Ulmerton's curbs slow down emergency vehicles

The vertical curbs between U.S. 19 and Walsingham can force rescuers into oncoming traffic on the busy street. The city is buying devices for them to control the traffic signals.

By SARAH P. KENNEDY
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 26, 2002

LARGO -- You're driving on Ulmerton Road with your windows rolled up, air conditioning and radio turned on. Suddenly a firetruck is bearing down on you, heading into oncoming traffic on the way to an accident scene. You stomp the brake pedal. The firetruck passes. The car behind you hits you.

Whose fault is it?

Blame the curbs.

Emergency vehicles driving Ulmerton Road between U.S. 19 and Walsingham Road face several hazards: heavy traffic, drivers who do not hear the sirens or see the flashing lights and sharp, vertical curbs that make it tough for emergency vehicle drivers to go over them.

"Emergency vehicles face policies and procedures that allow us to go over a curb when it's a bevel-angled type, but the vertical curbs are problematic," said Chuck Kearns, director of Pinellas County EMS & Fire Administration. "Instead of going up on those, it forces the vehicles around the median and into oncoming traffic."

The problem is exacerbated by the high traffic counts on Ulmerton, one of the county's busiest east-west thoroughfares.

About 81,700 vehicles pass through the intersection of Ulmerton Road and Seminole Boulevard every day, said Marc Hanger, transportation analyst for the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization. At Ulmerton and Starkey, 86,400 vehicles pass through; at Ulmerton and Belcher, 86,800; at Ulmerton and 66th Street, 88,000.

Going over a vertical curb in a heavy truck can damage the front end or frame, or blow out a tire, Kearns said. To avoid such damage, the firetruck or rescue vehicle must come to a complete stop before slowly climbing the curb, which delays the vehicle's response time.

So drivers often are faced with a decision: Should I jump the curb or drive into the left turn lane in the median and cross into oncoming traffic to get around the gridlock?

"You've got to make a snap decision knowing that a life may be on the line," Kearns said.

Despite Kearns' concerns about the vertical curbs, one state transportation official views them as practical -- and navigable -- necessities.

Vertical curbs are used along urban streets and medians for two reasons, said Dwayne Kile, Department of Transportation District 7 design engineer.

"You're trying to define where the driveways are, where the driveway is and where it isn't," Kile said. "You want the water to drain off into the inlets."

Kile said that it is easier for large emergency vehicles to climb the vertical curbs than it is for cars. The trucks, he said, have higher clearance and bigger tires.

"Do they have to slow down? Yes. Do they have to be more careful? . . . Yes," Kile said. "Even though it's a physical barrier, it's still traversable by emergency vehicles."

If Ulmerton Road is widened in the future, emergency service workers hope the state will install beveled curbs, which would ensure a smoother ride around traffic.

In the meantime, what is the solution?

Traffic signal pre-emption, said Michael Wallace, division chief of medical and health services of Largo Fire Rescue.

The system allows firetrucks and fire rescue vehicles to turn traffic lights green in the direction they are heading to avoid curb jumping and other dangerous practices at busy intersections.

It works this way: Mounted on the top of the truck is a transmitter with an electronic eye that detects red lights a half-mile to a quarter-mile away. The transmitter is activated when the truck's emergency lights are flashing. Receivers are attached to the wires running to the traffic lights.

When the electronic eye detects a red light, it sends an infrared signal to the receivers to turn all lights red at the intersection except the one facing the emergency vehicle, which would turn green.

Traffic signal pre-emption has been around since the 1980s, Wallace said, and has been used primarily in large metropolitan areas. Largo became interested when emergency workers grew concerned about delays in response times because of increased traffic.

If your response time grows by even two minutes, Wallace said: "For the patient whose heart has stropped or who has stopped breathing, that becomes a life-and-death situation."

The city's budget includes $80,000 for traffic signal pre-emption equipment. Wallace expects to place an order by next week with Opticon, a 3M company. The county will install the devices.

The city has yet to determine exactly how many or which intersections will be fitted with traffic signal pre-emption equipment, but Wallace said some will be along Ulmerton and one will be at East Bay Drive and Missouri Avenue at the Central Park intersection.

Other cities in the county that have the traffic signal pre-emption system include Palm Harbor, Oldsmar and Seminole. Pinellas Park is finishing up its installation.

Paul Hill, assistant fire chief for the Seminole Fire Rescue Department, said the city's pre-emption devices have been working at 28 busy intersections since April.

"We believe them to be working quite well," Hill said. "The goal is to make the intersections safer."

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