Czech city of Brno: woman wearing headphones missed ambulance

In the Czech city of Brno, a woman wearing headphones failed to hear the siren of an approaching ambulance and ran straight out in front of a moving car. The incident happened last week at a pedestrian crossing on Kolištĕ street near Moravské náměstí (Moravian Square). On Tuesday, South Moravian police released footage from surveillance cameras as a warning to everyone who walks around the city wearing headphones.

The recording shows an ambulance approaching the crossing with its lights flashing. Two women wearing headphones completely ignored the siren and started crossing the road. One spotted the danger at the last moment and stepped back, while the other ran out directly in front of the moving vehicle.

"Fortunately, the ambulance driver anticipated a situation like this and had noticeably slowed down. That's why he was able to react in time when both women suddenly appeared from behind parked cars," said police spokesman Pavel Švab.

According to him, this time everything ended without injury only thanks to the driver's alertness. Švab warned that at higher speeds or with heavier vehicles — for example a fire truck responding to a call — the braking distance is, for purely physical reasons, considerably longer. Even maximum attentiveness can't always fully replace hearing, the police spokesman stressed, adding that this applies not only to pedestrians but to all other road users as well.

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Source: novinky.cz