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Bengal introduces different sirens for ambulance and police vehicles
The siren will allow traffic police to spot ambulances carrying critical patients and make way for them in preference to other vehicles.
Police vehicles and ambulances will soon use different sirens in Bengal, a notification of the state transport department has stated.
While police vehicles, in case of emergency, will use sirens with short burst, while ambulances will use sirens with rising and falling loop.
Read: Patient dies as Haryana BJP leader ‘stops’ ambulance for 30 minutes
State transport department officials said these two types of sirens can be useful for traffic police to identify these two kinds of vehicles from a distance. “In case an ambulance and a police vehicle approach a junction or crossing at the same time, preference has to be given to the ambulance obviously,” a state transport department official said.
Incidentally, a traffic police personnel in Bengaluru was recently rewarded for stopping the Indian President’s convoy to make way for an ambulance carrying a critical patient.
This is a second initiative by the state government after its recent move of introducing special flags for vehicles of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers of West Bengal cadres after supreme court ordered the ggovernment to discontinue red beacons. The three types of flags for officers of different ranks were designed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself.
Read: Bengaluru: Traffic cop stops President Pranab’s convoy to make way for ambulance
Although transport department officials were not certain whether Bengal is the first state to introduce different sirens for police vehicles and ambulances, a senior official told HT they have not heard about a precedent in the country.
The notification comes into effect immediately and necessary instructions have been issued to the police department as well as to hospitals, nursing homes and registered ambulance service providers. But transport department officials expect that the installation of the new types of sirens will be completed by August end.
“The basic aim of introducing two types of sirens for police vehicles and ambulances is to enable sound-based identification in case of emergency. The government will give some time for the installation of new devices,” said Mitra Chatterjee, joint secretary to state transport department.
The sound limits for both types of vehicles will be within that prescribed under the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
