The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department is confronting a growing problem.<\/p>\n
Department heads say many drivers appear to be unsure what to do when they see lights and hear sirens.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSeconds and minutes really do count,\u201d JFRD Deputy Fire Chief Jacob Blanton said.<\/p>\n Those seconds and minutes are critical to JFRD for response times, knowing that on the other end of a service call, someone\u2019s life can be on the line.<\/p>\n \u201cHouse fire, every minute that goes by, more property is being damaged; it becomes more difficult to get it under control. From a medical standpoint, in a cardiac arrest setting, arrive quickly, start CPR, defibrillate,\u201d Blanton said.<\/p>\n But they say recently, responding to emergency calls has become more challenging because of distracted drivers.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a problem at times when we\u2019re coming up behind, you know, a driver and they\u2019re not yielding the right of way, slows things down and can make things hazardous,\u201d Blanton said.<\/p>\n JFRD officials say when their vehicles have lights and sirens activated, they often get stuck behind drivers stopped in traffic, or some who just continue driving and don\u2019t move over.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen emergency vehicles approach you from behind, you get over to the right as quickly and as safely as possible so we can get by to get to that emergency situation we\u2019re trying to get to,\u201d Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office Senior Media Relations Manager Christian Hancock said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Hancock also mentioned that if there are cars pulled over to the side of the road, state law indicates you should move over one lane.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just ask the community to do their part to help us do our job, trying to answer 911 calls promptly and efficiently, trying to get there safe and try to ensure the community is safe,\u201d Blanton said.<\/p>\n JFRD said drivers can help by paying attention to their surroundings and turning down their music.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department is confronting a growing problem. Department heads say many drivers appear to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20381,20380,17629,116,118,117,12814,20379],"class_list":{"0":"post-27304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-department-heads","9":"tag-distracted-drivers","10":"tag-emergency-vehicles","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-jfrd","15":"tag-jfrd-deputy-fire-chief-jacob-blanton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}