I'd like to thank Karen for her help with the correct spelling of Getraer. :)

by E!lf

Sirens blaring, Squad 51 turned off the main thoroughfare onto a side street.  For three blocks they raced ahead with no problem, then a four-way stop loomed before them.

"Look out, man," Johnny warned Roy, who was, as usual, driving.

Four vehicles came up to the intersection at the same time.  To their right was a U.S. Postal service van.  An ambulance approached from their left and a police car was coming towards them.  Like the squad, both the ambulance and the police car were running with lights and sirens.

All four vehicles stopped at the intersection, then all four started again simultaneously.

In the resulting collision all occupants of the vehicles suffered minor to moderate injuries except for the gunshot victim being transported by the ambulance, who was strapped into the gurney.  Roy got the worst of it, losing consciousness after his head bounced off the side window.  Johnny sprained his wrist and both men had numerous bumps and bruises.  The postal worker had a minor concussion and the three men in the ambulance got off with an assortment of minor cuts and bruises.  The cop got a bloody nose, two black eyes and an extremely vile temper.

They called for another squad to take their response and for two more ambulances and additional police and rescue workers at the accident scene.  The police car was totaled and each of the other three vehicles required extensive repair.  Making the situation even worse, a TV news van arrived before any other official help got there and the officer who had been involved in the accident threw a screaming temper tantrum, caught on tape and aired repeatedly, and cited the other three drivers for failure to yield.

Roy spent the night in the hospital under observation and Johnny was sent home with a sling and a prescription for pain pills.  When they reported for duty the next shift Cap called them into his office.

"It wasn't my fault, Cap," Roy said immediately.  "I had the right-of-way."

"Yeah, well, I hope you have a good argument for that.  You both realize this thing has turned into a media circus?"

They nodded.  "Joanne had to turn off the ringer on the telephone."

"I unplugged mine," Johnny said.  "Did you guys catch the late show last night?  Man, they're doing a running joke on the L.A. County Demolition Derby thing."

"Mmm.  I wish I could unplug my phone!"  Cap shook his head.  "The Chief really isn't happy about any of this.  The Fire Department's not going to throw you to the wolves, Roy.  We've put in a formal protest about the cop issuing citations when he was involved in the incident himself, and the Post Office and ambulance company both have too.  The CHP has a team investigating the collision -- I think you've both spoken to them?"

The paramedics nodded.

"Okay, well, there's going to be a hearing downtown tomorrow morning, ten A.M.  You'll both need to be there.  This isn't a trial, now.  What it is, there's going to be a panel made up of the accident investigation team and CHP officers and presided over by an experienced traffic court judge.  The purpose is to determine who bears responsibility for the accident and to what degree.  Any criminal charges, like negligence or failure to yield, will arise from the decisions of the panel."

"It wasn't my fault," Roy said again, doggedly.  "I had the right-of-way."

"I know you think that, Pal," Cap said.  "But the cop and the ambulance driver think they had the right-of-way too.  Heck, even the mailman thinks he had the right-of-way, though I don't know why."

"They're wrong.  I'm right.  I had the right-of-way."

"Yeah, well, I hope you can convince the panel of that.  I don't have to tell you that it's not going to look good on your record if you wind up getting slapped for this.  And another thing," he sighed.  "This is not my idea, Roy, but the powers that be don't want you behind the wheel until this matter has been resolved.  You're gonna have to let Johnny drive the squad today."

Grim-faced, Roy handed over the squad keys to his partner.  "Is that all, Cap?"

It was clear from his expression and tone of voice that the senior paramedic felt he was being unjustly punished.  Neither his captain nor his partner had anything they could say to that.  Cap studied Roy's face for a moment, then closed his eyes and nodded his dismissal.  Roy left, back held straight.  He walked stiffly and Cap wondered if that was because he was angry or because he was physically sore.  Both, probably, he decided.

He glanced over at Johnny and Johnny met his eyes, his own eyes troubled.  "He's a good driver, Cap.  A safe driver."

"I know.  But that wreck has cost the county a big repair bill for the squad.  More if we wind up having to fix any of the other vehicles.  Worse yet, it's made us a laughingstock.  If that panel decides Roy's at fault, he's probably going to get suspended and possibly some other punishment as well.  A pay cut, maybe.  Ineligibility for promotion."  Cap rubbed the side of his face.  "You were there.  What do you think?  Roy seems certain he had the right-of-way.  Is there any chance you guys got to the intersection ahead of the other drivers?"

Johnny shook his head.  "I'd like to say yeah, but I'd swear we all pulled up and stopped at just about exactly the same time.  We should have had the right-of-way, though!  Cap!  We were on a heart attack call.  Now you know as well as I do that seconds can make a difference there!  And you know what?"  He leaned forward and pounded a fist on his captain's desk.  "I'm gonna prove that!  I'm gonna get together all the evidence I can between now and tomorrow morning."

"Well," Cap said, "I wish you luck.  But I also wish Roy had been prudent enough to just wait a few seconds for the other vehicles to clear the intersection!"

"Well!  If it isn't old 'Demolition DeSoto'!" Chet said when Roy walked into the kitchen.

When he left the Captain's office, Roy had gone into the locker room and taken a few minutes to get his emotions under control.  Now he felt his blood pressure skyrocket again, exacerbating the headache that still lingered from his concussion.  Deliberately ignoring the Irishman, he turned to the corner and occupied himself with the coffee pot.  Johnny came in right behind him and Roy didn't know if he was glad of that or not.

On the one hand, Johnny was his best friend and natural ally.  On the other hand, Johnny now had the keys to the squad in his pocket, making him a reluctant part of the unjust censure Roy felt he was being subjected to.

"Can it, Chet," Johnny said, disgust in his voice.  He came over by Roy.  "Got any coffee, man?"

Roy shoved the pot to him, but kept his back to the room and the engine crew.

"So what's going to happen now?" Marco asked.

"There's going to be a board of inquiry tomorrow.  All we have to do," Johnny lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug that came off as forced, "all we gotta do is explain to them why we were the ones who should have had the right-of-way."

"We did have the right-of-way," Roy said, voice clipped with anger.

Johnny patted his shoulder.  "I know.  I know."

Chet snorted.  "That's what you think.  Listen, I hate to break this to you guys, but you know who really had the right of way in that situation?  You're not gonna believe it.  It was the mail van!"

Johnny scowled at him.

"No!  I'm serious!  See, it's like this:  The mail van belongs to the U.S. Postal Service.  U.S.!  Get it?  It's a NATIONAL government agency, whereas the police and fire department are just local and the ambulance is privately owned.  The mail truck has right-of-way over everybody."

"That's stupid," Johnny objected.  "I don't believe that."

"Well, believe it or not, man, that's the way it is!"

"I don't know, guys," Marco spoke up.  "I've heard that too.   What do you think, Mike?"

Everyone but Roy turned then to listen to him.  Mike seldom spoke much, but his opinion was generally respected.

"Where were all the vehicles again?"

"We were going east on Vintner," Johnny said.  "The cop was coming towards us.  The mail van was headed north on Warren and the ambulance was headed south."

"So who do you think had right-of-way?" Chet prompted.

"That's easy.  Roy did."

Roy shot the engineer a grateful look.  Cap had come into the room unnoticed and he clapped a hand on the senior paramedic's shoulder while speaking to his second-in-command.  "I just hope that panel agrees with you!  Come on, people.  Let's see if we can't get our chores out of the way before we get called out."

Clean up at the scene took a while and Johnny found himself thinking how nice it was to jump in the ambulance and go, leaving the housekeeping duties to Roy. By the time he arrived at Rampart the ambulance had departed.  He backed the squad in near the ER door and went inside in search of his partner.

Dixie and Dr. Brackett stood at the nurses' station talking and Johnny went up to them, tossing the HT in his hand.  "Hey!  You guys seen Roy around?"

"Yeah."  Dixie tilted her head towards the lounge.  "He's in there drinking coffee and looking like a kicked puppy."

Johnny nodded, his mouth twisted into an unhappy grimace.  "The guys have been giving him a hard time.  And he's not admitting it, but I think he's worried about the panel tomorrow."

"Well, listen, is he gonna get in a lot of trouble over this?"

"He could, yeah."

"Anything we can do to help?" Brackett asked.  "Write a letter or make a phone call or something?  Some kind of vote of confidence?"

"Well, maybe."  Johnny set the HT down on the counter and leaned in close.  "See, I'm trying to put together an argument to support that we were the ones in the biggest hurry.  We were on a heart attack call.  Now, you know as well as I do that seconds count there!  Could you maybe write a letter or, I don't know, come in and testify to that effect?"

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea.  After all, the guy in the ambulance had a pretty serious gunshot wound."

"Yeah, but . . .  but a heart attack is more serious than a gunshot, don't you think?"

"I don't know.  I'd think that would depend on the heart attack and the gunshot wound.  It seems to me you were both on vital missions.  And what about the cop?  What was he responding to?"

Johnny snorted in disgust and waved one hand dismissively.  "The cop was an idiot.  I'll tell you one thing; whatever he was responding to it was sure to have worked out better because he didn't get there!"

Dixie and the doctor laughed.  "I still don't think the 'my mission was the most urgent' strategy is going to work," Brackett said.  "You know what they're going to say in response.  Getting there a few seconds later would have been greatly preferable to not getting there at all!"

At ten A.M. the next morning the panel convened in a crowded conference room.  A middle-aged female judge sat at the center of a long table at the front of the room, flanked by about a dozen officers from the California Highway Patrol.  Four smaller tables faced them, one for each of the drivers.  Roy shared his table with Cap and Chief McConnikee.  Johnny and the rest of A-shift sat behind him in the first row.  The rest of the onlookers were made up of other firefighters, police, ambulance attendants, a smattering of mail carriers, members of the general public and not a few of the ladies and gentlemen of the press.

Johnny had a manila folder thick with statistics he had culled from the log book and their paramedic training materials and he was tense and anxious, afraid he might not be given a chance to present his argument.

The judge opened the proceedings with a few comments.

"I want to be clear that, in spite of my presence, this is not a court of law.  As you are all aware, on November 16th of this year, last Thursday, a traffic accident took place at the corner of Vintner Boulevard and Warren street involving a City of Los Angeles Police Department squad car, which was totaled, a Los Angeles County Fire Department rescue squad, which was severely damaged, a Mayfair ambulance under contract to the City and County of Los Angeles, which was damaged, and a United States Postal Service mail van, also damaged.  I am here to act as a chairperson, to keep things progressing smoothly and to answer any questions pertaining to traffic law.

"The gentleman to my left is Sergeant Joseph Getraer of the California Highway Patrol.  He has been in charge of a task force investigating this accident and at this time I'm going to turn the floor over to him."

A balding, middle aged officer took the podium, smiled nervously at the crowd and proceeded to deliver a detailed description of the accident and the resultant injuries and damages.  While he was talking, one of his men set up an easel and put up a large-scale drawing of the intersection with icons for each of the vehicles and arrows to indicate which direction they'd been travelling.  A second drawing showed where each ended up after the wreck and a third easel held a chart with calculations showing the speed each was travelling.  None of the speeds were terribly high, as they'd all travelled only seconds between the stop signs and the collision.  Roy was going the slowest and the cop the fastest.

When Getraer had finished they called the cop up to give his version of the accident.

"Patrolman Alan Davis of the Los Angeles City Police Department."

Davis stood behind the podium at parade rest, kept his eyes straight in front of him and spoke in a military fashion.

"At 1438 hours I was responding to a 211 with lights and sirens when I approached the four-way stop at the corner of Vintner and Warren.  A fire department rescue squad, an ambulance and a mail truck were approaching from the other three directions and we all came to a stop at the same time.  As the sole lawman present, I determined that it was my decision as to who had right-of-way.  Being on an urgent call, I claimed that myself and attempted to continue to my destination, but all three other drivers pulled out and got in my way, causing a four-vehicle collision."

Getraer asked him a few questions about his speed and the driving conditions.  "For those of you who don't know," the sergeant said, "a 211 is a robbery in progress.  This specific call was to a convenience store six blocks from the accident scene.  It actually was not a robbery 'in progress', as the robbers had left the store before the alarm was given.  They are still at large.  Officer Davis, of course, had no way of knowing that the robbery was already over with, and it is impossible to determine if his absence at the scene made any difference in the progress of that case."

Next they called Ray Samora, the ambulance driver.

"I had the right-of-way," he said.  "The cop and the firemen, they had no way of knowing what they were headed for, but I had a guy bleeding to death right there in the back of my ambulance.  The presence of that patient in the back of my ambulance gives me priority.  I had the right-of-way!"

Again Getraer stood up to address the crowd.  "The victim in Mr. Samora's ambulance was transferred to another and taken to Rampart Hospital where he is currently in critical condition.  I talked to the doctors there and, again, it is impossible to determine exactly what effect the delay may have had on him."

When they had finished with the ambulance driver the hearing broke for a fifteen minute recess.  Cap and the Chief stood in a corner talking quietly and looking sober.  Johnny got Roy by the sleeve and dragged him off to one side.

"Okay, listen.  The cop obviously didn't have a matter of life and death going on.  The robbery he was responding to was already over with.  As far as the ambulance driver goes, his patient was already getting treatment.  He had pressure bandages on and IVs in and everything.  But our patient could have been lying on the pavement in defib with no one there to help him.  Point that out!  And, look," he shoved his file at Roy.  "I got all this data on heart attacks where a few seconds made all the difference one way or the other.  Show 'em this!"

"Johnny, I --"

"You had the right-of-way.  I know!"  That was all Roy would say on the subject.  "I'm just trying to help you convince those guys, is all.  Show 'em this, man!  Just trust me.  Show 'em!"  He pushed the file into Roy's hands as the panel filed back into the room and everyone returned to their seats.

They called the postal worker next.  He was in uniform and he stood and twisted his hat in his hands nervously.

"I was just trying to clear the intersection so the emergency vehicles could go through," he said.  "I had to go first because I had the right-of-way.  Everyone knows that.  Mail trucks belong to the U.S. government, so we always have the right of way over local government vehicles, even in an emergency."

"You see?" Chet hissed at Johnny.

The sergeant rapped a gavel for attention.  "We've come across this concept again and again in investigating this incident," he said.  "Your Honor, would you like to address that question once and for all?"

The judge stood.  "Yes, Sergeant, thank you.  I would.  The common idea that U.S. government mail trucks have right-of-way over other vehicles is a misconception.  Their government-owned status notwithstanding, they are no different from any other vehicle on the roads.  They do not have automatic right-of-way even over civilian vehicles and they are certainly required to yield to emergency vehicles."

The postal worker looked shocked and horrified.  "I'm sorry!  I thought . . . ."

"I understand," the judge said, not unkindly.  "But you thought wrong."

"Heh heh!" Johnny chortled quietly.  "That's one down!"

Finally, the panel called Roy.

After giving his name he answered a few basic questions.  "What response were you on?" the sergeant asked.

"We were called to a possible heart attack," Roy said, and then, before the CHP official could jump in with the rest of the story, he offered it himself.  "Squad 36 responded in our place and the victim is in fair condition at Rampart."

Johnny growled under his breath at that.  He didn't want the guy to die, of course, but he could have at least been in critical condition for a little while like the ambulance guy's gunshot wound!

Getraer leaned into his microphone.  "I'm guessing you're going to tell me you had the right-of-way?"

"Yes, sir.  I did."

"We've already discussed your reasoning.  Would you like to share it with the rest of the room?"

"Yes, sir.  Thank you, sir."  Roy turned his gaze to his shift mates, addressing his remarks mostly to them.  "Mr. Samora has told you that he had right-of-way because his errand was the most urgent.  Officer Davis makes basically the same claim, and my partner has spent the last two days compiling statistics to prove how serious a heart attack is and that a few seconds can sometimes make the difference between life and death for the victim."  Roy flourished Johnny's bulging file folder. 

"Mr. Samora was transporting a patient in critical condition.  Officer Davis was on a response that he had reason to believe was urgent.  So were we.  None of us had any way of knowing exactly how a few seconds' delay would affect the people who were counting on us and none of us had any way of knowing what calls the other drivers were responding to.  Short of everyone who works as an emergency responder immediately developing some form of super ESP, the relative urgency of our different calls is never going to provide a reliable way to determine right-of-way, should a situation like this ever arise again."

Several members of the panel were nodding as Roy spoke, but Johnny was unimpressed.  "What's he doing?  What's he doing?  He's not using my research!  This is gonna be bad!"

Mike shushed him.

"Fortunately," Roy continued, "there is already a protocol in place to settle the problem.  It's in the normal traffic laws.

"As we've already heard, the idea that the Post Office has automatic right-of-way is not true.  The mail van was the only vehicle that did not have priority clearance to go through that intersection.  Thus, for the purpose of right-of-way, there were only three vehicles to consider: the police car, the ambulance and our rescue squad.  Now, in the state of California, when two or more vehicles arrive simultaneously at a four-way stop, the car that's farthest to the right has right of way, followed by the one to the left of it and then the one to the left of that one.  Since the mail van was on our right, of the three emergency vehicles we were the farthest to the right and therefore had right-of-way.  The ambulance should have gone next and the officer last.

"It's been suggested that I should have waited and let the other guys clear the intersection before I tried to go through, but it's been my experience at four-way stops that, if the driver who has right-of-way doesn't go, it creates confusion.  And I had the right-of-way."

After Roy sat back down the sergeant again deferred to the judge for her comments.  She confirmed Roy's interpretation of the relevant traffic laws and agreed with his conclusions.  When all was said and done the panel settled 30% of the liability for the accident on the ambulance driver, 30% on the postal worker and 40% on the patrolman, because he had started from the stop so fast he laid down rubber and because, given his profession, he was held to a higher standard of knowledge regarding the law.  Roy was completely exonerated.

On the steps outside the building where the panel had convened, Roy was surrounded by well-wishers.  Even though his argument had centered on the relative location of the vehicles, the other firefighters seemed to feel he had won some moral victory over the police and ambulance drivers.  He shook hands until he felt like his arm was about to fall off.  When they finally thinned out and left him alone Johnny was standing there scowling at him.

Roy blushed and humbly offered his partner the manila folder.  "I didn't use your research.  I'm sorry.  I do appreciate that you compiled it all, though."

Johnny took the folder with disgust.  "Man!  Why didn't you just explain to me why you had the right-of-way instead of letting me stew about it all this time?"

Roy shrugged and ducked his head, embarrassed.  "I guess, well, you were just so sure I screwed up.  I guess it hurt my feelings."

"Roy!  That's stupid!"

"Gee, thanks!"

"I mean, just 'cause I think you screwed up doesn't mean I don't care about you!  And I ALWAYS trusted you!  I said all along you're the best driver I know and I'd be glad to ride with you anytime!"

"Well, thanks.  So does that mean you're ready to give me back the keys to the squad?"

Johnny thought about it.  "You know, I'd love to, man.  Unfortunately I'm unable to do that for legal reasons."

"Legal reasons?" Roy squawked.  "What legal reasons?"

"Possession is nine tenths of the law," Johnny said, and ran.

The End.

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