Chasing After the Sirens

Have you ever been in your car and heard a siren...fire truck, ambulance, cop, or all three... and wondered what it would be like to just follow them?

The other day I was leaving work and just kept hearing sirens over and over again. As I was driving down the road I tried to figure out which one was which. I heard a fire truck first and then I think I heard another one and then an Ambulance passed me. I was very tempted to follow the ambulance to figure out where everyone was going and what in the world required so many emergency vehicles. Do people actually do that? I mean has anyone had a friend or something that went chasing after the sound of a siren? I don't think I've ever even heard of such. Perhaps it's because it's not legal. I don't remember if this is true or not but I remember hearing somewhere that it is illegal to chace/follow an emergency vehicle to its destination. I mean aside from the fact that they're going way faster than you should be going (after all you could follow the sounds) I don't think they'd be too happy to have all the excessive onlookers. Traffic is always bad enough around a wreck or crime scene. It's sad but somehow or another it sates the ridiculous looky-loo inside all of us.

Along the same line of thought, why is it that we always have this strong desire to SEE an accident? I mean as you drive by shouldn't you look the other way or try not to see what's going on? When you see from a distance that they're pulling someone out of a crushed car shouldn't you NOT want to see it? It's so ridiculously fascinating the way our minds work in that aspect. I mean why in the world would you want to see a mangled body? I have no idea but I know for certain every time I've seen a wreck something just pulls at my eyes and I feel like I have to see. Perhaps it's the feeling of "what if that was me?" or "is that someone I know?". Regardless, it's just crazy that as a society we really are very morbid creatures.

But, back to my original topic, I didn't follow the ambulance. I thought about it, obviously enough to write it down for the world to see, but for some reason I just didn't do it. It's not the first time I've thought about such and I'm sure it wont be the last. I'm afraid that every time I move over for an emergency vehicle to pass me I will have a very strong desire to whip back into the lane and keep up with it just to figure out what has happened. I've often thought that there should be a list on the news websites of every ambulance and fire truck exodus each day. That would be one long list I'm sure, since loads of times they're called without any real need and there seems to be an over abundance of vehicular accidents. Oh well, I guess I will continue to sit safely in my vehicle and ponder what it would be like to follow the sounds of the sirens.