (care and the prescribed limit on the Demerara Harbour Bridge and the Canje Bridge) and before the signalling cluster. Rule 78 and Cap. 51:02 section 53 are the Police-direction pair. Light Signals Regulation 4(a) already said a green vehicular signal is still subject to the directions of any police constable engaged in the regulation of traffic. This section is independent study of that published cluster. It does not claim official approval or partnership with GPF.
Quick Answer: Hear the siren of a Fire Brigade unit, an Ambulance, or a Police vehicle: pull to the left and STOP so the unit can pass. At night, also dim your lights. Police in uniform who are controlling traffic must be obeyed: stop when required, take the route or line they direct, and signal clearly which way you want to go. A green light does not outrank a constable.
The siren instruction — three named services
The Code’s wording is short enough to memorise as a list. On hearing the siren of a unit of the Fire Brigade, an Ambulance, or a Police vehicle:
- Pull to the left side of the road; and
- STOP so as to allow the unit or vehicle to pass.
- At night, also dim your lights.
Those three names are the exam set. The instruction is not “any loud vehicle,” not a private car with a dashboard flasher, and not a minibus that is late. It is Fire Brigade, Ambulance, and Police, identified by the siren.
Left is the near side in Guyana’s left-hand traffic (rule 22). You do not pull right into the path the emergency unit needs, and you do not stop in the middle. You make a clear left-hand channel. If you are on a two-way East Bank road, left is the kerb, drain, or verge side — the same side you already occupy when you keep left. If you are in the off-side lane of a multi-lane hold-up, move left as far as you safely can, then stop; rule 39 still says keep in your own lane in a jam, but a siren is a reason to open the left for the unit, not a reason to swing right across oncoming traffic.
STOP means a completed halt, not a rolling crawl that stays in the unit’s way. Leave enough room that the Fire Brigade appliance, the ambulance, or the police vehicle can actually pass. Do not follow it as an escort. Do not overtake it. Do not use its gap as your own overtaking run through a crossing or a junction (rule 34 still bans overtaking at those places).
Dim your lights at night so you do not dazzle the emergency driver through the windscreen or the mirrors. The night-driving pages already require you to dip for meeting traffic and when you sit close behind another vehicle. The siren paragraph adds a named dip for the passing unit. High beams in the face of an ambulance crew on a dark East Coast road are the opposite of that instruction.
You still must not stop on a pedestrian crossing unless 189(4) applies (beyond your control, or necessary to avoid an accident). The lawful emergency halt is on the left, clear of the crossing marking if you can get clear. You still must not abandon the vehicle within 15 feet of a fire hydrant (rule 90(d)) as a parking choice; an emergency stop to let a Fire Brigade unit pass is a stop, not a parking place.
Surface-line rules already name the same three services. A vehicle being used for fire brigade, ambulance or police purposes is carved out of some continuous-line and yellow-line stopping prohibitions in Regulation 178. That exemption is for the emergency vehicle on duty, not for you copying its path across a continuous line because you want to “help” by chasing it.
Police controlling traffic — Rule 78 and section 53
Rule 78 is a MUST list. You MUST observe speed limits, traffic signs and signals, and the directions of Police controlling traffic, and stop when required by Police in uniform. You must also give precedence on pedestrian crossings (section 7.1). The uniform-and-control sentence is this section’s core.
Cap. 51:02 section 53 is the statute behind that Code line. Where any member of the police force in uniform is for the time being engaged in the regulation of traffic on a road — or where a lawful traffic sign regulates movement, route, or parking — any person driving or propelling a vehicle (or in charge of an animal) who:
- neglects or refuses to stop the vehicle or animal, or to make it proceed along any route or keep to a particular line of traffic, when directed to do so by that member in the execution of his duty; or
- fails to conform to the indication given by the sign,
shall be guilty of an offence.
Section 54 adds abnormal or extraordinary traffic: a member of the police force in uniform may give directions to relieve congestion or prevent obstruction, including parking of the vehicles in that traffic. Failure to comply is a summary fine of not less than GY$2,000 and not more than GY$5,000 in the Home Affairs text of the Act.
In uniform and engaged in the regulation of traffic are the words to keep. A constable directing vehicles at Stabroek, at a crash on the East Bank, at a school let-out, or on the approach to the Demerara Harbour Bridge is section 53. A person not in that role waving you through is rule 45 again: do not rely on an unauthorised go-ahead.
Rule 32: where Police are controlling traffic, signal clearly which way you want to go. The Theoretical Programme’s Regulation 180(b) is the hand-signal set aimed at the constable and at traffic in front:
- Straight ahead: raise the hand toward the shoulder and move the forearm well forward and then backwards in a vertical plane, pronounced enough for the constable to see.
- Turn left: point the hand to the left, or extend the near-side indicator.
- Turn right: right arm rigid horizontal, palm front, from the off side, or the off-side indicator.
A clear signal is not optional decoration. The rank cannot give you a safe proceed if you have not shown the intended movement.
Rule 50: when held up at a junction by Police or a light signal, do not “Filter” to the left unless you receive a definite signal to do so. A gap you like in the left is not a definite signal. Green means you may pass the stop line with due regard to others and subject to the constable (Light Signals Regulation 4(a)). If the rank holds you on green, you stay held. If the rank sends you on red, that direction is the one section 53 is about — not a private decision to “take the light.”
Putting sirens and ranks in one table
| What you perceive | What you do | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Siren of Fire Brigade, Ambulance, or Police | Pull left, STOP, let the unit pass | Road Traffic Code emergency-siren instruction |
| That siren at night | Also dim your lights | Same Code instruction |
| Police in uniform requiring a stop | Stop | Rule 78; Cap. 51:02 s.53(a) |
| Rank directs a route or line of traffic | Take that route or line | Cap. 51:02 s.53(a) |
| Lawful movement, route, or parking sign | Conform to the sign | Cap. 51:02 s.53(b) |
| Police control a junction | Signal clearly which way you want to go | Rule 32; Reg. 180(b) |
| Held by Police or lights; you want to slip left | Do not filter left without a definite signal | Rule 50 |
| Green lamp plus a holding constable | Obey the constable | Light Signals Reg. 4(a) |
| Unauthorised person waves you on | Do not rely on the wave | Rule 45 |
A Georgetown picture, then a country road
A Fire Brigade unit sounds on Regent Street at night. You pull to the left, stop, and dip. You do not sit on the pedestrian crossing. You do not swing right. When the unit has passed, you move off only when it is safe, still keeping left, still giving precedence on the next crossing.
A constable in uniform is on a country junction near New Amsterdam after a collision. Your vehicular signal is green. The rank holds your line and sends the cross traffic. You stay. You show a clear straight-ahead or turn signal when asked. You do not filter left around the rank. If an ambulance then sirens through the same junction, you are already stopped; stay stopped on the left until it passes, lights dimmed if it is night.
Do not treat a learner sitting as a choice between “lights or ranks.” The package teaches both. Do not treat a siren as permission to break 189, 189(4), or rule 34. The emergency unit gets the left-hand channel; other road users keep the rest of the Code. This independent chapter teaches those published emergency and police-direction topics; it does not replace the Road Traffic Code or Cap. 51:02.
On hearing the siren of a Fire Brigade unit, an Ambulance, or a Police vehicle, what does the Road Traffic Code require?
Under Road Traffic Code rule 78, whose traffic directions must you observe, and when must you stop?
Where a member of the police force in uniform is engaged in the regulation of traffic, Cap. 51:02 section 53 makes it an offence to do which of the following?