It is a Law in Germany to open a lane when the traffic builds up on the Autobahn (also watch, why Wal-Mart failed in Germany with Insider Infos) ua-cam.com/video/dLGxt6SoR5M/v-deo.html
@@HarbaroX Whenever traffic slows down significantly or stops completely, you are obligated to form the rescue corridor. If you wait until you hear sirens, it's too late.
"How does that lane get formed before the truck even was here?" It's simple: There is a rule in our driving rules. If a traffic jam is forming, the cars on the left most lane have to park on the left side and all other lanes need to park on the right side, resulting in opening an emergency lane for emergency vehicles. But I also have to say, that it often happens that this rule is forgotten or ignored or that someone stupid uses the emergency lane to make progress.
to clarify: it is not only some rule, but a real LAW, and there are penalties for not creating that emergency lane or misusing the lane, although it is often too difficult or not possible (because the emergency is more important) to give tickets to all those stupid drivers who ignore the law. there is also a discussion whether cameras should be allowed to record the approach and later give tickets by mail, but currently too many people seem to object _because of data protection concerns_ when every car on the road would be recorded, stored, and only a while later be deleted again.
Because that's a lane for broken down cars. Imagine a truck with a popped tire pulls over and then an accident happens somewhere ahead.@@Spido68_the_spectator
@@Spido68_the_spectator I had thought about it too. and answered my question like this. if you were to use the sidebar. would be at every entrance and every bridge section. an obstructing car that stands in the way. like the silver car in the video
Each village in Germany has its own volunteer firestation. As of December 31, 2021, 1,014,155 people were active in the volunteer fire departments in Germany. 35,875 people worked in the professional fire departments. The youth fire brigades had 301,309 members. I have been a firefighter for 32 years. The nearest professional fire department is 50 km away. The training of the professional fire brigade and the voluntary fire brigade is identical. We have to accomplish our missions alone.
Volunteer firestations are such a great invention, I live in switzerland and I‘m planning on volunteering. It‘s a great way to not have to pay full time firefighters but still have enough people in case of an emergency
@@Amrin-05 Yes, I have been to fires with 600 fire fighters. This would be impossible to finance in rural areas. You would either have to pay for people you only need ones a year or you would not have enough people when it matters the most.
I try to push my father in law to install a volunteer fire department in his village in Uganda. They have bars at the windows, often cooking with coal or gas bottles. They are loosing people and property, since normal people cannot solve issues. Our volunteer fire departments in Germany are an national treasure of organisation and commitment for all of us.
@@AkselGAL Aksel wenn du das wirklich vorhast und hilfe mit Materialspenden und koordination brauchst, melde dich bitte bei der Deutschen Feuerwehrhilfe oder der deutschen Rettungsdiensthilfte (bei letzterer verweise bitte auf Robin). Wir versuchen immer verschiedenste Hilfsprojekte aufzubauen und haben die nötigen Kontakte um an Equipment, Fahrzeuge und Ausbildungsmaterial bzw Kurse zu kommen.
Hi Ryan, happy new Year! We learn in driving school to always open an "emergency lane" in case of a traffic jam on the Autobahn. It is illegal to use this lane to your own advantage, if you block emergency vehicles you get fined and they can take your license for some weeks. Our volunteer Fire Fighters are the Backbone of the emergency response system in Germany, they are well equipt and trained.
that was a cluster-f to implement in austria. people were too eager to be closest to the accident, and did not want to form an emergency lane. my take on it was: when the speed slows down because of something, I moved to a lane that was not dedicated emergency lane, so whatever happens, I'm not on the emergency lane.
The captions were more than "off", because the guys were talking in their local & very strong, Bavarian dialect. No chance to auto-translate that. ;) The volunteer fire brigades are basically equipped & trained identically to the professional firefighters, it is just that they spend their time off work to train. The "rescue lane" has to be formed whenever there is a serious traffic jam on any Autobahn, that's the reason why it was there before the fire truck. German firetrucks turn on the siren only when absolutely necessary, i.e. in congested roads or near crossroads. It makes no sense to annoy everybody when there is no need for it. The blue light signal on the truck's roof grants them special rights in traffic, which were used here, too: the entry to the Autobahn was NOT the regular one, and no car was allowed to drive there (Noticed the sign on the right side of the road at 5:16 ?).
From what I was hearing they were waitung for people with certified training to arrive. F.i. 'Atemschutz' so they seem to need two people who can use the SCBA. And since they know the people arriving they know who can do what. Also each knows their assignments. Otherwise: Volunteer firepeople (yes, many women also) get support from the gov in case they miss work. Someone with more insight will explain in detail. They are also allowed slightly more leeway. F.i. they have blue 'Feuerwehr' stickers on their cars and will flash their warnings when en route to the station. Unsure what laws they are allowed to (un)officially violate. Let's just say that unless they themselves become a danger, no one complains. Also they are insured and get help just like the pros.
I am a Firefighter in Germany and the thing with turning the siren only on when needed, ie crossroads etc, is wrong. The StVO §35 & §38 regulates that in an emergency the light and the siren have to be turned on otherwise the firetruck or any other kind of emergencyservice do not have special rights in traffic. Also if an accident during the drive occurs and the siren was off the dirver takes full responsibility and has to pay in full, if the light and siren where on the insurance takes the cost. The light and siren are only allowed to be turned off during the travel if the control center ordered it. At the place of the emergency the siren gets turned off but the light stays on to warn others and "secure" the spot. Drivers tend to turn off the siren during travel to not disturb others when its not needed but its not code and should not be done. Its the most German thing ever: Everything stays on because of insurance, but it makes sense and I dont think the 20 sekond disturbance is something to complain about.
@@4-anarchy321 There is no need to have the siren on when on a nearly empty rural road or at night. You then also don't need special rights. You can always turn it on when you want to run a red light.
@@4-anarchy321 Das Fw-Fahrzeug hatte sein Martinshorn zeitweise abgeschaltet in dem Video um das es hier geht. Das hat den US-UA-camr verwundert, weil er das aus den USA nicht kennt. Ich habe lediglich die tatsächliche Praxis beschrieben, wie man sie ja im Video auch sieht & hört. Die StVO zu zitieren, die Niemand in Frage gestellt hat, ist m.E. so richtig deutsch... 🤪 Nichts für ungut, Fw-Kamerad.
In addition the reason the sirens were off was that the commander could talk with the people inside the fire engine and/or talk with the dispatch. Also in certain states, like Bavaria, they still use 'air-raid' style sirens to call all firefighters in. You cannot overhear them (you can even hear them in neighbouring villages) so basically *everyone* knows what is going down.
That's not amazing, that's civil sense. That's you actually caring for people with more than thoughts and prayers. That's being good because someday you may need others to be good to you.
... but Germans are not all good people by themselves - otherwise this behavior wouldn't need a law ;-) In my youth the Emergency Alley was nowhere to be seen. It's all about good traffic education. That's why our driving licence costs somewhere north of 2000€
@@boxonothing4087it also has to be a law so that all the people do the same. otherwise you will have people tying to clear the right lane or the left lane and it will be chaos.
for explanation: they turn off the sirens if the road is free and there are no intersections so they don't annoy everyone... once they get close to an problematic part of the road or intersection where more attention is required they turn it on... or if someone is sleeping on the road and driving too slow or not make way... oh and by the way this lane has to be formed by law - otherwise it's getting more and more expensive... saves lives to make this emergency lane... and those idiots not making the lane can't pay enough as it make help arrive too late and someone dies...
Here is what I could understand of their conversation: (timestamps are refering to your video) 1:46 - 2:10 discussing about the respiratory protection (Atemschutz) 2:10 „Hol mal Atemschutz!“ (Get a respiratory protection) 2:23 „??? hat Atemschutz“ (??? has got a respiratory protection) 2:29 „...Gerät zum absperren“ (... device for locking) 2:36 „Atemschutz!“(respiratory protection!) 4:03 „Alex, gibst du mir die Kamera mal.“ (Alex can you hand me the camera) 4:40 „Eh, so wie's ausschaut is des auf der zwoten Spur“ (It looks like it is on the second lane.) 4:44 „Des is dann halt a bissel beschi**en“ (That is a little shi**y) 4:49 „... die dritte und die zwote Spur dann ... sperren. Wenn's wirklich so der Flall sein sollte.“ (the third and the second lane have to be locked. If that's really the case.) German rock music starts... I can tell, that they all have a bavarian accent so it probably happens in bavaria.
Mentioned in a different thread, but I presume the 'Atemschutz' ment they were waiting for firepeople with SCBA (Atemschutzausrüstung) training so they can go.
Hey there! Just wanted to share a quick tidbit about driving in Germany, especially on the Autobahn. In case you find yourself in a traffic jam, it's crucial to make way for emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire trucks, and the police. In Germany, it's a legal requirement to create a path for them to pass through, even if it means squeezing to the side. This is not just a courtesy; it's a crucial safety measure. Failure to yield to emergency vehicles can result in fines and penalties. Here are some possible consequences: Traffic Violation Fine: Ignoring the rule to yield for emergency vehicles on the Autobahn can lead to a traffic violation ticket. The amount can vary, but fines are generally enforced. Points on Driving Record: In addition to the fine, you might accumulate points on your driving record. Too many points can lead to further consequences, including license suspension. Driving Ban: In extreme cases, repeated offenses or severe violations may result in a temporary or permanent driving ban. Legal Consequences: In the event of an accident or injury caused by failure to yield for emergency vehicles, legal consequences may follow, potentially leading to more severe penalties. Remember, it's not just about avoiding fines; it's about ensuring the safety of everyone on the road, including those in need of urgent assistance. So, whenever you encounter a traffic jam on the Autobahn, be sure to move aside promptly and let those flashing lights pass through. Drive safe!
if it would just work like that. Sadly its not to rare that not all follow these rules. But legally you are completely right and most of drivers act accordingly
@@bananenmusli2769 I don't think the text was created with ChatGPT. What it says is mandatory knowledge for every driver in Germany. If formulations were used that were unusual for a native speaker, then a maximum of one translation program was used! In terms of content, however, it is part of the general knowledge of most drivers in Germany.
@@The_Panther Hi; but, at least, 95% or more follow... in the USA, the land of fredom, they have the freedom to not care about anyone else...caring about other people is 'the thin edge of the socialist wedge"
Another VFD dude from Germany here. Scenes like this warm my heart. On the whole, things have gotten so much better over the past few years. People seem to finally grasp the concept of the rescue lane. Just today I saw one driver really do us a solid by thinking on his feet. On one motorway here there is a known choke point where there is only one lane and a construction site. Once you are in there, there’s no way to go left or right for other cars. Dude stopped like 50 meters before the choke point to hold up traffic and put on his hazard lights. We were able to fly through without even having to slow down. That was beautiful. Thank you sir / ma’am, that was pretty awesome. Yet there are still those few who just don’t get it and try to tailgate us. The only satisfying thing is if police is waiting for them up front and pulls them over for the most expensive little chat they have had in a while. For some reason these people think they can get through faster and past the accident by following us. Or at least get a front row seat to a show they don’t know they will hate. Then there are also three more types of people: 1. The „Stomp on the Brakes As Soon As You See a Fire Truck Approaching“ 2. The „Headless Chicken“ who wildly swerves from left to right trying their darndest to get OUT of the way, but in doing so gets IN the way 3. (and this is a special one) The „Stopping Lines Are Concrete Walls That No Mortal Can Pass“
Germany only has like 114 fire departments (In cities that have more than 50.000 residents). The rest is covered by volunteer firestations... I'm really proud to have them
As I wrote in my other comment, we have them in Denmark too. In Southern Jutland they are organised much like in Germany, but fire departments all over Denmark have unpaid volunteers, as well as part- and full-time employed firefighters. It is certainly something Germany can pride itself of, as it would seem that Germany pioneered the idea in the early to mid 1800s. I think being a firefighter is probably the occupation that commands the most respect (together with the volunteer crews of coastal rescue boats, who perform sea rescues), as a firefighter is a person who will put him or herself in harms way to help other people. I can't think of any other occupation that is like that. That some even do it without being paid for it, is simply amazing, and deserves both respect and admiration.
there are also some towns with importance that end up with a Career Fire Department, such as Jena which is too small to normally have a full fire deptartment (i believe the border is 100,000 residents to be a city with a fire dept).
Unfortunately, a large part of Germany has been under water for several weeks and many people are dependent on help because their cellars are flooded or something similar (including us). Without the great guys from the volunteer fire department we would have sunk into total chaos here. Many thanks to the many great helpers and happy new year to everyone!
I’m also admire the fire brigades doing their tasks. But flooding is mostly the result of Germany doing less to nothing about water management of rivers, streams, dikes and levies, urged by climate change. We have high tides in rivers and streams also, because we’re downstream of three main European rivers, so every excess water of intense and longtime rainfall, comes through our country, but we don’t experience the problems Germany, France and Belgium have. I know it are extreme circumstances and I don’t deny we have problems also, but at the same time we try to prevent a next flood by learning from the last one. And put money where our mouth is. It seems that our neighbors aren’t doing so and we get more trouble because of that. When our neighbors try to drain the excess water as quickly as possible, we get more in trouble with our already high river tides. We had a big flood during the nineties and after that we made our room-to-the-river plan. We just finished the execution of that plan, reinforcing the levies, dykes and dams, making extra flood plains and water storage areas, all because of climate change, it costed 2.3 billion euros. And what did our neighbors do? Hardly anything.
@@RealConstructor A very far-reaching topic. I assume you live in the Netherlands? Your accusation is certainly correct in some respects, but it is too one-sided. The decades-long river straightening and excavations of river courses etc. to stimulate the economy were carried out in practically all European countries in the post-war years. Furthermore, if I am correctly informed, large parts of the Netherlands were drained for land reclamation. This will surely cause more problems, right? Furthermore, implementing environmental protection projects is certainly easier with a population of 18 million (?) than with 80 million. Germany has certainly made a lot of mistakes, but I think it's certainly not as black and white as you make it out to be.
In Germany, the emergency lane must be formed immediately if a traffic jam forms. So that the emergency services don't have to fight their way through the traffic jam. this is even written in the road law
About turning off the sirens. It's common in Germany for firefighters and ambulances to only use the sirene while passing through crossroads and while driving outside the city or village.
In Germany only cities above 80k need full time fire departments. Below that the city supplies cars, equipment and building, pays training etc. usually volunteers meet every or every other week for instructions and training evenings for 2-4 hours. Roughly translating a saying „joining and leaving is voluntary, everything in between is duty“
There are many volunteer firefighters in Germany and Poland . Volunteers are trained by professional firefighters and their equipment is no different from that of professional fire brigades in a given region. I live in the mountains in Poland, so in my village of 4,500 inhabitants there are 70 volunteer firefighters. They have three cars and since there are a lot of forests and difficult terrain in the area, all of them are 4x4 or 6x6. Volunteers join the volunteer fire brigade from the age of 16 (juniors). They do not take part in actions but undergo training and exercises for two years. Then, at the age of 18, they become full-fledged volunteer firefighters .By the way, the road between cars is called the "corridor of life" .
I am from Denmark, and from the Southern Jutland part originally. In most of Denmark, municipal fire departments consist of full-time or part-time employed firefighters who get paid for the job. However, in Southern Jutland (which was under German rule 1864-1920, so this is probably a German tradition), there are many volunteer fire brigades. Nearly every tiny town or village has one, with a few vehicles. Like in Germany and Poland, even being volunteers, they are completely professional trained firefighters, with professional equipment. In rural areas, a more centralised fire department might have to drive 10-25 km to get to a fire, whereas a nearby volunteer brigade might be less than 5 km away and be at the fire within five to ten minutes. Of course the municipal fire departments and the volunteer fire brigades have a very tight and efficient cooperation.
It's the same in Austria. Every bigger village has one. Ours has only 1500 inhabitants so our volunteers share the firestation with the neighboring village which is really close. It is called "Freiwillige Feuerwehr".
also good to know: volunteer firefighters are allowed to leave their work (or to not come to work) if they have a fire service operation. The employer MUST let the employee go to do his volunteer work and he MUST pay him his salery like he would have worked that time. (it's that "you pay your employees also if they don''t work because of fire service operation and in return you can be sure you will get also help if YOUR company or your home is on fire because other volunteer fire fighters will also leave their work to help you" - it's a give and take)
Happy New Year to you Ryan!! In Germany the volunteer Fire Squads cover most of rural areas, there are not enough „professional“ Fire Departments. However, the volunteers have basically the same training (of course, there are different ranks). The equipment is also more or less the same. It’s a great system actually, because it gives you a sense of community and responsibility for your town. And those of us who always dreamt of becoming a firefighter can still fulfill there dreams later on in life, even if you happen to work in a bank or in mall 😉
It's always great to see an outsider reacting to examples of our ways of "how it should be" really working. But unfortunately, we have just as many idiots here in Germany as everywhere else, and the "Rettungsgasse" (rescue lane) that is legally required by law to be formed _in the case of a traffic jam_ , not just when a real emergency is actually happening, is a prime example of something NOT working out as well as it should be. A lot of people just don't have a good/correct idea of how it should be done, and there are always some who think it doesn't apply to them... or even that such a nice free lane in a jam is an invitation for them to use it. I know that seeing the awesome organized German traffic is a treat... but I'd still suggest taking a look at German dashcam channels to see how we are when we are not the "perfect Germans". I recommendate "DashcamDriversGermany" in that regard. This isn't just to gather clicks and show off, but he always provides helpful comments on the presented situations.
Happy New Year to everyone in 2024. I wanted to say a big thank you again to all the firefighters in Germany who are showing great commitent day and night in the tense flood situation in many parts of Germany. 💞👍
Happy new year from Switzerland! The lane is generated by either the horn (when people hear it, a lane is made) or in traffic-jam, then all have to make that lane per se, no matter if a horn is sounding. The idea is, that if there is a jam because of an accident, the cops/ambulance/firefighters can pass quickly. It‘s the same here in Switzerland and yes, the Germans are well organized on the autobahn - it‘s deadly if you don‘t follow the rules, specially on the very left lane.
I love how random and off the subtitles are :D The auto translation just rolled the random dice of words. But they had a very thick accent after all. :D
You have to have the siren on to be „versichert“. If something happens and the siren was not on, you might have to pay by yourself. But (commen sense), if no one is in front of you and you are driving on a straight road, we also turn the siren of
“How did this lane already get formes before the truck even gets here”: as soon as the traffic starts to jam, everyone is required to form a safety lane right away, always in all circumstances, in the event authorities need to use it like here. That way, they can race through it already formed and it avoids loosing precious time trying to form it in an already stopped and packed road.
Usually professional firefighting units exist in cities above 50.000 inhabitants. Lower than that you have voluntary units. And the lane building is mandatory when traffic flow comes to a stop on the autobahn.
@@markus1351 There are also mixed forms. There are around 92K inhabitants here. 28 professionals, mostly in leading positions, control center or special units (radiation protection, dangerous goods unit, decontamination ...) and 615 volunteers. Yes, we have some pretty dangerous things going on in this little town. 😅
I live in a small village in northern Germany and the local fire station is across the street from my house. That way I can watch parts of the regular training of the volunteers as well as the youth department. They also stage events for the community like a summer party where little kids can join a ride on the big fire trucks. There always are activities for all age groups, food and drinks and lots of fun. On January 6 everybody drags their Christmas trees there and the fire men will shred them ( the trees of course lol ). In case of real big accidents or fires the nearby volunteer brigades and the professionals from the next bigger city unite and go together to the place of the incident. Awesome people they are.
German volunteer fire fighters are really amazing. In many small villages, the volunteer fire brigade is THE "club" for guys of all ages to meet. The instiitution that keeps the village community together, organizing volunteer work of all sorts, hosting balls, etc. And that's also the reason why they often have quite good equipment: a German small town mayor knows better than to mess with the fire fighters! When they ask for funds, they usually get it. Here is a English youtuber explaining why the German firefighters are so great: ua-cam.com/video/Sv8j5mHVCXk/v-deo.html (starting 4:30)
I had a similar thing happend to me on the Autobahn. My engine broke down at like 160 km/h. I heard "parts escpaping threw the exhaust" and immediately knew what was going on. I parked the car on the right side of the Autobahn, grabbed all of my important stuff like my wallet. it did not take a long time for the car to start burning, because of the hot oil etc. I called the emergency number, it only took the fire fighters a couple minutes to arrive and only a couple minutes to extinguish the fire despite the fact that the entire front was a big ball of flames. At the end of it all one of the firefighters was casually walking towards me and asking me "hey is this yours?" because he found some stuff in the car that I forgot. The entire operation (not including the car) did cost like 600 Euros at the time, but I happily paid the bill. Absolutetly insane to watch their coordination. Huge respect to all the firefighters out there.
2:57 oh god.. even for me as a german this is funny when a bavarian firifighter is called Hans :D and the captions translate the sentance " hans go in, take the right side" to something with netherlands
FYI: Germany has professional firefighters as well as volunteers. The volunteers also get an education and in big cities are usually on par with the professionals in terms of skill. How effective they are mainly depends on the age of the equipment they have available and the number and age of the volunteers. The truck in the video is really old, probably like 30 years or so. Villages can force-enroll citizens to be 'volunteers' if nobody steps up. Nowadays the main job for firefighters is car accidents, as all homes need to have smoke alarms in all rooms according to law, so house fires got rarer. You could react to "Feuer and Flamme", but that video will certainly get demonetized, still worth it though, as that show is a viewer-magnet.
Being a volunteer Firefighter is like being in an association. The equiptment is owned by the City or County. They gather together on regular bases to check the equiptment, practise their use on different incidents or compete in different contests against Firefighters from other stations.
In Germany there is the rule for the "Rettungsgasse" (Rescue Lane) it is normally really simple, if everyone whould do it ;) If you have to slow down on the Autobahn, all on the left lane have to move left and all other lanes have to move right. No matter if you have 2 or 4 lanes. And so you get this nice rescue lane to get as fast as possible to the accident.
In general everyone is tought to form this lane ("Rettungsgasse"=rescue lane) as soon as you come into a traffic jam, regardless of whether there is an accident or not.
The Father of a friend is a volunteer Firefighter and he has a small little peep thingy and if it goes of then he rushes out of the door , it doesnt matter when , he always has it . Its pretty crazy
Here in Slovenia we have what started pretty much as a 1 man organisation in 2013 called "reševalni pas" (rescue lane). It was started because of a video where a fire department couldn't get to the scene of a crash due to traffic. What followed was an intense campaign of commercials with the idea, that if there is heavy traffic (to the point of having to slow down to a crawl or even stop), cars should arrange themselves to the left or right side of the road, creating the rescue lane. The campaign was very successful, so now such a sight is pretty much the norm accident or not. I believe the idea itself started in Austria in 2012, and got to Germany in 2015-ish. As for the volunteer department thing. A lot of Europe stands on volunteer firefighters. In Slovenia (20k square km - about the size of New Jersey and a bit over 2 million people) we have 165k people as members of volunteer firefighter organisation (includes veterans, youth members and support members). Out of those we have 36k active responders and 1300+ volunteer departments. The so called professional (where being a firefighter is a job) departments are pretty much reserved for just the major cities with 1 brigade per city. There are also various industrial departments (pretty much the biggest companies have their own department kind of deal). By law the volunteer fire departments are funded by the mayors office for the municipality (of course the mayors office does get funding from the state), but its on the local municipality office to guarantee fire safety equipment. The departments themselves collect a membership fee, like for a sports club to get extra funding. But other than that, everything done is in people spare time with pretty much no monetary compensation. Though in major events the company you work for in entitled to a subvention for the workers being absent from their jobs due to the emergency. Though a lot of times the people themselves have to bring that missing time in with overtime.
Happy to hear about the success of the rescue lane in Slovenia. Small correction however: it has been a law in Germany since the 80s. It was around 2015 though that fines were getting tougher and focus was put on public education.
I can't speak for other states. But where i live in Alabama, we have volunteer Fire and EMS. They will also show up in pickups with flashing lights if they can't make it to the station first. But the station is provided with trucks and equipment and training through the town, county, or even the state as needed.
In Germany you have to clear the lane's and form an emergency corridor. This always has to be made between the left and the right lane and if there are more than 2 lane's between the left and the middle lane. You learn that in driving school, if you obstruct the rescuers you'll have to face severe penatly
Happy new year! Congrats to your appearance in the NYT! Hope you get some new subscribers this way! I (german) could not understand everything they where saying - that firestation is obviously somewhere in south germany. ;o) But nevertheless: shoutout to these firefighters!!!! Great job!!!! My ex boyfriend is a professional firefghter and that is a really demanding job. Everyone who does this voluntary is nothing less but a hero. For a time I lived across a house where a volutary firefighter lived. Whenever the sirens went on - night or day, summer, winter, holidays - he was up and out the house and in his car speeding up whitin a minute. That was always impressive.
Hello Ryan, if a traffic jam occurs, the drivers automatically form the lane long before the firefighters arrive. We learn that in driving school in Germany. 🙂
Yeah, these are volunteer firefighters. I was one for 13 years as well. Most of the equipment is issued by the city, but most firefighters buy a few small extra gadgets as well by them selves.
The siren is generally only needed for two things: a) the siren and blue lights invoke the "make way" command, which means a civilian car is obligated to make way in the fastest yet reasonable way possible. b) it is for awareness. They turned the siren off shortly after starting, because they know it is only a straight way. As soon as they approached a more complex area they turned it back on, so people coming from side streets hear there is something up and approach crossroads more carefully. Had they met a car on their side off the road while sirens are off, they would have probably turned them on again. The special rights - go faster, cross red light and such - of these emergency vehicles apply at all times generally speaking, even without siren or lights. They are however never absolved from driving in a way as to not bring themselves or others in danger - i.e.e.g. just because they got their sirens on they can't expect people to ignore their green light at crossings.
Iirc, in Germany if you are at a red light at intersection, and you hear an emergency vehicle approaching from behind you with lights on and horn blazing, and the only way to make room for them to pass to get to where they need to be is that you drive into the intersection and then off to the side, you _have_ to do that. And the other cars the intersection who may have a green light and intend to make a turn, have to stop and let the emergency vehicle pass, as well.
@@1989Nihil Generally speaking this is true. According to traffic code §38 blue lights in combination with the signal horn is a command "All other participants in traffic have to create a free passage immediately". That's the actual wording translated. This also means that yes, at an intersection people making a turn may have to give way to the vehicle. But let me emphasize this again: only both signals do this. It is important however that this always relates to reasonable effort. If there is no way for you to halt on the right side, you need to just continue until you can make way. You may go over the speed limit for this. You may cross a red light if needed to make way - in a way that does not endanger others - and considering automated systems this could still lead to a fine, however "making way for an emergency vehicle" is a valid form of defense against a ticket. The state can check wether that is a reasonable argument, but to be sure it helps to remember the license plate. (we wouldn't want to foster a society that is scared to help emegency vehicles, would we?) And in this context it is important to remember, so let me reiterate that: even though people *have to* make way, the vehicle with special rights needs to make a reasonable effort to prevent damage to others. The generic example is a police car overtaking a car on the left side. The car wanted to go left and had the indicators out. Even though the police car had special rights, the police driver had to assume the civilian might go left. At the same time the civilian should have known to give way to the police car. Due to that the issue of fault in case of a crash would be split among both drivers.
@@Finsternis.. Stimmt! Genauso ist es. Hatte halt nur noch das im Kopf was mein Fahrlehrer mir damals empfohlen hat, nämlich dass wenn ein Polizeifahrzeug, bspw. auch nur mit Blaulicht fährt, dass ich im Zweifel den Weg frei machen solllte.
@@1989Nihil Ja, "das macht man halt so" würde mein Vater da sagen. Man sagt das dann typischerweise auf ein Bußgeld verzichtet wird, sollte daraus ein Verstoß entstehen, aber laut StVO ist es nur bei Licht vorgeschrieben.
It's not the same though. In Germany you must pull to the side as soon as traffic starts building up and there's a jam - even without any emergency vehicle in the vicinity. This way the road is already clear when the vehicle arrives. As a fire fighter I enjoy having one full (sometimes even 1.5) lanes to myself and not having to wait for vehicles to start scrambling to the sides.
UA-cam surely assumed that the speech is either English or German... but didn't expect Bavarian. Without using a Bavarian speech-to-text module, the automatic subtitle function apparently had no chance 😂
Living in Germany, raised here by a german Mother. My parents married when I Was 7 and we went to Alabama. There we lived for about a year. Then the got divorced and I went back with my Mom. Since then I'm American. I mostly feel German and it's very amusing me What Germans think and how Americans react. I wish you a happy New Year...😊😊😊
I think that you make way everywhere in Europe for the firefighters, ambulance....it's common sense over here, I don't remember if the instructor during the driving lessons ever told me to do that, over here in Romania is generally known that you should do that.
Even in Germany it is a somewhat recent development. When I got my driving licence, I wasn't taught this. Later there were billboard campaigns for it - like the signs against speeding and tailgating. The law to make it mandatory is from 2005
And the only way to legally pass a red traffic light is to give way for police, fire brigade or ambulance cars in case of emergency. And you will be find of you don't.
Was touring through Germany a few years ago on the autobahn on motorbikes. All of a sudden all vehicles came to a very rapid halt and this lane opened up, we cottoned on pretty quick and pulled to the left. We were only about 200m from an accident involving 2 cars. There were no serious casualties so due to the nature of this German efficiency, the tow truck got through real quick and dragged the two wrecks to the side. Whole thing took twenty minutes, very impressive.
They are asking to take "Atemschutz". A mask that that helps them breathing if they are fighting a fire. And they are speaking in a strong dialect. No wonder YT can't translate it. There is a burning car on the Autobahn. One guy is explaining the details to the others. And no, they aren't playing the music. ;) If there is a traffic jam you are supposed to create that lane in case there is an accident or other emergency and policy, firefighters... need to go through. Unfortunately some drivers use it, too. They endanger the responding teams this way - and make the waiting drivers angry. I once had the chance to visit a firefighter's station and see all the equipment and the training area. It was amazing and really interesting. I have another video made by the firefighters Osnabrück. It's a big issue that people just stand around and take videos if there is someone in need. They are addressing this issue with the following video: ua-cam.com/video/EsMaWm-kJeE/v-deo.html
It doesn't always need an accident for a car to burn. I've seen a family standing in a field watching their Mercedes burn down on the hard shoulder. There was nobody else involved. May be a short circuit or something, idk.
The german volunteer firefighters are amazing. No matter where they are, at work or at home, they just leave everything behind and drive immediately to the firestation to join the vehicle (the employers get the lost money back).
Happy new year to you too. The eurpean sirens are heard further than the Americans and you can see in your mirror what the trafic behind you is doing so you follow. btw that is taught during the lessons you take to get your license
They were lucky that the Autobahn drivers made the emergency line; on other dashcam channels the road is blocked by cars and even trucks while others simply follow the firefighters/ambulance to get past the traffic jam. The third group close the emergency line as soon as the emergency trucks have passed by. The people were on the road due to boredom for having to wait that long in the traffic jam. Btw., I haven't checked the original video, but from the dialect it seemed to happen somwhere in Bavaria, although I don't know if the Autobahn "A9" takes its way there. Without the number I might have put it to Austria for to me both bavarian and austrian sound very similiar to me.
This inital "plantwatering" is a short moment to check for any reactions of possible hazardous materiel. That way the firefighters can adjust the method to extinguish the fire, without putting themselfes into to much of harms way.
From what I've heard they say that in Germany when the traffic comes to a halt like it's congestion, they automatically move to the sides just in case it's an emergency like this where emergency vehicles may have to get through.
German traffic laws state that motorists have to form an emergency corridor between both lanes (in case of a 2 lane highway) or the two far left lanes (in case of more than 2 lanes) when they approach and end up in a traffic jam on an Interstate Highway or another kind of multi-lane road outside the city limits. Means you don't sit in your lane and only start moving aside once you hear or see an approaching emergency vehicle, that would be considered as too late. They have to form the corridor no matter if they see or hear any emergency vehicle, even if there's and won't be one at all. Doesn't matter why there's the traffic jam either: even if there's no accident scene up ahead emergency vehicles still might have to get through in order to respond to a call elsewhere or in case of ambulances to transport a patient to a hospital. The emergency corridor has to be formed in every traffic jam, even if it's just rush hour, a construction zone or broken down vehicle up ahead. The emergency corridor is not only for emergency vehicles, but also for non emergency vehicles which perform other tasks, like Highway Maintenance Authorities, tow trucks, recovery services etc
Was a little fun reading the transcript as the fire fighters where talking in their dialect. The majority of fire fightings are on voluntary base. Just in big cities you do have full time fire fighters on a 24 hours shift model (most likely). If you look on your right hand 🤚 the thumb goes left, all the fingers go to the right hand side. That’s an indicator for building the emergency line. The most left lane keeps on the left, all other lanes will have to go on the most right edge of their lane. Sometimes, cars may catch fire themselves, most likely with a defect in electronics (cable fire) or in something broken on the engine with gasoline dripping on hot surfaces. Looks like on this video, no other car was involved.
Greetings from Germany I am proud that everything worked so quickly and perfectly, especially the emergency lane. Really good cooperation between road users and rescuers
The speak in a bavarian accent. The talking before they take off is them discussing and checking if they have all the people, with the neccessary skills and the equipment on board, and who else is coming. One is shouting out to bring a second set of respiratory protection equipment. The people zooming in with their cars and come running are the firefighters hopping onto the truck. These trucks are usually a double cab specially made to seat all the firefighters and a big compartment with all the gear and watertank and pump and hoses in the back.
A car burns on the highway *Americans are like this:* I'm praying for everyone affected. I'll share my prayers for everyone on facebook. Maybe I'll set up an account on "gofundme" for the survivors. Of course I make videos for social media. *Germans should react something like this:* Before the first emergency vehicle arrives, the emergency lane must be clear. The emergency vehicles should get through without delays. Almost everyone takes part. Exceptions can often be recognized by the blue and white car emblem (Bavarian place of manufacture of the car).
First ! 😄😄👍👍 Btw.: aren't american fire fighters all evil socialsts that don't send you a 50.000$ bill after your house just burned down. Isn't that very un-american ? 😄 But seriously, thats how most of the stuff in europe work, you also have that already in that particular area at least, as far as i know.
This is how we do it. I live close to an Autobahn exit in a small village with a population of roughly 2400 people. On peek days the siren for volunteer fire fighters alarms at least once a day. The volunteer fire fighters are equipped and trained high professionally. They even provide these big scissors to cut off the roof of a car. Only larger cities have professional fire fighters. When it comes to car crashes on the Autobahn usually volunteer fire fighters come to rescue the victims. If necessary several volunteer departments get alarmed at the same time to provide help.
in the early 1980s I visited Portland OR and witnessed something similar to this. I was used to SF, CA where people just ignored sirens, but in Portland people actually got out of the way, I was amazed.
The miracle dissolves as follows: in order to get a drivers license in Germany people actually need to go to school for both theory and practice, and they need to pass comprehensive exams. The so called "Rettungsgasse" (corridor for emergency vehicle access) is part of the curriculum for the theoretical test alongside a thousand other things. We don't just drive for five minutes and park alongside the road in a 100 yards long "spot" in order to pass the practical exam either. Otherwise no speed limit on the autobahn would be suicidal, I guess.
To be fair, that lane is not always there, there are always some people who don't manage it. But in this video that was extremely perfect :) And it seems the automatically generated subtitles cannot cope with the german dialect spoken there :D :D
Many others have already said why the lane is formed and as a cop I can only ammend rhat we drive through that fast! 80km/h (50mp/h) is a normal speed for us using the emergency lane, because in an accident every second counts!
The guy with the camera, i am sure he is using a thermal vision, that he can see hidden fire inside the smoke. They want to be sure, that the fire is off, and can't ignite again. Sirens are only used in dangerous situations like crossings or if the street is not free. Otherwise it is only the blue light. Our citys are very narrow. It can be, that your sleeping room is only 5 m away from the street. With open windows it can be damn loud. It took many decades and high penalitys that the emergency lane is working that well. Every few km on the Autobahn there is a safety add as a big banner "Jam = Emergency Lane" or " Don't drink and drive" or "Don't use mobile phone while driving" and so on. And the truck is very old.
German firefighter here: Yeah, the "emergency lane" is mandatory in a traffic jam even if you don't know any reason for the jam. Once you're slowing down you just make space. Even if you don't need firefighters you might still need the space for ambulances going from one city to the next (and they just can't wait) or even tow trucks that might need to get through so they can clear the street. About volunteer firefighters: Most firefighters here are volunteers. It's only mandatory for bigger cities with more than 80.000 people living there to have professional firefighters. In my home town we were vounteer firefighters (with like 100 firefighters) only up until 2016 and since then we have some additional "professional" firefighters. Like 40 - but they are working on different shifts so the ones standing ready all the time are only enough for the first car (like 7-9) and all other cars including the more specialized cars are run by volunteers. We are working together and the equipment is the same. Really big cities usually have one fire department with professional firefighters and several volunteer stations. Smaller cities only have volunteer firefighters and small villages may only have a car or two and neighboring villages are working together so cars may come from all different directions. By the way: Even volunteer firefighters are going through serious training and may have deeper knowledge in certain fields (for example because of their main jobs) than professional firefighters, who have wide spread knowledge but maybe not as deep. So at least where I live professional firefighters are mainly there for time reasons as volunteer firefighters just need a few more minutes until they even reach the fire stations and every minute counts in case of emergency. In the end we're working together and nobody can see if the firefighters are paid for it as their main job or if they are volunteers.
Regarding your question at minute 5:58 how the lane has already been formed: The Rettungsgasse, or rescue lane in english has to be formed automatically whenever there's a traffic jam on the Autobahn, regardless whether there is an accident or not. It's the law.
9:53 It’s not a normal cam, it’s a thermal cam that they can see where the car ist hot and where not anymore. They can see in this way also where ember is :)
Just had the firefighters in the backyard of my neighbours' on new years eve, extinguishing a fire caused by a fallen rocket. Was pretty cool to watch them work (once I realized everyone was ok and it was "just" the awning and a bunch of stored insulation material and not the house itself that was burning). Thank you for your service, volunteers and professionals!
European fire trucks are smaller than American ones because the roads are smaller. Here are a few from Europe, especially from Germany. Towards the end there are also US cars: Die schönsten Löschzüge auf Einsatzfahrt
As a former volunteer firefighter, I assert that there are two kinds of firefighters: professional and unprofessional. I’ve witnessed both kinds in paid departments and in volunteer departments.
6:09 is called a "Rettungsgasse" (i.e. emergency lane), that has to be build if there's a traffic jam. The cars on the left lane have to drive on the very left side of the lane, the other lanes have to turn to the right side. If you don't build the Rettungsgasse it might result in a expensive fine. Not everyone realyy does build it, that's why the fine was raised over the last couple of years.
5:16 This is a motorway entrance and exit that is reserved exclusively for emergency services and the motorway maintenance department. Unfortunately, many drivers ignore the ban and use it to avoid the traffic jam
Hi Ryan, have a very nice new year 🙂 One thing to mention about the firefighters being "volunteers". If a German city fails to set up a fire brigade with volunteers the people would "drawn" for duty. So in the end the city must have firefighters and equipment according to the assesed risks in their given region. The equipment was much poorer in the past but since the first rule of duty is not to put yourself on risk the equipment has improved a lot in the last 20 to 30 years. Regarding the curve into the Rettungsgasse on the Autobahn: This Truck has probably been a TLF wich means (T)ank(l)ösch(f)ahrzeug = tanker fire engine. You coud see them if you just google "Feuerwehr tlf" or "Feuerwehr Fahrzeuge" (2nd shows all kind of Fahrzeuge = vehicles)
When I see videos like this I‘m so proud beeing a German. From the distance you cannot see the Fire but if you see traffic stop you make an Rescue Lane (in German Rettungsgasse). The lane on the right side drive to the right hand side as close as possible, if there‘s a middle lane the drive also to the right side as close as possible and the left lane drive to the left hand side. You do it on every street! Not only on the Autobahn, you do it in die city or village too. Time is brain, time is life and if you are insured you want the EM asap to help you. So, that’s the way we do it in Germany and it works better and better.
How does that lane get formed before the truck even was here? - Because it's a law enforced with hefty fines: Up to 320 € penalty, withdrawal of your driving license for a month, and one point in the penalty register (get 8 points, and you will lose your driving license forever unless a psychological assessment declares you mentally fit for driving).
Hi @all, it´s not just in Germany like this. I´m from austria and here it is also the law to immediately form an emergency lane in thte case that traffic is buidling up. Emergency lanes are saving lives !!!!
you do hear the siren coming closer, you know. Well, that and the ones in front clearly saw the burning car. And the ones more behind saw the ones before them getting out of the way. I don't know the percentage in Flanders, but our northern neighbours in the Netherlands have 80% of the firefighters being volunteers
![American reacts to CRAZY Autobahn Clips [2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AfL8rMaZpTI/mqdefault.jpg)
It is a Law in Germany to open a lane when the traffic builds up on the Autobahn (also watch, why Wal-Mart failed in Germany with Insider Infos) ua-cam.com/video/dLGxt6SoR5M/v-deo.html
yeah, this is called "Rettungsgasse"
There are even Signs on the Bridges that go over the Autobahn, wich say please remeber the „Rettungsgasse“ in case of sirens…
@@HarbaroXno. In case of stop and go or traffic jam. Just in case. No sirens have to be heard.
@@HarbaroX
Whenever traffic slows down significantly or stops completely, you are obligated to form the rescue corridor. If you wait until you hear sirens, it's too late.
Its a great law. BTW. . Its in many europian Countrys law too
"How does that lane get formed before the truck even was here?"
It's simple: There is a rule in our driving rules. If a traffic jam is forming, the cars on the left most lane have to park on the left side and all other lanes need to park on the right side, resulting in opening an emergency lane for emergency vehicles. But I also have to say, that it often happens that this rule is forgotten or ignored or that someone stupid uses the emergency lane to make progress.
Why ask drivers to make a lane when there is already one (the shoulder )?
Edit : well, ok
to clarify: it is not only some rule, but a real LAW, and there are penalties for not creating that emergency lane or misusing the lane, although it is often too difficult or not possible (because the emergency is more important) to give tickets to all those stupid drivers who ignore the law.
there is also a discussion whether cameras should be allowed to record the approach and later give tickets by mail, but currently too many people seem to object _because of data protection concerns_ when every car on the road would be recorded, stored, and only a while later be deleted again.
Because that's a lane for broken down cars.
Imagine a truck with a popped tire pulls over and then an accident happens somewhere ahead.@@Spido68_the_spectator
@@Spido68_the_spectator because the shoulder is used by slow cars and extra large transporters that cannot easily pull to the side.
@@Spido68_the_spectator I had thought about it too. and answered my question like this. if you were to use the sidebar. would be at every entrance and every bridge section. an obstructing car that stands in the way. like the silver car in the video
Each village in Germany has its own volunteer firestation. As of December 31, 2021, 1,014,155 people were active in the volunteer fire departments in Germany. 35,875 people worked in the professional fire departments. The youth fire brigades had 301,309 members.
I have been a firefighter for 32 years. The nearest professional fire department is 50 km away. The training of the professional fire brigade and the voluntary fire brigade is identical. We have to accomplish our missions alone.
Volunteer firestations are such a great invention, I live in switzerland and I‘m planning on volunteering. It‘s a great way to not have to pay full time firefighters but still have enough people in case of an emergency
@@Amrin-05 Yes, I have been to fires with 600 fire fighters. This would be impossible to finance in rural areas. You would either have to pay for people you only need ones a year or you would not have enough people when it matters the most.
I try to push my father in law to install a volunteer fire department in his village in Uganda. They have bars at the windows, often cooking with coal or gas bottles. They are loosing people and property, since normal people cannot solve issues.
Our volunteer fire departments in Germany are an national treasure of organisation and commitment for all of us.
In many cities, the volunteer fire stations are even better equipped than in the video.
@@AkselGAL Aksel wenn du das wirklich vorhast und hilfe mit Materialspenden und koordination brauchst, melde dich bitte bei der Deutschen Feuerwehrhilfe oder der deutschen Rettungsdiensthilfte (bei letzterer verweise bitte auf Robin). Wir versuchen immer verschiedenste Hilfsprojekte aufzubauen und haben die nötigen Kontakte um an Equipment, Fahrzeuge und Ausbildungsmaterial bzw Kurse zu kommen.
Hi Ryan, happy new Year! We learn in driving school to always open an "emergency lane" in case of a traffic jam on the Autobahn. It is illegal to use this lane to your own advantage, if you block emergency vehicles you get fined and they can take your license for some weeks. Our volunteer Fire Fighters are the Backbone of the emergency response system in Germany, they are well equipt and trained.
that was a cluster-f to implement in austria. people were too eager to be closest to the accident, and did not want to form an emergency lane.
my take on it was: when the speed slows down because of something, I moved to a lane that was not dedicated emergency lane, so whatever happens, I'm not on the emergency lane.
Im Stau, Rettungsgasse bilden
The volunteers are the firefighter that get paid as lasey because the get paid to sleep
The captions were more than "off", because the guys were talking in their local & very strong, Bavarian dialect. No chance to auto-translate that. ;)
The volunteer fire brigades are basically equipped & trained identically to the professional firefighters, it is just that they spend their time off work to train.
The "rescue lane" has to be formed whenever there is a serious traffic jam on any Autobahn, that's the reason why it was there before the fire truck.
German firetrucks turn on the siren only when absolutely necessary, i.e. in congested roads or near crossroads. It makes no sense to annoy everybody when there is no need for it. The blue light signal on the truck's roof grants them special rights in traffic, which were used here, too: the entry to the Autobahn was NOT the regular one, and no car was allowed to drive there (Noticed the sign on the right side of the road at 5:16 ?).
From what I was hearing they were waitung for people with certified training to arrive. F.i. 'Atemschutz' so they seem to need two people who can use the SCBA.
And since they know the people arriving they know who can do what.
Also each knows their assignments.
Otherwise:
Volunteer firepeople (yes, many women also) get support from the gov in case they miss work. Someone with more insight will explain in detail.
They are also allowed slightly more leeway. F.i. they have blue 'Feuerwehr' stickers on their cars and will flash their warnings when en route to the station. Unsure what laws they are allowed to (un)officially violate. Let's just say that unless they themselves become a danger, no one complains.
Also they are insured and get help just like the pros.
I am a Firefighter in Germany and the thing with turning the siren only on when needed, ie crossroads etc, is wrong.
The StVO §35 & §38 regulates that in an emergency the light and the siren have to be turned on otherwise the firetruck or any other kind of emergencyservice do not have special rights in traffic.
Also if an accident during the drive occurs and the siren was off the dirver takes full responsibility and has to pay in full, if the light and siren where on the insurance takes the cost.
The light and siren are only allowed to be turned off during the travel if the control center ordered it.
At the place of the emergency the siren gets turned off but the light stays on to warn others and "secure" the spot.
Drivers tend to turn off the siren during travel to not disturb others when its not needed but its not code and should not be done.
Its the most German thing ever: Everything stays on because of insurance, but it makes sense and I dont think the 20 sekond disturbance is something to complain about.
@@4-anarchy321 There is no need to have the siren on when on a nearly empty rural road or at night. You then also don't need special rights. You can always turn it on when you want to run a red light.
@@4-anarchy321 Das Fw-Fahrzeug hatte sein Martinshorn zeitweise abgeschaltet in dem Video um das es hier geht. Das hat den US-UA-camr verwundert, weil er das aus den USA nicht kennt. Ich habe lediglich die tatsächliche Praxis beschrieben, wie man sie ja im Video auch sieht & hört.
Die StVO zu zitieren, die Niemand in Frage gestellt hat, ist m.E. so richtig deutsch... 🤪
Nichts für ungut, Fw-Kamerad.
In addition the reason the sirens were off was that the commander could talk with the people inside the fire engine and/or talk with the dispatch.
Also in certain states, like Bavaria, they still use 'air-raid' style sirens to call all firefighters in.
You cannot overhear them (you can even hear them in neighbouring villages) so basically *everyone* knows what is going down.
That's not amazing, that's civil sense.
That's you actually caring for people with more than thoughts and prayers.
That's being good because someday you may need others to be good to you.
And it's the law... it took many years of enforcement, public announcement, increased fines to get to this stage
@@Lucas-zg1vz and it's sad you have to make it law
... but Germans are not all good people by themselves - otherwise this behavior wouldn't need a law ;-)
In my youth the Emergency Alley was nowhere to be seen. It's all about good traffic education. That's why our driving licence costs somewhere north of 2000€
@@boxonothing4087it also has to be a law so that all the people do the same. otherwise you will have people tying to clear the right lane or the left lane and it will be chaos.
We had to pay millions of Euros for it and only one wheelchair driver is using it per month.
for explanation: they turn off the sirens if the road is free and there are no intersections so they don't annoy everyone... once they get close to an problematic part of the road or intersection where more attention is required they turn it on... or if someone is sleeping on the road and driving too slow or not make way...
oh and by the way this lane has to be formed by law - otherwise it's getting more and more expensive... saves lives to make this emergency lane... and those idiots not making the lane can't pay enough as it make help arrive too late and someone dies...
Here is what I could understand of their conversation: (timestamps are refering to your video)
1:46 - 2:10 discussing about the respiratory protection (Atemschutz)
2:10 „Hol mal Atemschutz!“ (Get a respiratory protection)
2:23 „??? hat Atemschutz“ (??? has got a respiratory protection)
2:29 „...Gerät zum absperren“ (... device for locking)
2:36 „Atemschutz!“(respiratory protection!)
4:03 „Alex, gibst du mir die Kamera mal.“ (Alex can you hand me the camera)
4:40 „Eh, so wie's ausschaut is des auf der zwoten Spur“ (It looks like it is on the second lane.)
4:44 „Des is dann halt a bissel beschi**en“ (That is a little shi**y)
4:49 „... die dritte und die zwote Spur dann ... sperren. Wenn's wirklich so der Flall sein sollte.“ (the third and the second lane have to be locked. If that's really the case.)
German rock music starts...
I can tell, that they all have a bavarian accent so it probably happens in bavaria.
that is the reason why the subtitles just can`t work. They try to translate from german, but they don`t talk german 😂
@@nicobendig6597 02:51 No, they try to translate from dutch, which makes even less sense:)
@@nicobendig6597 no its bavarian accent
@@Daniel-zv5mi sog I do! 😝
Mentioned in a different thread, but I presume the 'Atemschutz' ment they were waiting for firepeople with SCBA (Atemschutzausrüstung) training so they can go.
The subtitles are way off because the firefighters are speaking thick dialect. They have absolutely nothing to do with what's being said.
Hey there! Just wanted to share a quick tidbit about driving in Germany, especially on the Autobahn. In case you find yourself in a traffic jam, it's crucial to make way for emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire trucks, and the police. In Germany, it's a legal requirement to create a path for them to pass through, even if it means squeezing to the side.
This is not just a courtesy; it's a crucial safety measure. Failure to yield to emergency vehicles can result in fines and penalties. Here are some possible consequences:
Traffic Violation Fine: Ignoring the rule to yield for emergency vehicles on the Autobahn can lead to a traffic violation ticket. The amount can vary, but fines are generally enforced.
Points on Driving Record: In addition to the fine, you might accumulate points on your driving record. Too many points can lead to further consequences, including license suspension.
Driving Ban: In extreme cases, repeated offenses or severe violations may result in a temporary or permanent driving ban.
Legal Consequences: In the event of an accident or injury caused by failure to yield for emergency vehicles, legal consequences may follow, potentially leading to more severe penalties.
Remember, it's not just about avoiding fines; it's about ensuring the safety of everyone on the road, including those in need of urgent assistance. So, whenever you encounter a traffic jam on the Autobahn, be sure to move aside promptly and let those flashing lights pass through. Drive safe!
Strange that Americans don't seem to be bothered by emergency vehicles?
This comment seems like it was written by Chat GPT
if it would just work like that. Sadly its not to rare that not all follow these rules.
But legally you are completely right and most of drivers act accordingly
@@bananenmusli2769 I don't think the text was created with ChatGPT. What it says is mandatory knowledge for every driver in Germany. If formulations were used that were unusual for a native speaker, then a maximum of one translation program was used!
In terms of content, however, it is part of the general knowledge of most drivers in Germany.
@@The_Panther Hi; but, at least, 95% or more follow... in the USA, the land of fredom, they have the freedom to not care about anyone else...caring about other people is 'the thin edge of the socialist wedge"
Another VFD dude from Germany here. Scenes like this warm my heart. On the whole, things have gotten so much better over the past few years. People seem to finally grasp the concept of the rescue lane.
Just today I saw one driver really do us a solid by thinking on his feet. On one motorway here there is a known choke point where there is only one lane and a construction site. Once you are in there, there’s no way to go left or right for other cars. Dude stopped like 50 meters before the choke point to hold up traffic and put on his hazard lights. We were able to fly through without even having to slow down. That was beautiful. Thank you sir / ma’am, that was pretty awesome.
Yet there are still those few who just don’t get it and try to tailgate us. The only satisfying thing is if police is waiting for them up front and pulls them over for the most expensive little chat they have had in a while. For some reason these people think they can get through faster and past the accident by following us. Or at least get a front row seat to a show they don’t know they will hate.
Then there are also three more types of people:
1. The „Stomp on the Brakes As Soon As You See a Fire Truck Approaching“
2. The „Headless Chicken“ who wildly swerves from left to right trying their darndest to get OUT of the way, but in doing so gets IN the way
3. (and this is a special one) The „Stopping Lines Are Concrete Walls That No Mortal Can Pass“
Germany only has like 114 fire departments (In cities that have more than 50.000 residents). The rest is covered by volunteer firestations... I'm really proud to have them
As I wrote in my other comment, we have them in Denmark too. In Southern Jutland they are organised much like in Germany, but fire departments all over Denmark have unpaid volunteers, as well as part- and full-time employed firefighters. It is certainly something Germany can pride itself of, as it would seem that Germany pioneered the idea in the early to mid 1800s.
I think being a firefighter is probably the occupation that commands the most respect (together with the volunteer crews of coastal rescue boats, who perform sea rescues), as a firefighter is a person who will put him or herself in harms way to help other people. I can't think of any other occupation that is like that. That some even do it without being paid for it, is simply amazing, and deserves both respect and admiration.
there are also some towns with importance that end up with a Career Fire Department, such as Jena which is too small to normally have a full fire deptartment (i believe the border is 100,000 residents to be a city with a fire dept).
Unfortunately, a large part of Germany has been under water for several weeks and many people are dependent on help because their cellars are flooded or something similar (including us). Without the great guys from the volunteer fire department we would have sunk into total chaos here. Many thanks to the many great helpers and happy new year to everyone!
I’m also admire the fire brigades doing their tasks. But flooding is mostly the result of Germany doing less to nothing about water management of rivers, streams, dikes and levies, urged by climate change. We have high tides in rivers and streams also, because we’re downstream of three main European rivers, so every excess water of intense and longtime rainfall, comes through our country, but we don’t experience the problems Germany, France and Belgium have. I know it are extreme circumstances and I don’t deny we have problems also, but at the same time we try to prevent a next flood by learning from the last one. And put money where our mouth is. It seems that our neighbors aren’t doing so and we get more trouble because of that. When our neighbors try to drain the excess water as quickly as possible, we get more in trouble with our already high river tides. We had a big flood during the nineties and after that we made our room-to-the-river plan. We just finished the execution of that plan, reinforcing the levies, dykes and dams, making extra flood plains and water storage areas, all because of climate change, it costed 2.3 billion euros. And what did our neighbors do? Hardly anything.
@@RealConstructor A very far-reaching topic. I assume you live in the Netherlands?
Your accusation is certainly correct in some respects, but it is too one-sided. The decades-long river straightening and excavations of river courses etc. to stimulate the economy were carried out in practically all European countries in the post-war years. Furthermore, if I am correctly informed, large parts of the Netherlands were drained for land reclamation. This will surely cause more problems, right?
Furthermore, implementing environmental protection projects is certainly easier with a population of 18 million (?) than with 80 million. Germany has certainly made a lot of mistakes, but I think it's certainly not as black and white as you make it out to be.
Person is partially correct. Just look at the markings on the old buildings. Not like the floods are anything new.
In Germany, the emergency lane must be formed immediately if a traffic jam forms. So that the emergency services don't have to fight their way through the traffic jam. this is even written in the road law
About turning off the sirens. It's common in Germany for firefighters and ambulances to only use the sirene while passing through crossroads and while driving outside the city or village.
In Germany only cities above 80k need full time fire departments.
Below that the city supplies cars, equipment and building, pays training etc. usually volunteers meet every or every other week for instructions and training evenings for 2-4 hours.
Roughly translating a saying „joining and leaving is voluntary, everything in between is duty“
There are many volunteer firefighters in Germany and Poland . Volunteers are trained by professional firefighters and their equipment is no different from that of professional fire brigades in a given region. I live in the mountains in Poland, so in my village of 4,500 inhabitants there are 70 volunteer firefighters. They have three cars and since there are a lot of forests and difficult terrain in the area, all of them are 4x4 or 6x6. Volunteers join the volunteer fire brigade from the age of 16 (juniors). They do not take part in actions but undergo training and exercises for two years. Then, at the age of 18, they become full-fledged volunteer firefighters .By the way, the road between cars is called the "corridor of life" .
I am from Denmark, and from the Southern Jutland part originally. In most of Denmark, municipal fire departments consist of full-time or part-time employed firefighters who get paid for the job. However, in Southern Jutland (which was under German rule 1864-1920, so this is probably a German tradition), there are many volunteer fire brigades. Nearly every tiny town or village has one, with a few vehicles. Like in Germany and Poland, even being volunteers, they are completely professional trained firefighters, with professional equipment. In rural areas, a more centralised fire department might have to drive 10-25 km to get to a fire, whereas a nearby volunteer brigade might be less than 5 km away and be at the fire within five to ten minutes. Of course the municipal fire departments and the volunteer fire brigades have a very tight and efficient cooperation.
@@lhpl Yes, it's all true. I live in the area where Austria-Hungary ruled for 123 years
It's the same in Austria. Every bigger village has one. Ours has only 1500 inhabitants so our volunteers share the firestation with the neighboring village which is really close. It is called "Freiwillige Feuerwehr".
also good to know: volunteer firefighters are allowed to leave their work (or to not come to work) if they have a fire service operation.
The employer MUST let the employee go to do his volunteer work and he MUST pay him his salery like he would have worked that time.
(it's that "you pay your employees also if they don''t work because of fire service operation and in return you can be sure you will get also help if YOUR company or your home is on fire because other volunteer fire fighters will also leave their work to help you" - it's a give and take)
Happy New Year to you Ryan!!
In Germany the volunteer Fire Squads cover most of rural areas, there are not enough „professional“ Fire Departments. However, the volunteers have basically the same training (of course, there are different ranks). The equipment is also more or less the same.
It’s a great system actually, because it gives you a sense of community and responsibility for your town. And those of us who always dreamt of becoming a firefighter can still fulfill there dreams later on in life, even if you happen to work in a bank or in mall 😉
It's always great to see an outsider reacting to examples of our ways of "how it should be" really working. But unfortunately, we have just as many idiots here in Germany as everywhere else, and the "Rettungsgasse" (rescue lane) that is legally required by law to be formed _in the case of a traffic jam_ , not just when a real emergency is actually happening, is a prime example of something NOT working out as well as it should be.
A lot of people just don't have a good/correct idea of how it should be done, and there are always some who think it doesn't apply to them... or even that such a nice free lane in a jam is an invitation for them to use it.
I know that seeing the awesome organized German traffic is a treat... but I'd still suggest taking a look at German dashcam channels to see how we are when we are not the "perfect Germans".
I recommendate "DashcamDriversGermany" in that regard. This isn't just to gather clicks and show off, but he always provides helpful comments on the presented situations.
I feel it has been getting a lot better over the last years. I guess videos like this are helping to drive the idea home.
Happy New Year to everyone in 2024. I wanted to say a big thank you again to all the firefighters in Germany who are showing great commitent day and night in the tense flood situation in many parts of Germany. 💞👍
Happy new year from Switzerland!
The lane is generated by either the horn (when people hear it, a lane is made) or in traffic-jam, then all have to make that lane per se, no matter if a horn is sounding. The idea is, that if there is a jam because of an accident, the cops/ambulance/firefighters can pass quickly. It‘s the same here in Switzerland and yes, the Germans are well organized on the autobahn - it‘s deadly if you don‘t follow the rules, specially on the very left lane.
May be literally deadly if you don't follow this rule.
@@boredmau5 And yet everyone fucking ignores it.
I love how random and off the subtitles are :D
The auto translation just rolled the random dice of words. But they had a very thick accent after all. :D
4:00 The sirene is only turned on when there's traffic or curves so the cars behind notice the truck easier
or near crossings, for example
And they are turned off when they aren't needed because they are hellishly loud. To not annoy others or risk hearing damage for no reason
@@mexes2178 I swear in my old City they always turned the Sirens on right next to me on purpose, or i am just paranoid.
@@mecke_dev oder du stehst im weg :)
You have to have the siren on to be „versichert“. If something happens and the siren was not on, you might have to pay by yourself. But (commen sense), if no one is in front of you and you are driving on a straight road, we also turn the siren of
The line for the Firetruck is called Rettungsgasse
“How did this lane already get formes before the truck even gets here”: as soon as the traffic starts to jam, everyone is required to form a safety lane right away, always in all circumstances, in the event authorities need to use it like here. That way, they can race through it already formed and it avoids loosing precious time trying to form it in an already stopped and packed road.
Usually professional firefighting units exist in cities above 50.000 inhabitants. Lower than that you have voluntary units. And the lane building is mandatory when traffic flow comes to a stop on the autobahn.
100k
@@markus1351 There are also mixed forms. There are around 92K inhabitants here. 28 professionals, mostly in leading positions, control center or special units (radiation protection, dangerous goods unit, decontamination ...) and 615 volunteers. Yes, we have some pretty dangerous things going on in this little town. 😅
I live in a small village in northern Germany and the local fire station is across the street from my house. That way I can watch parts of the regular training of the volunteers as well as the youth department. They also stage events for the community like a summer party where little kids can join a ride on the big fire trucks. There always are activities for all age groups, food and drinks and lots of fun. On January 6 everybody drags their Christmas trees there and the fire men will shred them ( the trees of course lol ). In case of real big accidents or fires the nearby volunteer brigades and the professionals from the next bigger city unite and go together to the place of the incident. Awesome people they are.
German volunteer fire fighters are really amazing.
In many small villages, the volunteer fire brigade is THE "club" for guys of all ages to meet. The instiitution that keeps the village community together, organizing volunteer work of all sorts, hosting balls, etc.
And that's also the reason why they often have quite good equipment: a German small town mayor knows better than to mess with the fire fighters! When they ask for funds, they usually get it.
Here is a English youtuber explaining why the German firefighters are so great: ua-cam.com/video/Sv8j5mHVCXk/v-deo.html (starting 4:30)
I had a similar thing happend to me on the Autobahn. My engine broke down at like 160 km/h. I heard "parts escpaping threw the exhaust" and immediately knew what was going on. I parked the car on the right side of the Autobahn, grabbed all of my important stuff like my wallet. it did not take a long time for the car to start burning, because of the hot oil etc. I called the emergency number, it only took the fire fighters a couple minutes to arrive and only a couple minutes to extinguish the fire despite the fact that the entire front was a big ball of flames. At the end of it all one of the firefighters was casually walking towards me and asking me "hey is this yours?" because he found some stuff in the car that I forgot. The entire operation (not including the car) did cost like 600 Euros at the time, but I happily paid the bill. Absolutetly insane to watch their coordination. Huge respect to all the firefighters out there.
2:57 oh god.. even for me as a german this is funny when a bavarian firifighter is called Hans :D and the captions translate the sentance " hans go in, take the right side" to something with netherlands
No wonder if the translation was set from "Dutch" to "English" ...
@@superchango1 Unfortunately there was no option "Bavarian" to "English"!
@@anjin-san hehehehe yes, bavarian is his own language:D
FYI: Germany has professional firefighters as well as volunteers. The volunteers also get an education and in big cities are usually on par with the professionals in terms of skill. How effective they are mainly depends on the age of the equipment they have available and the number and age of the volunteers. The truck in the video is really old, probably like 30 years or so. Villages can force-enroll citizens to be 'volunteers' if nobody steps up.
Nowadays the main job for firefighters is car accidents, as all homes need to have smoke alarms in all rooms according to law, so house fires got rarer.
You could react to "Feuer and Flamme", but that video will certainly get demonetized, still worth it though, as that show is a viewer-magnet.
Being a volunteer Firefighter is like being in an association.
The equiptment is owned by the City or County. They gather together on regular bases to check the equiptment, practise their use on different incidents or compete in different contests against Firefighters from other stations.
In Germany there is the rule for the "Rettungsgasse" (Rescue Lane) it is normally really simple, if everyone whould do it ;)
If you have to slow down on the Autobahn, all on the left lane have to move left and all other lanes have to move right. No matter if you have 2 or 4 lanes. And so you get this nice rescue lane to get as fast as possible to the accident.
In general everyone is tought to form this lane ("Rettungsgasse"=rescue lane) as soon as you come into a traffic jam, regardless of whether there is an accident or not.
The Father of a friend is a volunteer Firefighter and he has a small little peep thingy and if it goes of then he rushes out of the door , it doesnt matter when , he always has it . Its pretty crazy
This "peep thingy" is called pager or "Funkmeldeempfänger" in german technical speach :)
That was the most epic intro you have made on this channel. 😂 Like your videos, keep the good work up!
Here in Slovenia we have what started pretty much as a 1 man organisation in 2013 called "reševalni pas" (rescue lane). It was started because of a video where a fire department couldn't get to the scene of a crash due to traffic. What followed was an intense campaign of commercials with the idea, that if there is heavy traffic (to the point of having to slow down to a crawl or even stop), cars should arrange themselves to the left or right side of the road, creating the rescue lane. The campaign was very successful, so now such a sight is pretty much the norm accident or not. I believe the idea itself started in Austria in 2012, and got to Germany in 2015-ish.
As for the volunteer department thing. A lot of Europe stands on volunteer firefighters. In Slovenia (20k square km - about the size of New Jersey and a bit over 2 million people) we have 165k people as members of volunteer firefighter organisation (includes veterans, youth members and support members). Out of those we have 36k active responders and 1300+ volunteer departments. The so called professional (where being a firefighter is a job) departments are pretty much reserved for just the major cities with 1 brigade per city. There are also various industrial departments (pretty much the biggest companies have their own department kind of deal).
By law the volunteer fire departments are funded by the mayors office for the municipality (of course the mayors office does get funding from the state), but its on the local municipality office to guarantee fire safety equipment. The departments themselves collect a membership fee, like for a sports club to get extra funding. But other than that, everything done is in people spare time with pretty much no monetary compensation. Though in major events the company you work for in entitled to a subvention for the workers being absent from their jobs due to the emergency. Though a lot of times the people themselves have to bring that missing time in with overtime.
Happy to hear about the success of the rescue lane in Slovenia.
Small correction however: it has been a law in Germany since the 80s. It was around 2015 though that fines were getting tougher and focus was put on public education.
Ahh i see. I only heard about the education push then. Thank you for the correction.
@@Lucas-zg1vz 1971, actually: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rettungsgasse#:~:text=Die%20Rettungsgasse%20gab%20es%20in,nur%20auf%20Autobahnen%20und%20Kraftfahrstra%C3%9Fen.
@@feststelltastecapslock9869 thanks!
I can't speak for other states. But where i live in Alabama, we have volunteer Fire and EMS. They will also show up in pickups with flashing lights if they can't make it to the station first. But the station is provided with trucks and equipment and training through the town, county, or even the state as needed.
The emergency lane is formed in every traffic jam on the autbahn. It doesn't hurt if it isn't needed.
Happy New Year. Captions don't work when they speak a German accent. Which they do. Heavily.
In Germany you have to clear the lane's and form an emergency corridor. This always has to be made between the left and the right lane and if there are more than 2 lane's between the left and the middle lane.
You learn that in driving school, if you obstruct the rescuers you'll have to face severe penatly
Happy new year!
Congrats to your appearance in the NYT! Hope you get some new subscribers this way!
I (german) could not understand everything they where saying - that firestation is obviously somewhere in south germany. ;o)
But nevertheless: shoutout to these firefighters!!!! Great job!!!! My ex boyfriend is a professional firefghter and that is a really demanding job. Everyone who does this voluntary is nothing less but a hero. For a time I lived across a house where a volutary firefighter lived. Whenever the sirens went on - night or day, summer, winter, holidays - he was up and out the house and in his car speeding up whitin a minute. That was always impressive.
Hello Ryan,
if a traffic jam occurs, the drivers automatically form the lane long before the firefighters arrive.
We learn that in driving school in Germany. 🙂
10:22 The vehicle is probably 7.3 meters long, 2.5 meters wide and 3.3 meters high.
Yeah, these are volunteer firefighters. I was one for 13 years as well. Most of the equipment is issued by the city, but most firefighters buy a few small extra gadgets as well by them selves.
When there is a traffic jam we always do this line in case a firetruck or so comes because if your in a traffic jam you cant move
The siren is generally only needed for two things: a) the siren and blue lights invoke the "make way" command, which means a civilian car is obligated to make way in the fastest yet reasonable way possible. b) it is for awareness. They turned the siren off shortly after starting, because they know it is only a straight way. As soon as they approached a more complex area they turned it back on, so people coming from side streets hear there is something up and approach crossroads more carefully. Had they met a car on their side off the road while sirens are off, they would have probably turned them on again.
The special rights - go faster, cross red light and such - of these emergency vehicles apply at all times generally speaking, even without siren or lights. They are however never absolved from driving in a way as to not bring themselves or others in danger - i.e.e.g. just because they got their sirens on they can't expect people to ignore their green light at crossings.
Iirc, in Germany if you are at a red light at intersection, and you hear an emergency vehicle approaching from behind you with lights on and horn blazing, and the only way to make room for them to pass to get to where they need to be is that you drive into the intersection and then off to the side, you _have_ to do that. And the other cars the intersection who may have a green light and intend to make a turn, have to stop and let the emergency vehicle pass, as well.
@@1989Nihil Generally speaking this is true. According to traffic code §38 blue lights in combination with the signal horn is a command "All other participants in traffic have to create a free passage immediately". That's the actual wording translated. This also means that yes, at an intersection people making a turn may have to give way to the vehicle. But let me emphasize this again: only both signals do this.
It is important however that this always relates to reasonable effort. If there is no way for you to halt on the right side, you need to just continue until you can make way. You may go over the speed limit for this. You may cross a red light if needed to make way - in a way that does not endanger others - and considering automated systems this could still lead to a fine, however "making way for an emergency vehicle" is a valid form of defense against a ticket. The state can check wether that is a reasonable argument, but to be sure it helps to remember the license plate. (we wouldn't want to foster a society that is scared to help emegency vehicles, would we?)
And in this context it is important to remember, so let me reiterate that: even though people *have to* make way, the vehicle with special rights needs to make a reasonable effort to prevent damage to others.
The generic example is a police car overtaking a car on the left side. The car wanted to go left and had the indicators out. Even though the police car had special rights, the police driver had to assume the civilian might go left. At the same time the civilian should have known to give way to the police car. Due to that the issue of fault in case of a crash would be split among both drivers.
@@Finsternis.. Stimmt! Genauso ist es. Hatte halt nur noch das im Kopf was mein Fahrlehrer mir damals empfohlen hat, nämlich dass wenn ein Polizeifahrzeug, bspw. auch nur mit Blaulicht fährt, dass ich im Zweifel den Weg frei machen solllte.
@@1989Nihil Ja, "das macht man halt so" würde mein Vater da sagen. Man sagt das dann typischerweise auf ein Bußgeld verzichtet wird, sollte daraus ein Verstoß entstehen, aber laut StVO ist es nur bei Licht vorgeschrieben.
Happy New Year Ryan, here in England we do the same thing. As soon as we see the lights or hear the sirens we pull into the inside lane x
It's not the same though. In Germany you must pull to the side as soon as traffic starts building up and there's a jam - even without any emergency vehicle in the vicinity. This way the road is already clear when the vehicle arrives.
As a fire fighter I enjoy having one full (sometimes even 1.5) lanes to myself and not having to wait for vehicles to start scrambling to the sides.
It's so funny to see how the caption fails with Bavarian. :D
UA-cam surely assumed that the speech is either English or German... but didn't expect Bavarian. Without using a Bavarian speech-to-text module, the automatic subtitle function apparently had no chance 😂
Have seen similar issues with a heavy Australian accent 😂. Still a long way to go for our AI overlords to fool us completely. 😅
Living in Germany, raised here by a german Mother. My parents married when I Was 7 and we went to Alabama. There we lived for about a year. Then the got divorced and I went back with my Mom. Since then I'm American. I mostly feel German and it's very amusing me What Germans think and how Americans react. I wish you a happy New Year...😊😊😊
I think that you make way everywhere in Europe for the firefighters, ambulance....it's common sense over here, I don't remember if the instructor during the driving lessons ever told me to do that, over here in Romania is generally known that you should do that.
Even in Germany it is a somewhat recent development. When I got my driving licence, I wasn't taught this. Later there were billboard campaigns for it - like the signs against speeding and tailgating. The law to make it mandatory is from 2005
And the only way to legally pass a red traffic light is to give way for police, fire brigade or ambulance cars in case of emergency. And you will be find of you don't.
Was touring through Germany a few years ago on the autobahn on motorbikes. All of a sudden all vehicles came to a very rapid halt and this lane opened up, we cottoned on pretty quick and pulled to the left. We were only about 200m from an accident involving 2 cars. There were no serious casualties so due to the nature of this German efficiency, the tow truck got through real quick and dragged the two wrecks to the side. Whole thing took twenty minutes, very impressive.
They are asking to take "Atemschutz". A mask that that helps them breathing if they are fighting a fire.
And they are speaking in a strong dialect. No wonder YT can't translate it.
There is a burning car on the Autobahn. One guy is explaining the details to the others. And no, they aren't playing the music. ;)
If there is a traffic jam you are supposed to create that lane in case there is an accident or other emergency and policy, firefighters... need to go through. Unfortunately some drivers use it, too. They endanger the responding teams this way - and make the waiting drivers angry.
I once had the chance to visit a firefighter's station and see all the equipment and the training area. It was amazing and really interesting.
I have another video made by the firefighters Osnabrück. It's a big issue that people just stand around and take videos if there is someone in need. They are addressing this issue with the following video: ua-cam.com/video/EsMaWm-kJeE/v-deo.html
I live in Germany. As soon as the traffic slows you have to empty the middle lane. Its a Rettenggasse. A saving way.
It doesn't always need an accident for a car to burn. I've seen a family standing in a field watching their Mercedes burn down on the hard shoulder. There was nobody else involved. May be a short circuit or something, idk.
The german volunteer firefighters are amazing. No matter where they are, at work or at home, they just leave everything behind and drive immediately to the firestation to join the vehicle (the employers get the lost money back).
Happy new year to you too. The eurpean sirens are heard further than the Americans and you can see in your mirror what the trafic behind you is doing so you follow. btw that is taught during the lessons you take to get your license
They were lucky that the Autobahn drivers made the emergency line; on other dashcam channels the road is blocked by cars and even trucks while others simply follow the firefighters/ambulance to get past the traffic jam.
The third group close the emergency line as soon as the emergency trucks have passed by.
The people were on the road due to boredom for having to wait that long in the traffic jam.
Btw., I haven't checked the original video, but from the dialect it seemed to happen somwhere in Bavaria, although I don't know if the Autobahn "A9" takes its way there. Without the number I might have put it to Austria for to me both bavarian and austrian sound very similiar to me.
this lane is law in germany when ever there is a traffic jam you have to start greating a lane like that even if there is no fire
This inital "plantwatering" is a short moment to check for any reactions of possible hazardous materiel. That way the firefighters can adjust the method to extinguish the fire, without putting themselfes into to much of harms way.
Small grrman villages have three things:a soccer club,voluntary firefighters and a gun club.
Gun club feels more like a southern thing. Here we have male chorus instead
@@CoL_Drake"Schützenvereine" are very common here in Lower Saxony, at least in the southern parts. Don't know about the northern part.
From what I've heard they say that in Germany when the traffic comes to a halt like it's congestion, they automatically move to the sides just in case it's an emergency like this where emergency vehicles may have to get through.
Absolutely correct!
I sometimes forget that Ryan has ears…
German traffic laws state that motorists have to form an emergency corridor between both lanes (in case of a 2 lane highway) or the two far left lanes (in case of more than 2 lanes) when they approach and end up in a traffic jam on an Interstate Highway or another kind of multi-lane road outside the city limits.
Means you don't sit in your lane and only start moving aside once you hear or see an approaching emergency vehicle, that would be considered as too late. They have to form the corridor no matter if they see or hear any emergency vehicle, even if there's and won't be one at all.
Doesn't matter why there's the traffic jam either: even if there's no accident scene up ahead emergency vehicles still might have to get through in order to respond to a call elsewhere or in case of ambulances to transport a patient to a hospital. The emergency corridor has to be formed in every traffic jam, even if it's just rush hour, a construction zone or broken down vehicle up ahead.
The emergency corridor is not only for emergency vehicles, but also for non emergency vehicles which perform other tasks, like Highway Maintenance Authorities, tow trucks, recovery services etc
Was a little fun reading the transcript as the fire fighters where talking in their dialect. The majority of fire fightings are on voluntary base. Just in big cities you do have full time fire fighters on a 24 hours shift model (most likely). If you look on your right hand 🤚 the thumb goes left, all the fingers go to the right hand side. That’s an indicator for building the emergency line. The most left lane keeps on the left, all other lanes will have to go on the most right edge of their lane. Sometimes, cars may catch fire themselves, most likely with a defect in electronics (cable fire) or in something broken on the engine with gasoline dripping on hot surfaces. Looks like on this video, no other car was involved.
Happy New Year, Ryan, to you and yours! Love the color of that wall, good to see you did your moving and are back.
Greetings from Germany
I am proud that everything worked so quickly and perfectly, especially the emergency lane. Really good cooperation between road users and rescuers
I thought the beginning of the video was a weird ad
The speak in a bavarian accent.
The talking before they take off is them discussing and checking if they have all the people, with the neccessary skills and the equipment on board, and who else is coming. One is shouting out to bring a second set of respiratory protection equipment.
The people zooming in with their cars and come running are the firefighters hopping onto the truck.
These trucks are usually a double cab specially made to seat all the firefighters and a big compartment with all the gear and watertank and pump and hoses in the back.
Nice Room
A car burns on the highway
*Americans are like this:* I'm praying for everyone affected. I'll share my prayers for everyone on facebook. Maybe I'll set up an account on "gofundme" for the survivors. Of course I make videos for social media.
*Germans should react something like this:*
Before the first emergency vehicle arrives, the emergency lane must be clear. The emergency vehicles should get through without delays. Almost everyone takes part. Exceptions can often be recognized by the blue and white car emblem (Bavarian place of manufacture of the car).
First ! 😄😄👍👍
Btw.: aren't american fire fighters all evil socialsts that don't send you a 50.000$ bill after your house just burned down. Isn't that very un-american ? 😄 But seriously, thats how most of the stuff in europe work, you also have that already in that particular area at least, as far as i know.
This is how we do it. I live close to an Autobahn exit in a small village with a population of roughly 2400 people. On peek days the siren for volunteer fire fighters alarms at least once a day. The volunteer fire fighters are equipped and trained high professionally. They even provide these big scissors to cut off the roof of a car. Only larger cities have professional fire fighters. When it comes to car crashes on the Autobahn usually volunteer fire fighters come to rescue the victims. If necessary several volunteer departments get alarmed at the same time to provide help.
in the early 1980s I visited Portland OR and witnessed something similar to this. I was used to SF, CA where people just ignored sirens, but in Portland people actually got out of the way, I was amazed.
The miracle dissolves as follows: in order to get a drivers license in Germany people actually need to go to school for both theory and practice, and they need to pass comprehensive exams. The so called "Rettungsgasse" (corridor for emergency vehicle access) is part of the curriculum for the theoretical test alongside a thousand other things. We don't just drive for five minutes and park alongside the road in a 100 yards long "spot" in order to pass the practical exam either. Otherwise no speed limit on the autobahn would be suicidal, I guess.
To be fair, that lane is not always there, there are always some people who don't manage it. But in this video that was extremely perfect :)
And it seems the automatically generated subtitles cannot cope with the german dialect spoken there :D :D
Many others have already said why the lane is formed and as a cop I can only ammend rhat we drive through that fast! 80km/h (50mp/h) is a normal speed for us using the emergency lane, because in an accident every second counts!
The guy with the camera, i am sure he is using a thermal vision, that he can see hidden fire inside the smoke. They want to be sure, that the fire is off, and can't ignite again.
Sirens are only used in dangerous situations like crossings or if the street is not free. Otherwise it is only the blue light. Our citys are very narrow. It can be, that your sleeping room is only 5 m away from the street. With open windows it can be damn loud.
It took many decades and high penalitys that the emergency lane is working that well. Every few km on the Autobahn there is a safety add as a big banner "Jam = Emergency Lane" or " Don't drink and drive" or "Don't use mobile phone while driving" and so on.
And the truck is very old.
The law says that when you hear the sirens coming or there is a traffic jam you need to build this lan
immediately.
German firefighter here: Yeah, the "emergency lane" is mandatory in a traffic jam even if you don't know any reason for the jam. Once you're slowing down you just make space. Even if you don't need firefighters you might still need the space for ambulances going from one city to the next (and they just can't wait) or even tow trucks that might need to get through so they can clear the street.
About volunteer firefighters: Most firefighters here are volunteers. It's only mandatory for bigger cities with more than 80.000 people living there to have professional firefighters. In my home town we were vounteer firefighters (with like 100 firefighters) only up until 2016 and since then we have some additional "professional" firefighters. Like 40 - but they are working on different shifts so the ones standing ready all the time are only enough for the first car (like 7-9) and all other cars including the more specialized cars are run by volunteers. We are working together and the equipment is the same. Really big cities usually have one fire department with professional firefighters and several volunteer stations. Smaller cities only have volunteer firefighters and small villages may only have a car or two and neighboring villages are working together so cars may come from all different directions.
By the way: Even volunteer firefighters are going through serious training and may have deeper knowledge in certain fields (for example because of their main jobs) than professional firefighters, who have wide spread knowledge but maybe not as deep.
So at least where I live professional firefighters are mainly there for time reasons as volunteer firefighters just need a few more minutes until they even reach the fire stations and every minute counts in case of emergency. In the end we're working together and nobody can see if the firefighters are paid for it as their main job or if they are volunteers.
Regarding your question at minute 5:58 how the lane has already been formed: The Rettungsgasse, or rescue lane in english has to be formed automatically whenever there's a traffic jam on the Autobahn, regardless whether there is an accident or not. It's the law.
Here in Germany you have to arrange a lane for rescue services when you are on a highway traffic jam in Germany. It's a law
9:53 It’s not a normal cam, it’s a thermal cam that they can see where the car ist hot and where not anymore. They can see in this way also where ember is :)
Just had the firefighters in the backyard of my neighbours' on new years eve, extinguishing a fire caused by a fallen rocket. Was pretty cool to watch them work (once I realized everyone was ok and it was "just" the awning and a bunch of stored insulation material and not the house itself that was burning). Thank you for your service, volunteers and professionals!
European fire trucks are smaller than American ones because the roads are smaller. Here are a few from Europe, especially from Germany. Towards the end there are also US cars:
Die schönsten Löschzüge auf Einsatzfahrt
As a former volunteer firefighter, I assert that there are two kinds of firefighters: professional and unprofessional. I’ve witnessed both kinds in paid departments and in volunteer departments.
The random American UA-camr that makes me smile. Happy new year, Ryan 😄.
6:09 is called a "Rettungsgasse" (i.e. emergency lane), that has to be build if there's a traffic jam. The cars on the left lane have to drive on the very left side of the lane, the other lanes have to turn to the right side. If you don't build the Rettungsgasse it might result in a expensive fine. Not everyone realyy does build it, that's why the fine was raised over the last couple of years.
You dont form it when you see an emergency vehice, you form it when you see the traffic jam.
Hey Ryan❣ A happy new year and congratulations to your new room! Wish you and your family a lucky year with health, money and success!
5:16 This is a motorway entrance and exit that is reserved exclusively for emergency services and the motorway maintenance department.
Unfortunately, many drivers ignore the ban and use it to avoid the traffic jam
Hi Ryan, have a very nice new year 🙂
One thing to mention about the firefighters being "volunteers".
If a German city fails to set up a fire brigade with volunteers the people would "drawn" for duty. So in the end the city must have firefighters and equipment according to the assesed risks in their given region. The equipment was much poorer in the past but since the first rule of duty is not to put yourself on risk the equipment has improved a lot in the last 20 to 30 years.
Regarding the curve into the Rettungsgasse on the Autobahn: This Truck has probably been a TLF wich means (T)ank(l)ösch(f)ahrzeug = tanker fire engine.
You coud see them if you just google "Feuerwehr tlf" or "Feuerwehr Fahrzeuge" (2nd shows all kind of Fahrzeuge = vehicles)
When I see videos like this I‘m so proud beeing a German. From the distance you cannot see the Fire but if you see traffic stop you make an Rescue Lane (in German Rettungsgasse). The lane on the right side drive to the right hand side as close as possible, if there‘s a middle lane the drive also to the right side as close as possible and the left lane drive to the left hand side. You do it on every street! Not only on the Autobahn, you do it in die city or village too. Time is brain, time is life and if you are insured you want the EM asap to help you. So, that’s the way we do it in Germany and it works better and better.
"they turned the siren off for some reason"
Yeah, from time to time they have to let the guy with the harmonica breath.
🤣
Firefighters speak bavarian language. Greetings from Bavaria in Germany.
„Hope the people were okay in the car“ they were probably the ones who called the firefighters. happy new year
How does that lane get formed before the truck even was here? - Because it's a law enforced with hefty fines: Up to 320 € penalty, withdrawal of your driving license for a month, and one point in the penalty register (get 8 points, and you will lose your driving license forever unless a psychological assessment declares you mentally fit for driving).
Hi @all,
it´s not just in Germany like this. I´m from austria and here it is also the law to immediately form an emergency lane in thte case that traffic is buidling up.
Emergency lanes are saving lives !!!!
you do hear the siren coming closer, you know. Well, that and the ones in front clearly saw the burning car. And the ones more behind saw the ones before them getting out of the way.
I don't know the percentage in Flanders, but our northern neighbours in the Netherlands have 80% of the firefighters being volunteers