Considerate parking could save lives!
Warwickshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service is issuing a stark safety warning to residents after an appliance struggled to get to an incident due to cars being parked inconsiderately and on double yellow lines.
Inconsiderate parking is becoming more and more of an issue in Atherstone and this incident just highlights the dangers of that. Parking cars side by side in narrow streets, parking on double yellows and parking inconsiderately will mean that appliances could be stopped from getting through. In some cases crews have had to leave the appliance half way down the street and run hoses to an incident.
Watch Manager, Andy Bates said: “We understand parking is an issue in some areas but inconsiderate or illegal parking can have serious consequences should emergency vehicles need to get through.
"So it is essential that you ensure your vehicle is parked close to the kerb, leave enough space for a fire engine to pass, leave extra room near tight corners and fold in your wing mirror.“
Firefighters regularly carry out visual audits along key routes to ensure emergency vehicles can pass through should they need to without obstruction from people parking inconsiderately on narrow streets or on double yellow lines.
However, smaller streets have always been an issue, so residents need to be mindful of the parking issues in their street to ensure that should an emergency vehicle need to get through that they can.