While the driver of the car should’ve yielded to the emergency vehicle, as per the Code of VA, the fire truck driver has an equal responsibility to make sure traffic is clear.
Hutchinson commuter and Redditor /u/Colin0924 shared dashcam footage to the /r/MildlyBadDrivers subreddit from earlier in the week (Apr 29, 2025) showing a driver with a green light failing to yield to a responding fire truck with lights and sirens.
Check out their dashcam video below with the original Reddit thread linked here.
The incident happened at the intersection of Centreville Rd and Worldgate Dr. in Hutchinson (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As their dashcam footage shows, OP is stopped on Centreville waiting for his light to turn green.
Suddenly, to his left, a Fairfax County fire engine comes rolling through with lights and sirens.
A driver in a box truck, already halfway through the intersection, doesn’t slow in time and impedes the responding fire truck.
Unfortunately, as the fire truck passes the halfway point of the intersection, a driver in a white car with a green light fails to respond to the approaching fire truck, doesn’t slow, and t-bones the engine despite the fire fighter’s best attempt to slow.
Both vehicles stop, and now they must exchange information and assess the damage before proceeding.
“I’m a little more sympathetic after a near miss I had a couple of years ago. I swear they’ve made sirens much quieter than when I was younger (I’m currently 34). I couldn’t hear the ambulance I almost hit until I was already in the intersection. I only had an audiobook playing at normal conversation volume, so it shouldn’t have impacted my ability to hear a siren. In my case, he was also behind a couple of semis from my point of view, so I couldn’t see him until he entered,” /u/LCJonSnow commented.
“Ultimately, though, the fire truck will be found at fault. They have the obligation to ensure ALL traffic is coming to a stop, and ALLOWING the fire truck to assume right of way. They didn’t do that very well. And the height of the fire truck would allow them to see the white car coming through the traffic, “/u/Herkalurk commented.
“Source: Former paramedic, been through similar training on how you can use your lights and sirens like this.”
According to the Code of Virginia § 46.2-829, while traffic must yield to appropriately responding emergency vehicles, it also includes a caution to emergency vehicle drivers that,
…”This provision shall not relieve the driver of any such vehicle to which the right-of-way is to be yielded of the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway, nor shall it protect the driver of any such vehicle from the consequences of an arbitrary exercise of such right-of-way.”
In this situation, it seems both drivers can potentially be found at fault, at least as it pertains to ticketable offenses.
How insurance deals with it is another situation entirely.
I imagine they may find either driver at 50 percent fault.
Regardless, as drivers, we have a duty not to blast music at a level that interferes with how well we hear traffic around us.
And we always have to have our full attention on the task at hand, which is the road when driving.
The fire Apparatus has a DUTY to come to a COMPLETE STOP and only proceed when the crossing traffic has yielded. To not do so, invites culpability AND liability for any accident that ensues to the fire department agency. (Basic EVOC operations.)